The Moment a Watercolor Portrait Starts Looking Real

Watercolor is a beautiful but challenging medium. In this video I'll show you how watercolor strokes can make hair look real. First I'll show you how I pick colors and mix them to match the reference. Then I'll take you step by step through my techniques and show how to add realistic details. For the full real-time painting you can join us in the membership and follow along from start to finish. If you're new to watercolors there are also many basic video lessons to help you get started. So what I always do is take my swatch cards for the skin tone colors and then I compare it to the reference photo. The skin tone is pink peach color. That's what I see and remember you can also use something like this if you need to. So you can isolate the color that way and this way you can also compare it to the swatch. So what I see is a pink color but the pink is a bit this is red it's more pink. So I think I'm going to mix this red pink color but then add a bit more of the queen rose when I need to when I need more pink. And in the previous painting of this baby the skin tone was also pink but it is a bit more orange peach so I also used raw sienna with the quinburne scarlet and a bit of the pink here for the cheek but the rest is more orange than this skin tone color. You can compare it to the swatches and also when we lay down the first color for example this color then you can compare to the reference photo and think okay I see more pink on the cheeks. Then we will add a really light color for the cheek so that's how we're going to build up the layer step by step. And then for the shadows I think I'm going to use the raw umber violets but I also so again in the previous portrait I used carbozole violets beautiful purple for the shadow here and I see that same color here for the shadow. Let's actually swatch the color so that I can show you. So first the skin tone so a layer of the quinburne scarlet so that way we can compare and a layer of the quinrose. I'm just going to mix on the paper so you see that the quinburne scarlet and the quinrose gives a beautiful pink touch. The raw umber violet this color for the shadow the shadow color and then touch of the carbozole where here the shadow color you see also under the lips the shadow color. So these are the skin tone colors and shadow colors on the violet a bit for the shadow like that. And remember it's the the shadow and the highlight here and the mid-tone is more important than the exact color. So if your skin tone turns out a bit more pink or less pink that's not going to really matter. And then for the eyes I'm going to add a touch of the neutral tint for the hair. If you remember going through the different features where we drew different colors and types of hair here is blonde hair. But if I compare this blonde hair to this reference photo this one looks more yellow and has a green grayish undertone but this blonde hair looks a bit more warm and brown. The first color I'm going to use for the hair is buff titanium because this is a neutral light color but then I need like a yeah this is too yellow so I'm thinking raw sienna. This is a beautiful natural orange yellow color but it's too orange it's too yellow. So if you remember going through the basics and if you remember the color wheel if you want to neutralize a color make it more brown or gray remember you will mix it with the opposite. So the opposite of yellow is purple. So that's where I'm thinking if this yellow is too vibrant too yellow you will mix it with a purple and then make it create like a beautiful brown color. But I'm going to use the raw sienna. Let's see I'm going to also swatch the buff titanium because I'm going to use that as well. So this beautiful sand color. So the buff titanium and we can also when you mix the buff titanium and the raw sienna it also gets a bit more. Let's add a bit more so you can see what I'm doing. The raw sienna let's mix a bit here with the buff titanium a bit more buff titanium like that. See that that's already a beautiful color to use but I think this is a bit too orange. So what we can do let's add a bit more sienna here. So that's going to be the main color I'm going to use. Now let's add a touch of the carbozole violet. Not too much just a bit just to make it more brown. See that now we're not it's quite light the color so for the shadows we can use a bit more color. But this is the color I'm going to use for the mid-tones. So for the highlights above titanium the mid-tones the raw sienna with a touch of the carbozole violet and then for the shadows I'm thinking we can add a bit of the sepia. Where it's a bit darker I like to add neutral tint to darken a color. So maybe we can use this color add neutral tint and then use that for the shadows. So this is the sepia add a bit of that. This is a beautiful neutral brown color and I also like to mix neutral tint with sepia. If I need it darker a darker value because this is for the shadows. Okay now we can start with the first layer and if you have also painted the previous portrait. We started by wetting the whole layer and then adding the paint. So that way we got these beautiful smooth transitions between the highlight to the mid-tone to the shadow