Watercolor Portrait of a College Student

Watercolor painting on watercolor paper, 1995.

This was one of classmate when I studied Illustration in the Massachusetts College of Art, in Boston. I spent about 30 minutes on the portrait painting in one setting. I like to do portrait paintings from live. Portrait painting and drawing from live have been my life-time interest since I was a little kid.

It takes lots of practice to train our eyes to see and capture and analyses the subtle colors, details, balance, value, and be able to make the decision on what to be include in the portrait painting, and how to restructure and arrange the selected elements on the paper. All these need to be done in the first 10 minutes. Sometimes, I asked my model to act naturally, and I walked around, to discover the perfect angle and moment. When I found the excitement, I would share it with my model and asked him/her to remain in the that position for 30 minutes.

The excitement can be combination of many things, but when I see it, it would be difficult for me not to transfer that excitement onto my painting. The new discovered excitement is the message which my painting will pursue and express.

Note on this portrait painting of my friend, look into the different part of the face and neck, there are interesting change of colors. For a step-by-step demonstration of portrait painting, please come to visit our online demonstration area, and also please subscribe to our "Fun & Joy" Newsletter, new painting lessons will be available to you monthly from our Newsletter.

If you are interested to have your portrait done, check out my portrait commission information.