Japanese Style Watercolor Portraits: Learn to Paint Lifelike Portraits in 48 Easy Lessons (With Over 400 Illustrations)

by Hiroko Shibasaki

Overview

The ability to capture a realistic likeness requires expert guidance!

Japanese Style Watercolor Portraits provides the professional guidance and all of the expert tips and techniques you need to succeed at creating beautiful, realistic watercolor portraits. With 48 step-by-step lessons covering tools, techniques, sketching, painting and finishing, this book makes learning fun and effective. It will take you through each step of the watercolor portrait process, from choosing a paper size and sketching your subject to layering in the colors and rendering the fine details. Author Hiroko Shibasaki provides expert guidance on the best materials to use along with many insightful tips that every artist should know.

The portraits presented in the 12 comprehensive painting tutorials express a distinctively Japanese aesthetic. The subjects in the foreground are rendered in exquisite detail, while the backgrounds are only subtly suggested. This technique places the emphasis on the masterful portraits, leaving it to the viewer's imagination to fill in the peripheral details.

The lessons in this book cover all the key topics, including:

• Working with a model
• Completing the sketch
• Preparing and mixing paints
• Blocking in skin tones
• Rendering details such as facial features, hairstyles and clothing
• Blending and shading the colors
• And much more!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804855723
Publisher:	Tuttle Publishing
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Hiroko Shibasaki is a Japanese artist who has worked primarily with watercolors since 2006. Her accolades include the 2011 Japan Watercolor Exhibition Incentive Award, the 2012 Japan Watercolor Exhibition Maruyama Banka Award, the 2017 Japan Watercolor Exhibition Alumni Incentive Award, and the 2019 Japan Watercolor Exhibition Prime Minister's Award. She is a member of the Japan Watercolor Painting Association and is a watercolor painting instructor at the college level. Shibasaki lives in Japan.

Table of Contents

Why I Wrote This Book 4

Chapter 1 Basic Tools, Materials and Techniques

The Tools and Materials Needed for Sketching 10

Lesson 1 Select sketching tools that are convenient and easy to use 10

The Tools and Materials Needed for Painting 11

Lesson 2 Use artist's grade transparent watercolors 11

Lesson 3 Choose appropriate brushes 12

Supplemental Tools and Materials to Keep Handy 13

Lesson 4 Get the supplemental tools and materials for great results 13

Paper Sizes and Layouts 14

Lesson 5 Understanding which size of paper to use for each type of layout 14

The Composition Balance Changes Depending on the Angle 16

Lesson 6 Understanding how your painting changes depending on the angle portrayed 16

Sidebar When painting portraits, timely sequential application is important 20

Chapter 2 Sketching Your Subject

Start By Creating a Good Working Environment 22

Lesson 7 Position your board so you can easily reach the center of the paper 22

Lesson 8 Position your easel for optimal model reference 23

Lesson 9 Use a measuring stick to determine the proportions of the model 24

Understand the General Flow of the Sketching Process 25

Lesson 10 Understand the sketching process to complete your sketch smoothly 25

How to Draw the Details of the Face 26

Lesson 11 Use the proportions of an average face to understand your model's unique characteristics 26

Lesson 12 Similarly scaled faces appear distinct when you change the level of the eyes 27

Lesson 13 Each part of the face look different depending on how your model is positioned 28

Lesson 14 Learn how the shape of the eyes and the look of the eyebrows change depending on the angle 29

Lesson 15 See how the shapes of the eyes change depending on where they are looking 29

Understanding the Process of Sketching 30

Lesson 16 Use the size of the head as a unit to balance out the figures proportions 30

Lesson 17 Use the centerline to determine the positions of each part of the body 32

Lesson 18 Determine the position of the body and draw it in 34

Lesson 19 Clean up the lines of the face and the mouth, and rough in the other features 35

Lesson 20 Sketch in the other features, paying attention to the small details 36

Lesson 21 Determine the relative positions of each part as you draw them in 38

Sidebar Pay attention to the negative spaces 42

Chapter 3 The Painting Process

Depicting the Skin and the Shadows 44

Lesson 22 Mix paint to create the color that matches the model's skin tone 44

Lesson 23 Add shadows to the base skin color using the wet on wet method 45

Lesson 24 Avoid layering the base color and oversaturating the tone 45

Lesson 25 Use a blended gray tone to paint shadows on patterned clothing, etc. 46

Lesson 26 Use blended shading when painting the hair and the eyes 47

Painting the Skin 48

Lesson 27 Establish the different types of light and shadow on the face 48

Lesson 28 Paint the base color of the skin, including the face 49

Lesson 29 Layer the paint to achieve more depth in the shadows 51

Depicting the Hair 55

Lesson 30 Leave the highlights of the hair unpainted as you add the dark colors 55

Depicting Each Part of the Face 58

Lesson 31 When working out the highlights and shadows, simplify the shape of the object 58

Lesson 32 Add shadows to the eyes and eyelids to depict three-dimensionality 59

Lesson 33 Depict the highlights and shadows in the pupils to render beautiful eyes 60

Lesson 34 Paint the eyebrows following the flow of the hair growth 63

Lesson 35 When painting the ears, remember to add the shadows cast by the hair around them 64

Lesson 36 Place shadows skillfully when depicting the nose 66

Lesson 37 Paint the mouth and lips, and the shadows around them 70

Sidebar Common mistakes made when sketching the subject 74

Chapter 4 Clothing and Backgrounds

How to Depict Clothing 76

Lesson 58 Add the shadows while leaving any areas that look white unpainted 76

Lesson 39 Depict lights and darks over masked areas 79

Lesson 40 Paint patterns from light to dark 81

How to Depict the Background 86

Lesson 41 Soften the background by painting it in the same color family as the clothing 86

Lesson 42 Strengthen the background fey painting it in colors that are complementary to the clothing 86

Lesson 43 Use contrast to give a sense of depth to a scene without depicting a realistic background 87

Lesson 44 Be mindful of the contrast and saturation when depicting objects in the background 87

Lesson 45 When the subject is lit obliquely or from the front, make the background dark 88

Lesson 46 When the subject is backlit, lighten the background to emphasize the subjects silhouette 88

Lesson 47 When the figure is isolated, add a background from your imagination 89

Lesson 48 When you want to focus attention on the figure, keep the background simple 89

Sidebar Strategies for background painting 90

Chapter 5 Reviewing the Process-From Sketch to Finished Painting

Case Study: The Creation of the Work "Flower Petals" 92

Depicting the head 92

The procedure for painting the clothing 98

Case Study: The Creation of the Work "Backlit by the Window Side" 100

Bonus Paint a Child 110