Watercolor Portrait of Young Woman Looking Down

This is a little watercolor of a young woman with a dark brown complexion. I did it on a 9x12 paper. It was inspired by a photo in a catalog.

I sketched her a couple of times before attempting to paint the picture. Using a lightbox, I traced the best sketch onto the watercolor paper. First, I used a little blue, lavender, and violet in the background to break up the white.  The underpainting of the portrait began with a wash of orange mixed with sienna for a reddish-brown color.

I ran out of time, so I let the first wash dry and returned to it a few days later to add another wash of burnt umber and ultramarine blue for the shadows. I kept deepening the shadows with more blue of the blue-brown mix and began to add some Payne's gray to the darkest areas.

I wish I had done the blue highlights earlier than I did because I inadvertently washed orange into the highlights areas that needed to be lifted out with clear water but left the paper stained, which muddied some highlights. It is probably more realistic that way anyway.

I often overdo the darks and found I had to go back to lift out some color. The color was not looking rich enough, so I added some more sienna with some red mixed in. There was more need to lift out some of the colors since I kept overdoing it.

I always leave the hair for last. I started with a wash of brown-black. After the first wash dried, I went back over it with Payne's gray for the darker areas. I had to build it up a bit. 

Watercolor Portrait of a Young Woman Looking Down

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look.

Use the search box to find more of my work you might like or see one of the favorites in the sidebar.

Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

(c) Adron

Watercolor Portrait Of College Girl Daughter Looking up

This is a painting I did of my daughter. It was a picture from one of her social networks.

For some reason, I have a lot of problems photographing my work and getting the colors to show true. The hair is brown with some canary yellow but here the yellow looks kind of green mustard and the brown is not as rich as my painting. The overall tone of the skin is warmer in the original picture.

I did this painting with a lot of thin watery washes adding layers over layers to get the tone, value and the roundness of her features.   I started with alizarin crimson and added yellows on top for the highlights. The shadows were done with violet, lavender and ultramarine blue all washed in with more layers on top of layers. I was constantly lifting color out that was too deep or the wrong hue. Just the face was about a five-hour project. I was using my smallest brushes for most of the time. I spent another hour on the hair, I wish I had thought out the hair more and did something more creative with it than I did.

I normally do the background but here I left it blank just to be different. It really is white and not gray like the photo.

Watercolor Portrait Of Young Woman Lookin Up

Thanks for taking the time to look.

 Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites. 

 Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

(c) Adron

Watercolor of Young Asian Woman in Knit Hat

This is a watercolor of a young friend and student of mine. She has a face of such subtle expressions that I am quite captured by it.  She was wearing a hat during an art lesson and I took some snapshots of her. She was not particularly happy with the idea of me taking pictures when she was not prepared but I liked the spontaneity of it.

She is a very spiritual person and it is refreshing to find that in a young lady. I hope to capture her reflective nature in art.

Her long black hair gives some extra dimension to the portrait. Normally I downplay the hair since it is so subject to fashion and I don't want some future generation looking at the painting and saying what strange hair styles they had back when that was painted, I want them to see something deeper in the person I am portraying not clothing or hairstyle. In her case, the long hair is so intrinsic with the young lady that I couldn't consider painting her without the long black strands.

This painting took about eight hours to finish over a period of two weeks. I find that if I try to do too much at once I get enthralled with some little area and sacrifice other parts. I took a long time sketching the face. I did the background with the same color as her blouse to strengthen the mystical effect of her personality. I put blue highlights in her hair, it is a little artificial but I wanted to pull the background into the portrait. At one point I had blue in her face but as I was working it over the blue was washed out by the warmer tones of her skin. Her complexion is more chocolate than I portrayed her, I have had this problem before with the Asian complexion. I think that the blue background is affecting my pallet and choice of colors.

The knit cap was a salmon red but I toned it down for the painting and used it for a texture contrast to the other textures of the hair and background.

It photographed warmer than it actually is.

