“I fall in love every day. Not with people but with situations.”
As a part of my series called “Royal” I’m proud to include a worthy Queen, some say, the Queen of Soul, I couldn’t agree more.
I started by making a quick sketch and then erasing any hard line that would be in the way when painting, you en up with a few traces of the figure only, and hints of where shadows are.
Erasing any useless lines is crucial since they tend to show behind the watercolor paintings, specially working with light tonalities, and once the graphite is covered with the paint, its really really hard to erase, if not impossible.
If anyone knows a way to erase pencil after it was painted over watercolor, please share!
I started painting the thing I was scared the most, the hair.
I knew that the messy half bun that is so characteristically of hers had to be flawless, so emulating nature I went ahead and experimented with Acrylics and Water, lots.
The result was not pleasing at all, the paint didn’t dilute much but didn’t add any texture or form, or at least I didn’t knew a way to get it from it.
So I went back and painted with Solid Black paint, quite a considerable amount.
The tricky part was to guide the droplets of paint trough a rough path of hair strands, and to do that I painted the path with clear water, soon after I placed a highly loaded brush on top and let it drip.
Skin was pretty straight forward, I became more comfortable with it, and the post process of color pencil here and there sure helps a big deal.
Don’t forget to visit me @tylerrevenant