Every week before my watercolor class, I draw my subject from a photo. I draw each area of varying shades. What really carries the day with a picture is the values (although color gets all the credit.) Just like painting ship sails, painting a face is all about painting shadows. I start off with a wash of burnt sienna. Everybody starts off as a light skin tone, and I find burnt sienna applies to everybody, regardless of race. I then paint the shadows, layer after layer. Going gradually darker over about two hours. (Of course the eyes and teeth are left white until I get the skin completely done.)
When I've gone as far as I can with the hills and valleys of the cheek bones, chin, neck, etc., I go for the detail work of the eyes, lips and hair. Then I shade the whites of the eyes. If at this point I see that I've gone overboard on the skin tones for the shading, I can remove a layer of the shading by "painting" the shadow with water, maybe giving it a little scrub with a clean brush, and patting it with a paper towel. If I need to take the whole area off, I can do that with a slightly damp Magic Eraser. This really is magic. If I want to put in a highlight where one doesn't currently exist, I can take the Magic Eraser and rub out a circle where I want the cheekbone or forehead to come forward to the viewer.
See if you can name all the famous people in the paintings!
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