Young Asian Woman With A Knit hat

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. 
Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Use the search box to find more of my work you might like or try one of the favorites in the sidebar.

Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

(c) Adron

Charcoal and Pencil Portrait Of Young Woman

 I do not attempt to draw something to make it look like a photo but I want my drawings to look like a drawing so I leave some of the creative processes in place and use the pencil strokes to give a rough effect, as you can see here in a little sketch I did while watching tv with my wife.

I hide some paper and pencils in a box under the couch so when I am in the living room I can just pull them out and do a little doodle.

My inspiration was a woman in a magazine. It was just the first one I saw and had no real reason other than keeping busy during my wife's show.

The face at three-quarters with a tilt is one I have a lot of difficulty with so it turned out to be a good choice since I could use the practice.

I started with a light pencil sketch and then went over it with a light charcoal pencil. I use the rubbing stub to blend and then reworked the whole picture again. I had to use a kneaded erasure a bit to keep things clean. I noticed some of my original pencil marks from my beginning sketch was creating an interesting effect of randomness as they crossed some other lines, so instead of eliminating them, I went over them again to deepen the value and left them in. I reworked the entire project again using a darker charcoal pencil and did more cleaning up. I reintroduced some of the pencil effect in the shadow behind the head in the upper left and lower areas.

Sketch while watching TV

It was a fun picture to draw.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. 
Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Use the search box to find more of my work you might like or try one of the favorites in the sidebar.

Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

(c) Adron

Pocket Sketchbook Portrait

I carry a pocket sketchbook and recommend all artist do. I have had many opportunities to sketch and was glad to have the little 4x6 book handy. Sometimes I keep it in a coat pocket or in a messenger bag with some other art supplies, including pencils and mediums and a few photos or a magazine with pictures to use for inspiration. Sometimes I might be in a coffee shop and jut pull out a magazine and start from there to do a picture and that was how this little portrait came to be. As I drank a cup of coffee I pulled out a clothing catalog I picked up and kept in my messenger bag.  In the catalogue was a woman modeling a sweater with a high collar. I felt it was time to just do a little drawing of a face so I sketched this one out.

I used a basic hb pencil and a stub for most of it and then a few erasers like a classic pink eraser and an artist's kneaded eraser. I sketched it lightly at first and then progressively darkened things over until I felt it was done which probably means I got bored with the project. After sketching it I crumpled up the resource page from the magazine and went back home. At home I looked at it again without the benefit of the original photo and I made a few changes to the hair and face.

I like the results and it was a rewarding afternoon with coffee and my sketchbook.

Portrait done in a pocket sketchbook

I may use this as a study for a painting at some future date.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 

 Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.

 Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.
(c) Adron

Watercolor Portrait of a Young Asian Woman With Black Hair

This is a watercolor I did as a practice study for a larger work. I am trying to study my subjects more carefully to try to understand the person as well as the image that I want to create. This young lady is also an art student. My impression of her is that she is a very spiritual person which, of course, is very rare in a person so young, but her spiritual qualities are something I would love to portray in art.

I am fascinated with her long black hair. I have always drawn or painted people with wavy or curly hair but have not experimented with the possibilities that the flowing lines offer with the long straight hairstyle.   I know she will cut it short because most women get tired of all the work and bother of long hair so I feel I want to do as many studies of her and her beautiful hair while I can. I think this picture shows her as a reflective person. Actually when I took the photo that was the foundation of the painting she was concentrating and working on repairing a broken paint brush.

I might try a different medium for the hair in a future project since the watercolor was a little too translucent. If I used ink I know it would be very stark but maybe acrylic might be a good option. I love working in mixed media it expands your possibilities.

Watercolor of a Young Asian Woman

I really had a hard time with her skin tone she is more chocolate than in my picture but I will get it more correct next time.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. Please take a moment and visit my online art gallery link in the sidebar to purchase my work.

(c) Adron 

Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.

Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

Charcoal And Pencil Portrait Of a Woman Looking Up, A Study for a Painting.

This is a sketch I did as a study of a model who I hope to paint a portrait of some day. Her head is turned up and she is viewed slightly from below which is a very difficult post to capture.

