Drawing and Painting Expressive Little Faces

Step-by-Step Techniques for Creating People and Portraits with Personality--Explore Watercolors, Inks, Markers, and More

Amarilys Henderson

• Publisher: Quarry Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781631598654
• eBook ISBN: 9781631598661
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

In Drawing and Painting Expressive Little Faces, artist and popular Skillshare instructor Amarilys Henderson shares her practical and creative techniques for drawing and painting faces with style and personality.

• Gathering supplies. Consider the creative possibilities of watercolor, ink, and markers, and create a mobile sketch pack so you can capture faces and expressions on the go.
• Simplifying the face and identifying proportions. Use photos to simplify the face’s key elements, learn about facial proportions and factors and variables for placing facial features, and apply these concepts through a simple warm up using a single color to paint a face in multiple values.
• Facial shapes and features. Learn about the five basic facial shapes and how to modify the chin line, ears, and hairline, and how to draw and paint mouths, eyes, and noses and make alterations to show pose and personality. 
• Mixing color. The pigments and brushes you’ll need to achieve a wide range of realistic skin tones, shadows, and expressions.
• Bringing faces to life. Navigate the process from start to finish, learn to adjust line quality to suggest different genders and ethnicities, and change up artistic styling to put a unique spin on your creations. 
• Project ideas. Get inspired by some cool ways to apply your new skills: party invitations, repeat patterns, comic books, and more!

Don’t be intimidated by the challenge of drawing and painting faces. Improve your face game with Drawing and Painting Expressive Little Faces!

1

ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES

Walking through the aisles of an art supply store is both invigorating and intimidating. Rows of colors fill my mind with possibilities while decision paralysis sets in as I see the variety of brands and price points for each item. I volley between what I need, what I think I need, and what I don’t know I need.

This chapter serves as an overview of all the fun art supplies you’ll see sprinkled throughout this book. Don’t get overwhelmed; you don’t need to make this your shopping list. I just want to provide you with information for when you’re ready to get to work. I also offer my best practices as I select and use each medium.

WATERCOLORS

I have the same question whenever I look at paints: How saturated are the colors? This is not every artist’s first question, though it is what is most important to me. I want each color I use to be rich and lush. Other factors that are important to artists are archival quality or viscosity (its texture or how well the paint flows through the brush). My favorite paints below demonstrate each of these, though not both, but they all achieve my top requirement of vibrant color.

WATERCOLOR TUBES

You’ve probably seen little cakes of watercolor in pans, but you can also find tiny tubes of watercolor alongside them in stores. Watercolor tube paints are often squirted into small pans or paint wells where they live until they’re all used up. These are the most versatile of watercolor paints as they are colorful alternatives to buying paints in cakes, which are already placed in pans. As opposed to cake watercolors, these are less chalky and dry and therefore can hold more color. My favorite brand of tube watercolors is Mijello Mission Gold. They offer a wide range of professional watercolors in an array of colors. They can be used heavily for a dark, full color or watered down to pale hues. These paints are archival, meaning that your painting is guaranteed to look like it did on its first day for at least a lifetime. My large palette is often in my art table photos. Sometimes, just looking at it is inspiring!

FLUID WATERCOLORS

Fluid watercolors are a little less known as they’re not often found on the shelves alongside watercolors. The small bottles can resemble inks. My favorite feature of using these liquid watercolors is what I call the “whoosh”-effect. If you’ve seen videos where color is dropped onto a wet sheet of watercolor paper and the color seeps through like a moving flood, you can understand why I call it that. These paints not only spread fluidly, but the color breaks down into nuances of cotton candy hues. The paints’ greatest downfall is that its glorious color fades over time and with exposure to sunlight. Since I work as an illustrator, scanning my work and capturing it for commercial reproductions, it’s a downside that I can cope with. But these paints may not suit you if you like to hang your work to stand the test of time.

WATERCOLOR PAINT PAPERS

A handy batch of hand-picked skin tones introduced in a later chapter, these watercolor sheets are great to have at your reach or to take on-the-go! Simply wet the papers with a brush to activate the paints. The colors are rich, and once dry, they can be stowed away in a sketchbook. I recommend the Expressive Little Faces pack by Peerless Paints.

INKS

BLACK INDIA INK

India ink is inexpensive and highly accessible. It’s dark and great for creating a range of grays from dark to light. It lasts longer than most other types of ink because you don’t need to use as much at a time. I’ve used several brands and have found that which I reach for all depends on its usage. For this book, though, I use an inexpensive brand because I don’t need it to be as permanent or rich in texture as I would for calligraphy. But be careful: No matter how watered down, it can still stain your clothes.

WHITE INK

A fluid white that can be used independently or as an additive to watercolor not only gives you light tints on your existing colors, but creates a different quality of colors. You have to mix them to see it! Though not required, a fluid white helps expand your color experience. I recommend Dr. Ph. Martin’s brand.

COLORED INKS

Colored inks are a fun alternative to just black. They don’t come in as many colors as watercolor paints but one could find a set with every basic color quite easily. I especially enjoy using iridescent inks to give my work a touch of shimmer. Use a brush that you don’t need, since inks can be difficult to wash out once dry. Also, the colors work as additives and therefore don’t break down as fluidly as with black India ink; you may find it difficult to create a variety of shades from one color.

The inks used in this book (from left to right, top to bottom): Black India ink, white ink, and colored ink.

INDIA INK TIPS

India ink is inexpensive, but a little goes a long way. A large bottle as sh...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Essential Supplies
• 2 Simplifying The Face
• 3 Building a Face
• 4 Putting it all Together
• 5 Pumping up the Personality
• 6 Not Just Doodles
• Parting Words
• Resources
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Index
• Dedication
• Copyright