Successes in portrait washes

I have been fascinated with painting watercolor portraits for a bit now.  I took a Suzanna Winton class at the Arts of The Carolinas last fall and my hubby just got me her portrait book for mother's day (oh joy!)

I think that the biggest mistake that watercolor artists make with portraits is with putting too much pigment on the page too quickly.  In Suzanna's class, I learned that every skin tone wash should be SUPER light.  I'm not sure why that makes for a more luminous portrait, but it does.  I highly recommend her book for all of you portrait people out there.

So, this is my first attempt at a portrait using the book and I was pretty pleased with the results.  This little one is the daughter of Chloe's ballet teacher.  I snagged her photo off of Facebook so that I could paint her portrait as a gift for the end of year performance.  (hopefully, she doesn't read my blog before next Tuesday...I'm counting on her being too busy with ballet stuff....lol)

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