I find her long silky hair to be a subject of interest and want to explore how it can be used in a portrait. Long hair can be symbolic of so many things I hope to do a few paintings of her in different cultural contexts.

The placing of the face is off center a little and normally I would not do that but my photography of her was a little off center and so I took inspiration from the mistake and I felt it worked in this case.

I started with a hb graphite pencil to outline the face then began to work the portrait with a light touch of the pencil. I did a lot of pre-shading of the face. I did a complete drawing in pencil at first but when I photographed it and looked at the image I saw a lot of issues with the values. Sometimes an artists will look at a project in a mirror or upside down to critique their work, but I find taking a photo and looking it on a screen shows me areas that need to be fixed.

I returned to the project and redid it in charcoal. I used a lot of charcoal in the hair, of course, but used a blending stub to pick up charcoal and shaded in the face.

It was a fun picture to draw. After I finished I regretted that it was done on some cheap copier paper since it was intended only as a study but I became so engaged in it that I went beyond a study.

Charcoal and graphite study of a woman looking up for a painting

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

 Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.

Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

Mixed Media Study For a Portrait in Modern Style.

This painting is a study I did in watercolor, ink, and gesso of a woman. In this study, I was trying to work out the colors and overall feel of the project. It is the third step in this project since I have already completed two sketches of the same portrait. There are moments I feel pretty discouraged and am considering scrapping the project and going onto something more fun and less work, and at other times I feel like this is going to work out nicely.

I see some things I am going to change on the final project. I tried to use fountain pen ink to do some shading, but I think it turned out inconsistent with the overall feel. Another is that I used a felt-tipped ink brush on some of the lines, and I think it looked amateurish, so I will use a liner brush on the final. I will still keep the pen and ink for some of the drawing aspects of the picture, such as the facial features and the sweater. I think I am mostly happy with the colors, but I think I will work in more yellow as a first step to give the face some sort of highlights. I need to add some highlights to the nose in different places and correct the jaw-line.
I think I will make my face a little thinner.

I am working in watercolor since my studio is too small to accommodate much else, but I think this would make a nice oil painting.

Mixed media portrait TEVY

You can see the finished project where I made some changes to my other blog. CLICK HERE.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. Please take a moment and visit my online art store to purchase my work.

Adron 

 Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.

Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

Mixed Media Portrait of Young Woman Named Zoey

Here is a project I did in a day. It is a portrait of a young woman in three-quarters view so the face is slightly turned away and in this case, the chin is up so she is tilted back a little.

It is mixed media. I started with a pencil sketch then used ink to put in some of the basic lines. I used water based markers to sketch in some parts such as the hair and the background. The majority of the area was done in watercolor. I early on chose the cooler colors to complement the effect of her pose. She is blond but I decided to use blue and white in the hair. I used white gesso in the hair and parts of the face, and background then used black gesso on other areas. I use acrylic on parts of the hair and face.

Mixed Media portrait of a young woman named Zoey

I am mostly happy with this picture but I wish it was more than just a face.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. Please take a moment and visit my online art store to purchase my work.

To see basic pricing on this piece click here.

Adron 

 Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.

Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

Modern style portrait of woman.

This is a portrait I did in watercolor and acrylic of a young woman. It was inspired by a woman on the beach. I wanted to use a lot of colors and to keep things modern. The black and the white is acrylic.

It is painted on watercolor paper with Windsor Newton mediums. I used only three small brushes.

Portrait of a Young Woman in Mixed Media

I worked on it a lot longer than I wanted and like usual the concept was nothing like my finished project. I did not want to do something this representational but was hoping for more abstract with the face being an element but not the focus. I wanted to use the black as an accent but got a little involved with it and it became a secondary subject. The background was too bright and too sharp, so I gave the background a watery wash with black acrylic to dull it down and that gave the face and hair areas bright contrast.

I was trying to show the black coming in at one side and leaving the other.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.

Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

Charcoal and Pencil Portrait of Woman Looking Out Of The Corner Of Her Eye.

This is a little sketch I did this past week or ten days. I mostly did it in little bits while here and there. I did it in pencil and then with charcoal pencils. I kept things a little minimal. It was a practice drawing and not good enough for a paying customer.

Charcoal Sketch Of Woman Looking Sideways

I did this work off of a photo. It is hard to do a sketch from photos because so much is washed out by the average flash unless the photographer is very good. I find that I have to add shadows to get depth. I do so much from photos that I am feeling very competent in drawing them.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. 
Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Use the search box to find more of my work you might like or try one of the favorites in the sidebar.

Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

(c) Adron

Pencil Sketch Of Young Woman With Big Eyes

Pencil sketch of a young woman who had big eyes and thin lips. It takes a lot of practice to draw an accurate face. Every time I think I am finished I look at it and see more that needs to be done or something that needs to be corrected. But I got to a finishing point and am happy with this project.

I am not trying to draw something that is super realistic. I want my drawings to look like drawings. I am not trying to draw an ideal but a nice picture which means there may be decisions about values or lines that are not correct but the choice is for the outcome of the picture.

I drew this in pencil only. I used a blending stub a lot but did not rub out the pencil marks where I blended. I drew it in a small 5x8 sketchbook.

This woman is someone who is a hard worker in a production area at an office.

Pencil Drawing Of Woman with Big Eyes. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

 Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.

 Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

A Portrait Of A young Woman.

Here is a little sketch I did while drinking coffee at the local cafe. There was a magazine there and this face was in it, but a lot of the face was covered by her hand so I had to construct some of it.

I did this in a little sketchbook that is about 5x9 in size. I used charcoal and graphite with various softness and hardness.  Working in a little sketchbook is hard because everything is so tight and a little error is really a big error. To work small you have to get close to the work and I don't like to do that; I want to work at arm's length like when I am working on an easel.

Woman's face sketched in a cafe.

I find that the head that is at an angle and 3/4 view is very difficult for me, so I draw them a lot in an attempt to better my skill. I had trouble keeping the eyes at the proper angle and the line of the far cheek correct.

The resource picture had those "Smoky" eyes where the eyeshadow is dark, so I use a light graphite for the eyes and then a medium charcoal to bring out the details and the lashes.

I am still not happy with this sketch and even now see things I would change but it is time to set her free and move on to other projects.

(c) Adron

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. 
Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

 Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.

Charcoal and pencil portrait of a fashon model with full lips

This is a little project I did while giving an art lesson to a very talented student. We were working from photos in fashion magazines. The resource material was not very helpful, and the light was poor, so I had to contrive a few effects to get a satisfactory result.  I finished the project without the aid of the resource material, so much of this is improvised.

Charcoal and pencil sketch of a fashion model with full lips. 

I started drawing with an HB pencil and then went to a 6b. Later I used a light and medium charcoal pencil for the deeper values. I came back over the charcoal with the HB pencil to get a little rubbing in and blending.  I use the blending stub liberally in the shadows and on the left background.

I really enjoyed the project.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 

 Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.

 Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

Watercolor Portrait of a woman looking down

This is a watercolor portrait of a woman looking down and away.  I did the painting on watercolor paper 9x11.

I began with a pencil drawing that was not too detailed, then I started with the grays.  After laying down the grays I cam back with some of the blues and violets.  I didn't add as much warm tones as I would normally but did put in some rose color and senna to balance the cold hues.

I don't aim to make it very representational but to make an interesting picture that has a statement and beauty.

Watercolor portrait of woman looking down and away. 

Normally I keep black to a minimum but here I went a litter further with the black and grays. The last thing I did was to use a little titanium white acrylic to dampen the colors and give a few whitish highlights.

The last step was to do the detail work of eyelashes eyebrows and some line work in the hair.

As I was painting it I began to fear that the portrait was going to turn out badly but I actually am very happy with the way the painting turned out.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

 Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.

 Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

Watercolor Portrait Of Young Woman.

