Painting portraits in watercolor can seem like a daunting task, but many of us can’t resist the urge to try it. We may have a loved one who we’d like to paint or we may simply be drawn to the challenge of capturing an interesting character on paper. It’s so easy to “tighten up” our portrait paintings because of our focus on “getting it right”. Painting the “quick sketch” portraits focuses on loosening up that process and working to achieve a more relaxed look that highlights the beauty and freshness of the watercolor medium.

I will have partially pre-drawn portraits for you to work on as part of our exercises - or you may draw freehand. You will be asked to bring along one or two pre-dawn portraits of your own on watercolor paper. (on approximately 9”x11”paper, head only).
The 3 day format of the workshop will give us time to practice the techniques we are exploring. The references we’ll be working with will cover a wide range of ages and skin tones.
This workshop will be a combination of demo and hands-on portrait work.*

During Days 1 and 2, you will primarily work from partially pre-drawn portraits that will be provided in the class. You will finish the drawings, but the basics will be there so we can spend the majority of our time painting. (If you prefer to work completely freehand, that is fine. )

On day 3, we will work on one or two portraits of your own that you have prepared for the class.

Tech Tips: Each day we will explore a technology tool to use to help you in your portrait paintings.

Students should be comfortable with painting in watercolor, but do not need to have experience with portrait painting.