here as well. So here we also have the cheek. Here I see a mid-tone then here I see a highlight. You can see that the light is coming from above. So highlight mid-tone shadow you don't see any hard lines. So again we want to create a smooth transition. So I'm going to start wetting everything. This is the mop brush up until the edges and if you feel nervous starting remember we need to start somewhere just start and then we're going to go from here step by step. I'm going to let this dry just a bit you don't want it soaking wet. Now I'm going to take Quinburn Scarlet for the first layer. So take enough water because it's not dark it's the first layer. You want it light but remember there's also water on your paper. You want this to have enough water but because there's also water on your paper it's all going to flow really beautifully. I'm going to paint around this highlight so I can still lift here. So if you're also filled it all in go here and here. I'm going to add a bit more pink to the lips yeah. Okay I'm going to dry my brush. This is a big this is a large brush it holds a lot of water. So I'm going to lift here for the chin you can just easily do that. Checking the highlight here and then here on the nose. So I'm thinking I could have added a bit more pigment but I think this is fine for the first layer. So now we're going to wait for it to dry a bit and then pay attention to the highlights because the whole layer is wet. So everywhere where it's wet the paint wants to flow to the area that's wet. Where we painted around this highlight the paint still wants to flow there. So while this is drying you can still lift. Okay this is a really light layer. I'm going to wet everything again with clear water and I'm going to add another layer. When you add a second layer just add enough water on your brush and try not to scrub. With the Quinburnt Scarlet what I can do is add a touch of the Transparent Red Oxide just to make it a bit less pink but I think that's what I'm going to do. And let's see the Transparent Red Oxide just to make it a bit more peach color maybe a bit more. I want this layer to be a bit darker around the highlights here on the nose. So focus on each highlight you want to keep the highlights that's really important with a portrait. The values are the highlights the mid-tones and the shadows and we're going towards the mid-tones now and then we can darken later for the shadows. But if you lose your highlights it will be challenging to get those back and you really need them to create a 3D effect on your portrait. Because we're starting with a flat piece of paper and now we're starting to make this little face look round. I'm going to add a bit more paint make that dry a bit so you don't have too much. Okay let's start here with the cheek or yeah and the neck. Oh and focus on the highlights. Now I'm going to clean the brush and make sure I have this highlight maybe a bit more paint. Now the layer is starting to dry this is where you want to be careful and I'm going to lift here for the chin. Now the layer is darker so that's better now. The first layer was way too light but again it's better to add another layer. Then going too dark right away safer that way. I'm going to add the carbozole violets because here I see a beautiful purple shadow color. You can also just use the raw umber violet for the shadow but I like to add a bit more interesting colors like purples blues and greens. That will bring your painting a bit more to life instead of just using pinks reds and browns. Add a bit of the carbozole violets and you want to add enough water you don't want to add too much purple. We can also always darken or add some more purple after this layer is dry if you need to. Just a really light layer of purple just glaze it and just a bit under the eye and now let's blend the edge okay under the eye is towards the highlight so blend that and then this a bit down towards the nose. You see just a touch of purple is already enough. Continue with enough water here okay let's blend more under the lip just a bit shadow there. I really like adding purple to a portrait it really gives a beautiful touch. Check how it curves and then how it goes a bit like this okay don't go too high because that's where we're going to blend so just add a layer and now blend because you're going to blend a bit up and you can always add another layer if you need to don't go too dark right away. Leave it here that's okay now make sure that you blend because you have clear water here and it's dry here. You might see a line from the water okay I'm going to lift here for the chin you want to make sure that you have that area for the chin okay and here it's there's like a line here but it's really subtle so careful like that and you can always add another layer okay so I think it's time to let this layer dry now. Here where I lift for the chin the shadow stops a bit here but I also see that in the reference photo if this ends up too hard this edge I still need to go over the shadow with raw umber violet so then I can always go over a bit to blend this edge a bit more switch to a smaller brush in size three a bit here on the edge and this is a really watered down layer so this will dry up really nice okay now I still