Watercolor Portraits from Strangers’ Photos

I’ve been practicing portraits lately and have found it’s much, much harder to paint people I know well. I tried painting one of my kids and just couldn’t be satisfied with the likeness because I see his face basically all day, every day – I just kept tweaking and tweaking and finally gave up. Google Image, however…so many faces! I searched around for high quality black and white photos and painted a couple.

My goal was to work on color and being looser, not on getting an accurate likeness, so it was a lot more freeing to paint someone whose face I don’t know as well as my kids’ faces.

Here are some of the results. I worked from a black and white photo and did one painting in just any colors, to help myself see the values accurately. Then I worked in more lifelike colors for the final version. The drawing also became more accurate by the second iteration. I always do multiple studies and sketches before doing a portrait because it makes the final product far more accurate, and also more interesting; I can take risks in the sketches and not be as tight and finicky in the final.

Molly Bell Minor is a watercolor artist living in Durham, NC with her husband Matt Minor and their three little kids. She is available for commissioned portraits of people and pets, as well as custom house portraits or any other painting you can dream up. She can work with any budget and loves helping people create meaningful art for themselves or for the people they love. Curious about commissioning a custom watercolor? Email her at mollybellminor@gmail.com or visit her Etsy shop at: www.etsy.com/shop/MollyBellMinor