Kind of Cartoony Kid Portraits

Head Full of Curls

December 2013

Watercolor and Pencil on Watercolor Paper

This picture was fun to paint! It's of my son and his head full of curls! After many failed attempts at sketching a picture of a child, I decided I needed some help. I began reading! The best suggestions that I have found so far are to keep it simple, look at real children (or real pictures of them) while you are drawing/painting them, and that the type of clothing is really important in creating a child's image. I like detail so keeping it simple was kind of hard for me... but I think it worked! I used my own children that I could reference easily. I kept the clothes simple and casual. This was really fun to have this and my other portrait below turn out looking like a happy children that weren't strangely proportioned!

The thing that I didn't really care for was the uneven paint for the skin. I was trying to create highlights and shadows by layoring the paint, but I didn't blend it well enough. I did a yellow wash where the hair would go, and a slightly orange yellow to create the curls. I really like the shirt texture. There was a lot of water and pigment on the paper to move around and put it just where I wanted it. I feel like I'm getting a better feel for how to use the water to paint ratio to create different looks.  

Pretty Pink Princess

December 2013

Watercolor and Pencil on Watercolor Paper

This pretty girl is my second attempt at painting a child. It's of my little girl who is very attentive to what my pictures look like and says exactly what she thinks of them. So needless to say I was a little nervous what she would think of her painted picture. (I learn a lot from her comments because they are completely honest opinions and thoughts! If I want to learn to illustrate for children then the honest thoughts and opinions of a child are probably quite valuable!) Happily I report that she liked it and thought the hair was cute! Phew! 

Everywhere her hair was going to be, I put a wash of the same color I had used for her skin. Then I took a brown and went over the wash, leaving some strokes darker than others to create the hair texture. I also used a brush with just water to to lift pigment off the paper to make other areas lighter. I think the combination of techniques worked well. The darker color under her bangs looks like orange-ish hair instead of the intended shadow... I'll have to figure that one out.

Many thanks to my kids!