Overcome your fear of portrait painting

Many artists aspire to painting portraits, but they have the reputation of being extremely challenging. People want their portrait to look just like them and being nearly there isn't going to cut it. Often the issue is that our bossy left side of the brain over rules our creative right side and tells us what the face looks like - after all it is hard wired to recognise and see faces everywhere.

This exercise is designed to help you see the face as a series of shapes. Once you can train yourself to see something as say a triangle rather than a nose, you will find it far easier to paint.

It is also designed to help you realise that tone (the light or dark of a colour) is far more important than the actual hue. It helps you understand that the question shouldn't be 'is it red or green?' but rather 'is it light or dark?'.

The reference photo is on the community tab of this channel. It came from www.pixabay.com.

I'm a big believer in shortcuts, so for this tutorial we will use a light box, tracing or even a window to transfer our outline and contours.
If you are looking for more in depth watercolour courses, from beginners through to advanced, then please take a look at www.lizchadertonstudio.co.uk. I am writing a book on watercolour portraits which will be published by The Crowood Press in 2023.

If you are looking for a friendly place to share your art and meet watercolourists from around the world, why not join my Facebook group here: www.facebook.com/groups/watercolourstudiowithlizchadertonIf you have enjoyed this film, please consider liking and subscribing. I do a watercolour tip, trick or technique each week and release it at 2pm on Sunday. So if you hit the notification bell you will be emailed when the next one is out.

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