For many years I have been drawing and painting portraits and I have been working on this course on portraiture for 2 months, it is now ready for you to benefit from my 35 years of experience. Over the 35 years which I have been painting portraits I have pared down the amount of equipment needed, and you need just 1 color i.e. Paynes grey and 3 brushes, all the tools you need are described in the free “tools required” lecture which you can see in the course preview on the landing page. The first section of this course concentrates on how to get the image you want to draw down on paper. My trace down method is particularly useful if you are not confident in your drawing skills, by using a template made from either your own photograph or the one used in the course we can get an accurate drawing to paint. The next thing we tackle is, How to mask off your sketch to create highlights. In real time you can follow me through the whole process of masking the image. The next section teaches, How to recognize differing contrasts and finishing off your painting. By painting a full watercolor using paynes grey paint, you will come to recognize where to lighten or darken your washes. This method can also produce quite remarkable finished paintings, so stick with it! See you soon David. Art is such a beautiful way to express yourself and as a watercolor artist for over 30 years I can not urge you enough to give painting in watercolors a try,I never get bored with the effects of the colors on my paper,I still learn new techniques in my work every time I paint something, it is such a free and easy medium and it is well worth the time and effort you may invest. To paint a watercolor picture is to escape into your own little world where nothing else matters and all your problems and worries can be forgotten, at least for a little while. To give your own watercolor painting as a gift could not be more rewarding,I never get bored with the expression on the face of a friend or family member when I present them with an original watercolor painting which I have painted specially for them. The medium of watercolor, for me, is the ultimate medium because even as a complete beginner you can achieve many effects using techniques which sometimes you are taught and sometimes you learn by complete accident which we call “happy accidents”,such as when one color runs into another color and creates water marks or bleached paper, this is why sometimes I sit and watch the painting paint itself in front of my very eyes. Of course now and then it does not work out as I wanted it to but all I have lost is a little bit of paint pigment,a piece of watercolor paper and a little time so I put that piece of paper to one side and start again! Too many people have a go at painting with watercolors and think that they have to produce a perfect painting every time and they overwork the piece, desperate to get a finished painting to hang on their wall and of course they end up with a mess, get dispirited and give up announcing that they will never be an artist and so never paint again.I would like to show these people the hundreds of watercolor paintings that didn’t work out for me because without making mistakes you can’t improve.I keep all my paintings good and bad and I look at the failures quite often, in these failed paintings there is quite often a part of the painting that I really like and I try to remember which technique, which colors I used, which brush made a particular mark on the paper so I can use these same techniques in my future watercolor paintings. If I was stranded on a desert island, my watercolor kit would be the first thing I would wish for.