need more pink in size six this is the quinburne scarlet I'm going to add some more that's a lot strong pigment color the quinrose mix it just a bit with the quinburne scarlet so that it's not too pink for the lips so just the first layer for the lips and I'm going to blend the top edge so that it doesn't look like she's wearing lipstick okay I'm lining this lower lip just a bit from the eye down see there's a curve here you see it goes down here to the nose that will make her cheek look round and around the highlight here just a bit color and this is the quinburne scarlet um here also a bit also a shadow here under the nose you see this around this here now that this is dry I'm going to add a layer to her eyes once you add the eye you bring a bit more life adding a touch of pink a touch of neutral tints to darken the what I see here where it's darker like a pupil in the darker area so she's looking up so you see that the pupil and the iris is going this way touch of neutral tint for the nostril but it's that was a lot it's really small you don't see a lot of the nostril maybe also just a bit for the edge here neutral tint yeah like it says it's beautiful neutral color so you can use it for shadows as well whenever a shadow is darker I just use it and it's blended a bit here it's a cool color because it's like a purple bluish tone so it's good for shadows let's add this pinkish color to the cheek I'm going to use the size 10 again I'm going to add it here or to lower going over the shadow as well okay let's blend this a bit over this area and a little bit here okay now you want to blend quickly it doesn't go towards the highlights yeah I added a bit more pink to the cheeks and maybe a bit more here but then I will need to wait for this to dry now with the size three I want to add this pink to the nose pink color this pink is a mix of the quinburne scarlet and the queen rose nose and blend now I have a bit more color to the cheeks starting to look a bit more like the little girl in the reference photo touch of the purple here around this on the nose checking the edges need to blend check back darken the nostril a bit because it's dry now around it that's not that so the edge is darker just the edge here of the nose ring around it was still wet so it got blended in a bit okay now I want to switch to the smaller brush and darken some areas on the eyes the top part and it might be wet around where the skin so I'm not going to paint in there I'm going to wait because if I paint the lashes now they will spread in this the white of the eye is actually it's not white so maybe a bit of the shadow violet just a touch and then you see this transition from the shadow to the cheek I would still need to add a bit more pink because I see those rosy cheeks and then the transition from here from the middle to the shadow we can add a light layer with watercolors you want to wait for the layer to dry before you can go in and that's where I'm going to add the pink to the cheek and then a light layer of this for this to blend with the size 10 still a bit of the pink yeah add it here to the cheeks okay blending this okay you want to stop because there's a blend here okay now I have that rosy cheek color and I'm going to darken the shadow one more time here the Quinburn scarlet is really strong pigment so you make sure you use enough water see that just to add the glaze okay I'm going to dry everything you know with the shadow color with the touch of the purple I'm going to darken just a bit just for here this lower part and then up until here and then more here okay now while it's still wet add a bit of paint where you need to and this part I want to start with the hair and then come back to the face because I still see things that I want to correct but for now let's move on to the hair and then we can look at values that way it's better because now we can only compare the value of the face to the white paper this is the size 12 round brush and yeah just back and forth strokes with the buff titanium and then I'm going to add the raw sienna to some other areas and then just see how that goes so what you want to do when you're going to paint hair is follow the direction it's going to paint up until the face here painting hair is less scary than the painting skin because for skin you need smooth transitions and with hair texture you don't use the raw sienna look at the areas in the hair where you see that it's a bit more orange so just drop it in like this and this area is lighter so just drop it in you see this is what I mean you don't have to blend here with hair texture you just can paint this where you see that it's a bit orange yellow and don't worry if this is not the exact color of the blonde hair of the girl we're going to do that with layering because we need to darken still but you need to start somewhere so you need to start light and then build up the layers now you can see that the hair color looks a bit yellow remember I showed you how you can make the raw sienna less vibrant by mixing it with purple yellow and purple are both complementary colors so what I'm going to do is use the raw sienna then add a touch of the carbozole violet see if we can get that color in the reference photo and the exact color you