This is a 9 x 11 portrait done in watercolor.  The face was a little tilted on one side and that is a composition that I always have problems with so I thought this would make a good practice piece.

I should have taken more time to sketch the project out; it is maybe the most important part of a painting because no matter how skilled you are at technique nothing can fix a bad design once you are committed to it.

Watercolor Portrait of a Woman

I started with a lot of washes with the browns and warm colors of the face and then let that dry. I later deepened the face values and gave it more color. The nose was in the wrong place but I didn't realize it until the mouth was committed. Like I said the tilted face gives me a lot of problems.  I had to use a lot of clear water to lift out the colors of the nose and repaint it in the right place, but I had already messed up the mouth.  I thought the mistakes looked OK so I left them- that is the adventure of watercolor.

I realized one eye was higher than the other, this is always tricky on a face that is tilted over sideways. I reworked one eye to lower it and then the other eye to raise it. I think a casual observer would never have seen the problem but I would not be happy. It was always my intention to have a lock of hair over one eye but then thought that two or three locks would hide my mistakes.

I did the hair with a wide moppy brush and kept it loose. I did not plan to paint in all the hair but only enough to describe it and have areas of hair receding into the background.

After it dried I thought the face needed a little warm up so I splashed in some yellow here and there, and put a streak or two in the hair.  The last step was to take a liner brush and use some white gesso to bring back a few highlights that were lost.

I hope you enjoy.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

Use the share buttons below to save and share this to your social networks. 

Watercolor Portrait Of A Woman,

This is a watercolor sketch I did the other day.  I was experimenting with a style that was loose and spontaneous.  I tried to work as quickly as possible to preserve the freshness.  I kept the sketch minimal since I was not going for something in a photo likeness.  I used a lot of water at first and let the colors blend on the paper.  I started with a large round and then a medium round, and the last was a liner brush.  At first, I didn't use any black, but it was too pastel, so I drew a few black lines and put a little in the eye and lashes with a liner brush.  I finished with a little white acrylic here and there to restore some highlights.

Watercolor Portrait of Woman  

The green was almost an afterthought, but the hair needed something, and I didn't want to just establish a pattern or be predictable, so the green was an inspiration that worked out. I wanted to balance the colors of cool and warm without being too obvious.  I was not trying to accurately represent the woman's image but to capture the mood and an air of mystery.

It was one of the most enjoyable projects I have done in a while.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

 Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.

Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

Charcoal Sketch of A Young Woman Looking Over Her Shoulder

This is a sketch I did to relax after a long week at work. I drew this in my sketchbook that I carry around with me. The source picture was from a fashon advertisement but I did a lot of editing.

I started with a hb graphite pencil to outline the face then began to work the portrait in a light charcoal. I finished with a medium charcoal. I used a stub a lot in this one to give the effect of full hair. The stub was rubbed all over the white paper beside the profile to tone the paper down so the face would be whiter by contrast.

It was a fun picture to draw.

A Charcoal Portrait of a Young Woman Looking Over Her Shoulder. 

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my work. Thanks for taking the time to look. 
Adron 

 Click on an image in the sidebar to see more favorites.


 Use the buttons below to share this with your social networks.

Simple Line Drawing of A Young Woman's Face

I drew this with an assortment of fine tipped markers. I had to do it two or three times before I got it right. I wanted to keep the face as simple as possible. After finishing with the markers I came back with a liner brush and some white gesso to lift out some highlights in the lips and eyes. I have a bold tipped marker that is dried out I used that to color in the dark area.

Simple Line Drawing of A Young Model. Drawn with Markers.

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

(C) Adron

Quick Charcoal Portrait of a Young Woman

I drew this while my daughter was having a music lesson. It is charcoal in a sketch book. I used a little number 6 graphite pencil to lay it out and then again for detail at the end. I used 2b charcoal pencil, a medium and a soft charcoal pencil.

Young Woman, Quick Sketch in Charcoal 

Please see the tab for pricing options to commission your own portrait in charcoal.

(C)Adron Dozat