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Learn how to create a beautiful, realistic watercolor portrait of yourself or a loved one.

Check the materials section for my personal recommendations!
You'll probably want to work with a limited amount of colors to start with. Don't worry about buying up every color you can get your hadns on; focus on buying just a few colors of a trusted brand and high quality. Daniel Smith Extra Fine and Winsor &amp; Newton Professional are my favorites!
Colors I recommend to start with for portraits include Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Burnt Umber, and possibly Alizarin Crimson. If you can afford it, make sure you're not getting the "hue" variants of the colors -- these are colors that are made using different materials than the original pigment. It's also especially helpful for portraits to have either masking fluid, white gouache, or both!

Choose your paints!

Your brush is your most important tool for painting. If you can only afford a good brush or good paint, go for the good brush and cheap paints. I highly recommend getting at least one good genuine sable brush to work with. Size two is a good one to have around! Winsor &amp; Newton Series 7 is top of the line, but Blick Studio Sable is a good budget option that will still serve you well. A good brush will be your best friend for years. (Note that sable brushes are made with real fur, so if you're vegan, be sure to get a synthetic instead. They won't last quite as long though!)
As for paper, the best of the best will be Arches brand. For something a little bit more affordable per sheet but still on par, try out the Artist Loft Level 3 paper. I tend to use cold press paper because it's the most readily availble, but some people prefer hot press for portraits becuase the smoother surface makes details eaiser.

Choose your paper, brush, etc.

This can be one of the hardest parts, but I won't spend too long on it, since this is a watercolor tutorial! Make sure to pay close attention to details around the eye, especially if you're using a photo reference. Keep your sketch light; use HB graphite or harder. I often use around a 4H graphite.
If you're tracing, use a tablet or light board. Tape down your paper and try to have two copies of the original so that you can look at an uncovered one to reference as you trace. Tracing can be helpful to jump to the part where you practice painting, but remember that all good watercolor artists are also good at drawing! Practice your foundations.
You may also want to mark out some areas where light and shadows fall on the face at this step in order to make it easier on yourself in later stages. Look at the photo for this stage as an example of how I do this using a "bubble"-like shape.

Start your sketch ...

Use the artist masking tape to tape your sheet of paper down to your desk or an art board. Taping all edges of the paper will prevent it from buckling as it gets wet, and if you paint over over the tape, it will leave a crisp edge when removed. If you're using tubes of paint, which I recommend, go ahead and squeeze a decent amount out of each tube into separate sections of your palette. Let these dry if you have the time -- you're essentially creating your own pans of paint with custom colors, brands, and qualities. If you're using premade pans, you can skip this step.
I use a porcelain palette to avoid staining -- another option is just a poreclain plate from your kitchen. Plastic palettes will stain with time, and this affects your color mixing. The palette I recommend in materials has two areas for mixing washes, and ten for individual colors!
This is also the time to fill a cup with water. Ideally you should use a celar cup to tell wen to change your water.

Prepare your paper and paints

With watercolor, you generally want to work from light colors to dark. If your subject has lighter skin, you'll likely want to start with the skin tone. You could use a very diluted Burnt Umber for this, but I usually like to mix my own using Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Red, watered down to increase transparency until it's the tone I want. For darker skin tones, add some Ultramarine into the Cadmiums to deepen the shade.
I usually like to apply a wash over the entire face, then work wet-on-wet (applying diluted paint while the page is still wet) in order to add blush (Cadmium Red) and some basic shading (Burnt Umber or Ultramarine) to the neck and under the hair, or wherever my reference indicates. Ignore the features for now, but leave a space for the eyes. (Alternatively, you can apply masking fluid over the eyes to avoid getting the wash on them -- just be sure to let it dry before painting.)

The first brushstroke!