don't have to worry oh that's a lot that's getting a bit gray see that more raw sienna because I only want a touch of purple to the raw sienna you see this beautiful brownish mix this is what I see in the reference photo and there are also some darker values where the kind of like a shadow where you look in between the hair that's where I'm going to use the sepia but first we're going to add a layer of this color everywhere where you see that it's darker so this was like the highlights now we're going to start adding the mid-tone color and then later the shadows starting here yeah this is a beautiful color this is like the brown color I see in the reference photo and remember it's not about the exact color and here it's a bit darker and this layer wants to dry now so I'm just going to quickly add a bit here a bit more water because it's lighter here yeah here I see this color but it's quite light just adding a bit and you see how I just add these back and forth strokes because it's texture hair texture you don't need it to be smooth okay we don't you don't have to darken it now this is just the color we add now I'm going to let the rest dry a bit move on to this area so I need to mix some more so that's this is the reason why I prefer to buy the color that I need let's say these colors these are all pre-mixed colors that you can also mix yourself but I like to buy them because if you need to mix it yourself the whole time you end up yeah needing to mix and mix again if you need to have a lot for let's say the hair or the skin that's why I prefer to buy it but yeah this is not a color you're going to use very often or maybe it is and maybe then you can buy it if you can find this color so I like to mix if it's just a color that you're not going to use often but let's say the skin tone colors that's when I just buy the pre-mixed paint follow the direction of the hair here you see it's going down this is starting to look more like the color I see for the blonde hair you just need to darken it in some areas I'm going to use the smallest brush because I want to be more precise with the neutral tints darken here first you know in the pupil or the iris where she's looking up this is not all too dark so I think I'm going to blend it a bit I just dabbed the extra paint and then I need to blend now clean first it's getting too dark this will be the hair where it's darker and then those lashes and then blending it a bit and then just a bit more for the lower lashes but it's really light maybe a bit with the sepia in this with the bigger brush size 12 again I'm going to darken with the same color so raw sienna and a touch of the carbozole violets I want it a bit dark maybe just a touch more or here it's where it's darker then I think I need to add more sepia to darken because if I darken with the purple it gets too purple and then if you add more raw sienna then it gets lighter again we can darken on the next layer you know I'm just adding a bit more of this color you see the first layers of the hair you don't really see the texture yet that's what we're going to build up so first it's about the color value just a bit here dark in here and something in the next layer I want to darken some more now while this is drying I can add a first layer to the flowers so the flowers are quite light and I'm thinking I'm going to add more purple to the flowers just because I added purple for the hair purple for the shadows here I want to bring that back that color add that to the flowers this is the quinquinacridone purple you can use any purple you have or you can use the purple if it's too vibrant mix it with a bit of the yellow a touch to make it less vibrant if you like okay so just adding a touch here this can be the first layer of the flowers you don't have to finish it in one go so just add a light layer and then you can add darker value or more details later I'm going to look at the darker areas now to start to give the hair more depth I'm going to use the size 8 not too dark maybe mix it with this color yeah okay start where you see the darker parts and with the tip of the brush see that I'm using tip of the brush and try to follow it's longer just like this and then probably after this if it's getting too brown we can add another layer of the raw sienna with the purple and I'm just focusing on the darker areas I see I'm thinking about shapes here imagining shapes when I look at the hair smaller sections of hair smaller shapes that can help you when you paint the hair so this part is lighter this part is darker here in between a bit here you get a lighter stroke doesn't have to be exact same I'm using less water here with this technique so it's more like dry my brush doesn't have a lot of water you do need enough if it's getting too dry using the tip here the brush let's see it's also dark shadow under the flowers I'm just using the paint on the brush here okay a bit darker values like that darker here okay now we have a bit more texture a bit more depth don't have to go into too much detail with the flower flower can also be a bit out of focus with the focus on the hair and on the face this is dry enough to add another layer I'm going to use the size 6 here smaller so that I can add more hair strokes and then focus