Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Aubrey Howdy sans Sticker WIP


This is a work in progress of my granddaughter, Aubrey. I will explain the title of this post....the ref photo was taken on a recent car trip when Aubrey's Mom, Christine, gave her some stickers to play with. They stuck one that said "Howdy" on her forehead and took her photo. It made for an adorable photo, but I wanted to paint her expressive little face without the sticker so I ignored it but will call the painting "Howdy".
I am following along with Taylor Bush's excellent DVDs on portrait painting in watercolor. I am also submitting these WIPs to my online critique group, Watercolor Workshop, as I go along and making changes as suggested by those more experienced in watercolor portraiture than I, most notably Doris Glovier, who does wonderful portraits using the Taylor Bush method to best advantage. She gave me a hint on this WIP stage to remove some of the shading I have over Aubrey's right eye and forehead, now that she brought that to my attention I see exactly that it is what is needed. There is much left to be done on this, but I cannot go on without correcting any flaws in the structure shadows since adding skin washes atop incorrect ones will make them impossible to correct later. So, back to the drawing board on this and I will correct that ASAP. I'll add progression photos of this as I go along. Since this is my precoius Aubrey I feel a responsibility to make her look as wonderful in the painting as she does in the photo. Right now this is mainly the underpainting so the eyes will become darker, skin tones will even things out, etc. as I progress. If you are interested in seeing the two stages before this please go to my Flickr site, http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcbysusanroper/

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