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Day 151: Fair of Face, Eventually!

Fairy Face (Pencil)
Fairy Face (Pencil)

Still working towards the fantasy picture of the fairy and the tortoise, I spent some time today drawing an outline of her face to practice painting. Embarrassingly, this took a full hour to get right, which was all the spare time I had available so I didn’t manage to start painting it.

I’ve never been fond of drawing or painting faces, or people for that matter… I’ve always found it hard to get them right, so I’m actually fairly pleased with this progress. A few years ago I did some digital portraits and realised that I can achieve a realistic finish, but I’m very rusty and as I’ve mentioned before digital is very forgiving – that ‘undo’ button is a saviour. Digital painting is also similar to oil painting in that you can build the paint up, covering mistakes as you go. Unfortunately, you don’t have that opportunity with pencil or watercolour so I should be practising more, rather than avoiding them – I certainly found it easier previously when I completed four digital ones in a row.

It will be interesting to see how I fair with paint tomorrow… I’ve never painted a portrait in watercolour and I’m expecting it to be tricky. There’s still a few tweaks to do first though, either that hair needs arranging more carefully or I’ll have to invent an ear, I think!