Painting a watercolor portrait of a child from live
Step-by-step watercolor portrait painting demonstration

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Prepare with a good drawing

Brushes:
Number 14 round sable
Number 6 round sable
1/2-inch flat sable
1.5-inch flat sable

Watercolor paint : red, blue, yellow, burnt umber, burnt sienna

Paper: Arches Cold Press 140 lb

Painting an 11-year-old child from a live sitting is a quite challenge. Mainly because my model will shift her position quickly from time to time, and hard to keep the head in the same direction and angle for long. So that it is very important to spend much time as possible to study the model, get a solid picture what the final watercolor painting will look like in your mind, and define the outlines in pencil.

In this painting, I liked to leave more room in the right side and designed the movement starting from the left of the edge, to the eyes, then exit to the right.

I planned the live-sitting portrait painting as a less than one-hour section.