Watercolor and Ink Portrait

Heeeeeello there Steemit users!

I’m back again with a portrait of an artist I’ve grown quite fond of: Mary Rosenberger. If you are a fan of abstract, line work and happy colors, you’ll love her work too. I’d definately reccomend looking her up on Instagram. Her take on life is nothing short of inspiring.

I’ve done this piece in water color and ink primarily. I did try to incorporate some prisma colored pencils in there, but I wasn’t much a fan of that. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for me to try experimenting more with that on something I’m not as in love with (for fear of it not going well).

A little bit of the process:

I started off in pencil as per usual. I think I used a 3H for that, and then I outlined the twigs and swirls with a pigma micron pen (gotta go with a water proof pen if you plan on doing watercolor around and over top!) I already knew microns where water resistant but if you’re unsure, do a test first. Better safe than sorry!

You guys know those kneeded erasers? Those come in super handy when doing watercolor. In order to fade the pencil lines so they’re not as prominent through the watercolor, I just roll the kneeded eraser over top and that picks up the color nicely. (And it’s wicked fun)

I wanted the portrait itself to be very soft as a contrast to the very dark solid twigs and swirls, so I did very light layers of color.

By the way, another wee side note, while candles make for great ambience while painting, I’d reccommend thinking about the placement. I had my water jar (for rinsing my brushes) set down a matter of inches from this beautifully scented pink candle and ended up having a little mix up between the two.. Long story short I’m burying one of my favorite brushes. At least it went out doing what it loved.