Portraits in Watercolours PART 1: Proportions

The Aquarellistas are back - and how! We had a wonderful session last week, dedicated to portraits. In the coming four (or maybe even five) weeks we will have actual 'lessons' with exercises and plenty of examples. 

In the first session we discussed PROPORTIONS, using Full Front Face view. 

The most important ones are:

• There the distance between the eyes is approximately the length of one eye,

• The middle of the whole skull is the horizontal line of the nose bridge/middle of the eyes/start of the ears 

• The middle of the face is the line from under nose to start of ears

• The width of the nose is also one eye

• The width of the mouth is the same length as the distance between the middle of the eyes.

Or, in one simple picture 😊 

NB: these are rules of thumb, not every human face has perfect proportions, yet they can be very useful if you have a portrait that somehow is not right. 

Marina's advice for portrait painting:
It is very important to KYM (Know Your Model 😊) . The best practice is to have someone pose for you. If they are not available, try to get a video of them. That way you'll understand their character a bit better. 
And then a couple of photos, that you will work with. You choose one, the rest is for further reference.

Once you have selected your base photo, you can trace it (provided it has the correct size) 
That sounds easy but it is a lot of hassle and you miss a chance for really deeply looking.

Another method is drawing Upside Down. (Put the photo upside down and draw it upside down) this works well because it makes you more objective towards shapes & shadows. 

And then again you can of course just draw what you see in the photo!

If it is just the basic sketch for a painting (vs a black and white drawing), make sure your lines are thin, so that they don't stain your delicate colours with grey. 

As a first exercise I had brought pictures of sculptures. This meant that the proportions were not natural but man-made and that was confusing to some. The positive side was that everyone was measuring like crazy and drawing upside down and trying to understand.
Also sculptures are monochrome, easier to see shadow and light, no shiny eyes and teeth or difficult skin colours to be created. We'll do that next time. 

No one was particularly happy or proud after this exercise, I was the only one delighted with the results! Because, Yes, Portrait Painting is Difficult. 

The exercises below are all different and spectacular in their own way.  

A special compliment for Denise who sketched two versions of the same sculpture. One indignant and upset and one strong and at peace. Love 'em both, well done!

 

Our hero Corinne usually needs half the time of everyone else, so she could already paint the second portrait. Proportions check!, colours check! 
She will be elsewhere in the coming weeks - but it won't be a problem I guess.

Laura painted a very good sculpture and still found the time to tweak her Antibes affiche! Looking fab