We'll want to add the features of the face once the first wash of skin tone is dry, so let's move onto the hair while we wait.
Hair in watercolor CAN be extremely tricky, but don't give up! It can be hard to show detail. Pay attention to your reference, and just focus on areas of light and shadow. We'll show these later using a wet-on-dry method, so for now, just apply a wash of one tone for the entire hair area. Here's my usual mixes, adjusting quantities as needed and using only the colors listed in materials:
Blonde hair -- Burnt Umber + Cadmium Yellow
Brunette hair -- Burnt Umber + Ultramarine
Black hair -- Ultramarine + Cadmium Red
Natural red hair -- Cadmium Red + Cadmium Yellow
Fashion colors -- Feel free to purchase a color specific to your subject, or mix your own using the ones I've suggested! Try to mix no more than three paints at a time when starting out, or you'll easily muddy your color.

Starting on hair ...

While you have the hair color mixed, go ahead and darken it a bit using Burnt Umber, Ultramrine, or Cadmium Red. Apply this over the skin tone for the eyebrows. Keep this mix on your palette for hair details in a moment.
For now, let's grab some Burnt Umber to add some details in. Depending on the angle of your subject, you'll want to darken the nostrils, philtrum, just under the lower lip, the jawline, the details of the ear, the curve of the nose, and/or the area under or inside the eyes. Most of this can be done with Burnt Umber for all skin tones, dilluted as needed to match.
You can also try using Ultramarine for shading and details, especially near the neck and lower portion of the face, and/or Cadmium Red toward the upper face. Remember that the wavelength of blue light will appear farther away than warmer tones, so keep the top of the face warm relative to the neck and/or clothing.

Facial features

The lips! If you're used to a more stylized art (cartoon or manga drawings), you may not be used to really working with the shape of the mouth. Generally it's much easier to paint a closed mouth than an open one -- especially if teeth are showing. You might choose to emphasize the cupid's bow on the upper lip, especially on a feminine subject. Pay attention to lip thickness, as well as whether the lips are two toned or the same shade. Many people will have a darker upper lip than lower, or vice versa.
As for colors here, work with Cadmium Red, possibly mixed with Burnt Umber for darker skin tones. You could also use Alizarin Crimson if you've added that to your collection!
You could use masking fluid before painting the lips to keep a highlight, either on the blank sheet or over the base skin tone. However, if you've got some white gouache in your repitoire (which I recommend), you can use that to add highlights at the end as an opaque paint.

Mwah!

Your painting might look a bit creepy at this stage with its soulless eyes, but let's work with some hair details first since we have that mix saved. I promise we'll come back to the eyes!
Take your mix of the slightly darker hair color (or mix some now) and apply it in just a few lines to show the direction of the hair. This could be waves, curls, or the flow of straight hair. Look closely at where shadows and highlights fall in the hair on the reference, and try to add your darker wash in those same darker spots. Generally you're indicating thicker spots, areas in shadow, and direction.
You may also wish to use your white gouache on the hair as well to add highlights.

Hair details!

If you had masking fluid on the eyes up to this point, go ahead and remove it by gently rubbing with your finger or an eraser. You may also wish to apply masking fluid for highlights in the eye now, or you can do this with your white gouache afterward. You'll usually want the white highlight to apply from slightly inside the pupil to slightly outside the iris, and possibly a second highlight on the lower portion of the iris. Remember to look at your reference -- staying true to life is the best way to stay accurate.
Carefully paint the iris, filling in where the pupil will be as well. You can mix just about any eye color using the colors I've recommended and some color wheel knowledge; for example, a mix for green eyes would be your Cadmium Yellow and some Ultramarine. You have the primary colors, plus your water to dilute and your Burnt Umber to darken. Trust yourself!
Darken the pupil using Burnt Umber or Ultramarine, and finish your highlights.
Congrats on you portrait!

Windows to the soul

Hello! I'm Lyric, and I love to paint and create. I specialize in watercolor, but dabble in acrylic and other mediums.

People are my favorite subject to paint -- I love showing humanity in all its beauty. I also paint landscapes, still life subjects, and pretty much anything that comes to mind.

I especially love creating customized pieces that are unique to the purchaser, especially when the subject holds a deep emotional value.

Thank you for your interest in me and my work!

Watercolor Portraits!

At a Glance

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lyrical

Watercolor Portraits!

At a Glance

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