Are You Ready to MASTER Watercolor Portraits with DENSE Layers? Tutorial + Skin Tone Guide

This tutorial will guide you through painting a portrait using a unique technique that blends the fluid nature of watercolor with the opaque, rich feel of gouache. We'll focus on layering tones and creating a drawing-like effect with your brushwork. Materials and Color Mix Guide Medium: A mix of gum arabic with an optional splash of iridescent medium. This mix will give your paint a pearlescent effect and a gentle sheen. Watercolors: Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow, Raw Sienna, and White. Paper: Mixed media paper. While watercolor paper is ideal, using mixed media paper works well and shows that the best supplies are the ones you have on hand. You'll be mixing each of your base colors with white to make the layers less transparent. This allows for a heavier, more saturated painting with more opaque layers, similar to gouache. The Painting Process Initial Sketch: Begin with a subtle sketch to outline the main features of the face: the eyes, nose, and lips. Building the Base Tones: Start by adding medium tones to the nose. Use a mix of Burnt Umber and Raw Sienna to outline the hair and the medium tones of the eyebrows. Apply a base mix of Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Yellow, and White to the portrait. Remember to test your color on a scrap piece of paper before applying it to the painting. Defining Features: Work on the eyes, including the iris, pupil, and lower lid. Continue to refine the eyebrows and the shadows between the eyes. Block in the teeth using a dense mix of white watercolor directly from the tube and very little water. This will give them an opaque, gouache-like finish. Carefully detail the lips, using Raw Sienna and Cadmium Red for the lip area. Adding Highlights and Refinements: Use the Burnt Sienna and Cadmium Yellow mix with white to add highlights to the eye features and the nose. Continue to add subtle tones to the edges of the nose to define the area. Use a Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow mix to work on the nose shades. Creating a Drawing-Like Effect: Use your brush similar to how you would a pencil, creating movement with both the pigment and lines. Continue to refine the details, working on the eyebrows and the shadows around the eyes. By mixing white into your watercolors, you can layer colors more opaquely than you normally would, giving your final piece a unique and dynamic quality that bridges two different painting styles.