Four Muses: Part Four

And I’m still continuing with Alena Hennessy’s Four Muses unit in her on-line classes Watercolor Wonder, in which we practice portrait painting as outlined in Four Muses: Part One. All four of the intended paintings are complete, although along with a bonus one for practice as I was enjoying this lesson so much and also wanted to repeat the last one due to an unexpected “mistake”. Today I would like to share my fourth Muse, once again featuring Little One but in a different style too. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, it didn’t turn out as was hoping, but at the suggestion of my boyfriend, I did not dispose of it to start over again. Just continued and considered it my own independent work. Glad I listened because look how the painting turned out!

Alena’s resulting portrait was with a red puffy dress and leaves in the hair that was in a bun but somehow my version ended up as anything but! I had originally wanted to add a variation by leaving Little One’s hair loose but with a crown and leaves on top and replacing the dress with a red cape. Somehow along the way, though, that was not to be, but as the face had already been painted to my liking, I was reluctant to abandon the painting altogether. The idea of the cape and leaves on the crown was instead abandoned, and a colored background was recreated! Then with Uni Posca paint pens in white and gold, I went about drawing in the details and outlines. This “beautiful mistake” further gave me the chance to try out some Pearlescent watercolors by Kremer Pigmente. And after going back and forth on deciding what to do with the painting, I was finally quite happy with it!

The above illustrates the art supplies used: Watercolors from Kuretake Gansai Tambi, Kremer’s Pigmente in Pearlescent, Earth colors and Skin Tone sets, Derwent Pastel Shades and Jane Davenport’s Tropicals set. Uni Posca paint pens in White and Gold along with white gel pen too. Sometimes when you try and stick too much to what the instructor paints, you get a bit frustrated when it does not turn out the way it should. Don’t fret. Just keep going and recreate something else for yourself. This painting was a prime example. Needless to say, I painted another one in order to make up for it, which you will see shortly so keep your eyes peeled!

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