In this demonstration, I will present the process I use to make a figure painting using transparent, and opaque watercolor, and a lot of graphite for shading. Combining the graphite with the watercolor will give a nice mysterious dark. I use a really rich red for the hair and it contrasts well against the light gray tone of the background. I tried to keep the values dark on the face so the face blended with the hair. This painting is a portrait and I didn’t want to confuse the design with a lot of details in other areas of the painting.
This is an 18×24 watercolor, which combines transparent washes, heavy graphite lines and opaque whites, and some opaque colors. First, you have to tone the paper, I used a transparent ochre from Cheap Joe’s American Journey line. I made sure the wash had a lot of variety of warm, cool, light and dark contrast.
I then drew the figure making sure to get a nice flowing line and use all of the paper and put the center of interest, the profile in a very nice position. I shaded in the values for the shadows with lots of line and then re-established the contour lines.
Using a mixture of Cobalt violet both transparent and opaque, with cobalt blue and alizarin crimson I made a nice colorful wash for the shadow areas. I knew that the graphite would merge with the paint to make a dark murky effect. I used really powerful red oranges for the hair, applying the paint with really aggressive and expressive brush marks. Using titanium white, peachy opaque color, and lots of vibrant red-orange colors I carved around the profile and restated the hair. I then used pure white pigment to place the highlights. I finished this piece in about an hour and you should try to do the same. Any more time than that and you will get way too fussy. I hope you enjoy the lesson
3 Comments on “In The Studio: An mixed media figure demonstration”
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surely did. wow! i’m wondering when you say opaque color would that be the same as gouache? Sometimes i’ll use a heavy wc and to avoid the crit of using wc in that i say it’s gouache, which i would use if i had any……
Toni, I use both gouache and regular watercolor with Titanium white paint. I love both transparent and opaque watercolor and I plan to teach both mediums.
Hello. It’s been a long time since the publication of your post, but I see it now. I love the uneven toning of the paper, which will later help give the figure variety. It is an honor for me to be able to read your blog. Thanks for sharing. Respectfully