A portrait in water colours and water colour pencils

Portrait in water colour pencils and water colours
©2012 Nayna Shriyan

Another portrait commission !!! Well this one was short notice so I had to do some quick thinking and change the medium. Normally an 'oils' only girl I  had to switch to colour pencils and surprise surprise I loved it!!!

Started out quite cautiously as I was painfully aware that any mistakes it would be a complete do over. After getting the drawing in place I started out with the lightest pencils and started blocking in areas graduating to the middle and darker tones quite gradually. I realized that it was all about the control and the amount of pressure I was applying to get the correct tonal depth. I also opted out of using a wet brush over the pencils as I really fell in love with the kind of textural effect that I saw coming about from using the pencils over a smooth hand made paper block. 

The hair was the result of some very thick water colour and the clothes did get a slight wet brushing to smoothen things out . What do you think should I keep experimenting with pencil colours or stick to my beloved oils?

Seeing Double !

This seems to be a month for commissions first the 'Shivaji' piece and now a double portrait commission My first ever !! :)  While most artists must have some method of conducting studies I went with my  usual style of jumping right in ! The client had given me free reign with regards to size, medium and just about everything so that made my life much easier ,and here are my progress photos of the painting.

A very first coat just blocking in the major areas( P.S. my family thought it looked eerie! :P)

Both the subjects with the second layer

Almost done with my favorite being the blue silk tie !

I concentrated on just one person at a time, having finished the groom, my sole attention was on the bride. Her face proved to be the most challenging I wanted to get not just her face but also her glowing skin tone and blush correctly

The bride's Sari and jewelry was the most fun I must say and the one element that got done in literally one stroke was the groom's tie!