on the hair texture now you see how that turns out raw sienna and then but also the sepia because let's see the raw sienna and the carbozole violet to create this color but I'm also going to mix the sepia to darken it because it's darker there okay so a bit more touch of the purple the violet carbozole whoops that's a lot really just need a touch but it's okay if you end up picking up too much you just need to add more of the other color the raw sienna in this case let's see this is the brown that I want this is good I'm going to use the tip of the brush and slowly add these and this hair texture that I see I'm focusing on the darker strokes first and then if you look in between the strokes this what I have here is too light so what I'm going to do later is add more raw sienna to this make it a bit lighter and then go over this area I'm adding texture and adding these strokes on the darker areas try not to paint all of these smaller strokes but some longer you don't want to make it look like fur and pay attention to the direction of the hair you see how it's flowing a bit more water it's getting too dry try to keep the strokes a bit thinner it's okay if it gets a bit thicker try to vary with the strokes you put down that will make it the hair look more natural now adding a bit more darker value in the middle of the flower maybe with the carbozole violet in the middle where try not to go over the hair with your hand in the middle to add some depth to the flowers and again if you like to add more color feel free to do if you want to use the pink just like you see in the reference photo a little bit of titanium and I'm going to start with the hair first and then a really light layer so enough water here let's just see how that turns out let's blend it all okay I need more water you can also do this without a color just using water you can blend a layer why I'm doing this if you're wondering this I like to make the layer look a bit more softer and more natural and with all of these hair strokes it looks a bit you get like a painterly yeah let's see a bit more of titanium try it for yourself and see if you like this look it gives them a much more blended natural look and that's what I like in my paintings it makes it look a bit smoother but yeah this is the preference see if you like that this blends all the colors beautifully together I can darken the shadow maybe just a bit here I'm not sure we need to check you can squint your eyes when you look at your painting you can stand up check it from a further distance I do like how the hair is looking now it looks soft and more natural the raw sienna and add that in some areas where I see it's more orange yellow where there's a bit more color let's check a little quick up here a bit more raw sienna yellow here and I think that's it everything is dry now I like how the hair turned out but it looks a bit too smooth so we still need to add more hair details and also those flyaway hairs but first I want to work on the face some more the raw umber violet this is the shadow color I'm going to add some more shadow details if I look at this area here under the bangs the shadow can be just a bit darker so let's use the raw umber violet here and I can just use light layers and blend the edges this is what I'm going to do and then go area each smaller area at a time so here you see a shadow a little bit more let's see this is the hair it's getting darker a bit let's blend this before this dries up and this will all blend in with the hair a little bit more here and blend so just add a layer and blend again and if it's too light you can just add another layer here on the nose wing you can also switch to a smaller brush I'm just using the tip here let's see a bit more shadow under the nose so you can check each area breaking this down into smaller areas it makes it easier for you to focus on each smaller section at a time so that's what helps for me I'm going to keep comparing to the reference photo and keep checking by squinting your eyes okay just a bit and then these are challenging shadows on the face but you do want to add them to give dimension that it goes like this yeah not too dark yeah this is going to be darker the shadow so whenever I put down a shadow color and I think oh it's too dark then I just blend it lighten it a bit and then if it dries up too light you can always go over it again sometimes when the paint is wet it looks too dark continue this here actually a bit more this is fine I don't want it all too dark maybe just a bit here towards the cheek to blend a bit not too dark let's blend this that's the good thing whenever you put down a layer with the watercolors you can always quickly dry the brush and use the brush as a sponge to just pick it up so it's never permanently whenever you add a layer as long as it's wet you can still work with it the sepia with the neutral tint more sepia isn't this brown those darkest details here so look at the darker details in between and then it's pretty dark also a shadow coming from the flower I think and then some darker here like a cast shadow so that it looks like the flowers are on top with the size 1 I'm going to use the white watercolor and focus on the bright highlights I see first that aren't too thin so