Fairy, Angel, Spiritual and Fantasy Art by Carmen Keys

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Watercolor Fairy Tutorial

Another tutorial, featuring my painting "Cloudy Day"! This is pretty graphics-intensive, so patience while it loads...

We start with a sketch with an HB or B pencil on 140lb hot press paper -- I have used a pose from a family photo. I generally leave a bit of a border around the painting that will be trimmed off later, so I can tape it to my masonite board without damaging the painted part -- plus it can be handy to check colors on the margins before I put them down.

Next comes a background salt wash, which will depict an overcast cloudy day. This is just a brown/blue mix (and thus gray), with ordinary table salt thrown all over while it was still wet.

In this step I put some very diluted rose color around the contours of the skin.

Here I've put an even *more* diluted bit of dioxazine purple around the contours, creating shadow. It looks really weird at this stage, but worry not!

Here the weird colors are evened out a bit by putting a pale wash of raw sienna over all the skin parts.

She gets hair! In this step I've used basically the same brown/blue mix as in the cloudy background, except very dark and not a lot of water in it. The eyes and eyebrows have also got some detailing in sepia paint.

Now the tree branch gets painted with the same sepia watercolor, and while it is still wet I drop in some clean water with another brush. This is called a bloom or backrun.The effect looks a lot like the salt wash technique, but softer.

Now the dress and wings get a wash of brilliant pink, and a cool maroon for the darker parts. The face has got some rosey cheeks and lips now, too. Again I've used the clean water backrun technique here in the dress. The parts that fade out are simply achieved by gradually adding more clear water to my brush until the color is blended out. I use this technique quite a lot, as I do not like hard edges very much in watercolor.

Now we are getting into some shading. I've used some rose/maroon to put the creases and folds into the dress, and to put the veins into the wings. Again with these shadows I generally like to blend the edges out with clean water.

I've deepened the colors in the skin here and also added a bit of raw sienna to the dress, wings, and background in parts to make them glow. Pale yellow washes are very useful for creating a glowing effect! I've also put some rose into the waterdrops on the branches.

The first step of the highlight process. In this case I've used chinese white paint, but sometimes I'll use diluted titanium white acrylic. I use diluted white first so that the highlights will look more gradual. The water drops have a bit of gray dropped in for more dimension.

The second step of the highlights. I put a small dot of undiluted white paint in the middle of the areas I had painted with the diluted white before. This makes a very shiny effect. I've also put the white into the water drops to make them stand out a little more. I've also added my little signature at the bottom with a tecnical pen. After everything is dry I will peel off the tape and trim off the white border, title & sign the back in colored pencil and put it in the scanner.

The finished painting, complete with scanner color correction, haha!

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	Main Page \| Mailing List \| Payment & Shipping \| Contact Watercolor Fairy Tutorial Another tutorial, featuring my painting "Cloudy Day"! This is pretty graphics-intensive, so patience while it loads... We start with a sketch with an HB or B pencil on 140lb hot press paper -- I have used a pose from a family photo. I generally leave a bit of a border around the painting that will be trimmed off later, so I can tape it to my masonite board without damaging the painted part -- plus it can be handy to check colors on the margins before I put them down. Next comes a background salt wash, which will depict an overcast cloudy day. This is just a brown/blue mix (and thus gray), with ordinary table salt thrown all over while it was still wet. In this step I put some very diluted rose color around the contours of the skin. Here I've put an even more diluted bit of dioxazine purple around the contours, creating shadow. It looks really weird at this stage, but worry not! Here the weird colors are evened out a bit by putting a pale wash of raw sienna over all the skin parts. She gets hair! In this step I've used basically the same brown/blue mix as in the cloudy background, except very dark and not a lot of water in it. The eyes and eyebrows have also got some detailing in sepia paint. Now the tree branch gets painted with the same sepia watercolor, and while it is still wet I drop in some clean water with another brush. This is called a bloom or backrun.The effect looks a lot like the salt wash technique, but softer. Now the dress and wings get a wash of brilliant pink, and a cool maroon for the darker parts. The face has got some rosey cheeks and lips now, too. Again I've used the clean water backrun technique here in the dress. The parts that fade out are simply achieved by gradually adding more clear water to my brush until the color is blended out. I use this technique quite a lot, as I do not like hard edges very much in watercolor. Now we are getting into some shading. I've used some rose/maroon to put the creases and folds into the dress, and to put the veins into the wings. Again with these shadows I generally like to blend the edges out with clean water. I've deepened the colors in the skin here and also added a bit of raw sienna to the dress, wings, and background in parts to make them glow. Pale yellow washes are very useful for creating a glowing effect! I've also put some rose into the waterdrops on the branches. The first step of the highlight process. In this case I've used chinese white paint, but sometimes I'll use diluted titanium white acrylic. I use diluted white first so that the highlights will look more gradual. The water drops have a bit of gray dropped in for more dimension. The second step of the highlights. I put a small dot of undiluted white paint in the middle of the areas I had painted with the diluted white before. This makes a very shiny effect. I've also put the white into the water drops to make them stand out a little more. I've also added my little signature at the bottom with a tecnical pen. After everything is dry I will peel off the tape and trim off the white border, title & sign the back in colored pencil and put it in the scanner. The finished painting, complete with scanner color correction, haha!
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