Watercolour portraits – any feedback appreciated!

[Nicole Wolpher]

Hi! I’ve been practicing painting watercolour portraits this past year, and would love to get some feedback/critique/reactions. Any suggestions on what could be improved or what I should focus on would be greatly appreciated. These are a few from the past two months. Thank you in advance – so happy to have found this community!

 

 

[Birgith Schei]

I think they all are beautiful, but if I had painted them I think I’ve had a few more colours, as in the second one, or even more. However I’m just an amateur.

[Tim]

Hi Nicole I really enjoyed seeing these portraits  they are all convincing as real people and all feel technically correct .

I find These portraits very expressive and full of  emotion  I feel a lot of this is the sensitive  use of colour the way its subdued or the deep purply  blues and reds

thanks for letting us see these .

Best wishes

Tim

[Nicole Wolpher]

Hi Birgith! Thank you for your feedback, using more colours is something I do find a bit challenging so that’s definitely something I could explore more to have a broader range of expression. I will do some experiments 🙂 Thanks!

[Nicole Wolpher]

Hi Tim! Thank you for your response, I’m glad you enjoyed them! I am actually aiming to illustrate a book about emotions, so I’m pleased to read this is how you perceive them. Thanks for taking the time to have a look and to reply 🙂 All the best!

[srsanyal]

Hi ,

I liked most  the 6th painting from the top.The lighted side of the face has been beautifully rendered , preserving quite a bit of the forms and anatomy, and also the lovely expression. Now, in the  shadow side..unifying the shadow shapes in a more interesting silhouette with nice interplay of colours in that area…is something  you might choose to work on further..i felt at places red and blue mixed well  nicely with the desired  softness,..but at some places  blooming and bit more of hard edges around it…made that area  too busy and a bit more distracting…those patches of red and blue on shadow side might be competing more to draw attention …from those lovely eyes…by the way …all this in regard to the 6th picture.Nice expressive work overall…keep it up.

[Tim]

Hi Nicole

Sounds good “emotions ”  can be tricky territory🐒

Tim

[Leo DiFraia]

Hi Nicole,

The paintings are lovely, the photos are not doing them justice. I have edited one below so you could see the difference for yourself. I would recommend you do an online search about photographing drawings for more help. And I also recommend you photograph a commercially printed value scale next to your drawing so you can easily make adjustments.

There are still some issues with this edited version. (there is a weird color cast from the light source and camera you used) and unfortunately, color is the main element of watercolor paintings.

[Author]

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