you see those hairs paint like some random hair strokes and try to use just a tip and you can always paint over this if it didn't turn and then with the ink the dip pen you can focus on the thinnest I think I'm going to use the dip pen this is too thick for those I see really fine hairs but what I can do with the white watercolor before I switch let's see here those highlights attention to the direction of the hair here it's bright so you can slowly just draw these lines here you see a few over the hair over the cheek you see how this adds final touch really make the hair look more detailed this way but because it's all white it stands out too much so that's what we're going to do in the next step going over them this can take some time but I enjoy adding final details you can also squint your eyes again focus on those hairs on top the direction you see them going some just go like a random direction you will make the hair look more natural like that and now you can see that I can also add a bit more darker details just a bit more depth in the hair over the neck here here's some brighter hairs this mainly I'll focus here okay so you see how that really adds there's a touch you could have also used masking tape for this then you would have done this in the first step but I think I mentioned it before what I don't like about masking tape is that once you rub off the masking tape you get really hard edges and if you do it like this you can still blend the ink a bit more I don't know for me this technique works better but you can try them out both you can also try masking tape and see how that works for you I think that works better if you're if you need to mask out a bigger area or larger areas and not these fine small details but again you can try it out and every artist has their own preference so there isn't any right or wrong just what you prefer and think works best for you now you see here uh where you add the stroke you have a start and a stop part on the stroke so what I usually do is I blend where you see that the stroke starts so that it doesn't so that you don't really see like an hard edge where it starts but it that it looks like it comes out of the hair if you blend that in so that will make all of these strokes look like it belongs to the hair and that it comes out of the hair and not just on top of the hair that's what we're going to do now let this dry just a bit I noticed when I looked at the eye that the top part is just a bit darker so I want to use the neutral tint and we darken that top part here in size six and then I'm going to create this mix with the raw sienna I want to and then I'm going to go over some areas and also darken some areas where I need to so painting hair can be a lot of steps but you don't have to finish it all at once you know you can take breaks you can leave it let it dry continue another time and just paint it a bit over some of these now I like to just blend a bit over those white strokes maybe a bit more raw sienna a little bit lighter like I said I go over the top with the edges of those strokes to blend a bit I took more raw sienna let's see maybe with the buff titanium because here it's not too dark and then use a bit to soften a bit like that and then here as well so where it's light I use the buff titanium to blend over them and over here I can use this mix here some of the strokes stand out too much see a bit of a like a hard edge which I don't like so then I try to add more color and blend over it so easily you can blend them in a bit so I'm going to paint a few of these darker strokes and even when I go over the white ink it still shows up so that's a good thing adding darker hair strokes this gives the hair a bit more depth and really already like that okay so again pay attention to the direction see the hair is going where you see it goes this way you can just add some shadow darker area so this is the time where you can step away for a bit and come back or you can also take a picture check your painting and see if you're satisfied yeah checking this brightest area even here where I added some darker strokes blending the edges otherwise it stands out way too much just with the mix of the raw sienna the bit of the carbozole violet and a bit of the sepia if you need it darker or you can also use the just water or buff titanium to blend where you want to keep it lighter just try to blend over those hair strokes make it look a bit softer what I also sometimes do is when I think I'm finished I come back the next day sometimes you see something sometimes you think okay no it's just finished remember squinting your eyes really helps see the values that way you remove all detail you can just check the values see if you're satisfied with the values on the hair satisfied with the values on the skin maybe you need to darken the shadow a bit then you can do that so check that for yourself before you call it finished okay now make sure that everything is dry before you remove the tape and that's it for today I hope you enjoyed following along and picked up some new watercolor techniques don't forget the full real-time painting is available in the membership if you want to paint every step with me thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video