This watercolor painting is of my 18-year-old granddaughter Hayley sharing time with my five-year-old grandson Palmer. My intent was to capture her tenderness and emotion which always shows through to her younger cousins. She literally has a baby in her arms, or a child in her lap at every family gathering. It's not surprising, she is studying to be a NICU nurse.
I used a recent snap shot for my reference. The lightest values—reflected onto the faces and clothing—came directly from the iPad screen Palmer was playing with in his lap. I had to be careful to get those lightest highlights in immediately and hang on to them.
Here was my step-by-step process. See photos below:
1. I started with a light pencil drawing to capture the pose and gestures of the figures, and work out the composition.
2. Working all over the page, I began blocking in the major shapes with light washes of watercolor.
3. Then, I started adding thin transparent washes of color over the existing layers to build up all of the areas especially in the darkest areas.
4. I continue adding more and more layers until all the values were correct and I was happy with the results.
Once the paper was completely dry, I erased most of the pencil lines. I really like my underdrawing to be slightly visible. I think it makes the painting more interesting and helps define and gather forms and shapes.
This is the largest watercolor I have worked on in a long time, and was pleased with the outcome.
Thanks for visiting today.
nancy
To see more of my art click Online Gallery • Email • Website • Graphic Design Studio • Fine Art America
|
 |
| 1. Initial pencil drawing |
 |
| 2. Blocking in |
 |
| 3. Begin layering |
 |
4. Final layers added
|
