Painting Portrait using Watercolour | SteemPH-Cebu Art Guide Contest

Why I choose watercolors instead of acrylics or using colored pencils? Let me share to you my experiences from these art medium. 

· Why I didn't use Colored Pencils because it's time consuming. A portrait can be finish in 3 to 4 hours for medium size and days for large portraits. Also it requires too much effort - this is based on my experience though. Colored pencils are great at realistic portrait drawing. The way colored pencil is applied in layers adds a luminescence and depth to the drawing that is truly beautiful. For me, it's not good for beginners. But if you're willing to learn just keep practicing and have a good quality colored pencils. I suggest to use Faber Castell Classic for beginners and switch to Polychromos to level up the quality of your drawings - its not necessary but Polychromos are great pencils. 

· I have Acrylics and the problem is I don't know how to use it haha. I tried it twice and sorry to share it ended up being a crap. What I've observed is, acrylics dries up easily so it requires huge amount for a whole painting. Aside from that, it's expensive.  

· The best of watercolor for me is it only take 1 to 2 hours for a whole painting. Aside from that, a single tube of watercolor paint can give you countless different shades of color simply by adding less or more water and a single tube will last for months.
What you need in watercolor painting is a good set of brushes, a set of watercolor paints and a good quality watercolor pad - I'll tell you later on what art supplies I used. Watercolor for me is way more easy to use compared to acrylic and colored pencils. 

While painting this im actually thinking of Gal but it doesn't look like her haha I really need more practice.

#1. Water - this is to create different shades of color by adding more or less water. Also, I use it to correct mistakes. 

#2. Pencil - Optional. I use pencil to contour/outline my subject. #3. Eraser to correct mistakes (if any).

#4. Watercolors - I prefer watercolors in liquid type because it is less messy than solid watercolors and its easier to create different shades. I use Pentel Watercolors 18 tubes x 6ml.

#5. Watercolor Pad - Make sure to have a good quality paper. I use Canson 24 sheets 12" x 18".  

#6. Brushes - so far these are my favorite sizes of brushes. These are cheap brushes, I bought it at Kaking Mall.

Step l 1.1 - Using my #1 brush I create a wash of yellow ocre added with more water for the skin.
1.2 Then layered it with a wash of Brown and Pink added with water, mix until the desired color is achieve. Black and Chocolate for eyebrows.
1.3 Using my small brush (Forgot to include it on my fave brushes) I start creating the right 1.4 and left eye carefully. 

Step ll 2.1 After painting the shape of the eye and the iris. 2.2 I start layering different shades of washes to the eyelids. Actually its like doing make up, you start from moisturizer to primer and different shades of eyeshadow and etc. 2.3 I added the eyelashes and lastly 2.4 continue with the left eye. 

Step lll For step lll, I made an adjustment to the skin color and eyebrows. Tip - If you want to correct mistakes, clean the brush and dip it to water and apply it directly then wipe using a tissue.  

Step lV Vermilion + Brown color for the lips. At first, I made it darker then I applied the correction method to smoothen the lips. 

Step V Finalize the face, made an adjustment if necessary and then proceed in painting the hair. What I like about it is its easy to paint a hair, you can finish it in less than a minute. Unlike colored pencils, it's time consuming. For hair it will last for 30 minutes or more.