Today I decided to show a piece of my work and tell about the process of creating a portrait in the fashion style. I draw your attention that this is a stylized portrait, a fashion (beauty) illustration — which essentially involves simplification in color and anatomy.

We will need:

• watercolor paper (a sketch board and duct tape for fixing the paper);
• a lead pencil and an eraser to make a sketch;
• brushes and water (preferably two brushes — a thin and a thick one — I have weasel hair brushes number 8 and 3);
• watercolor (I have three colors — payne's grey, cadmium orange and carmine, you can take other colors);
• a white pastel pencil for details (it is possible to do without it).

I originally planned to paint an illustration in two colors (payne's grey and scarlet), but after "trying the colors" I realized it was too aggressive. And I decided to add cadmium orange and replace scarlet with carmine, to make the skin and lips tone look more natural. This is a stylized portrait and therefore the color scheme must be as simple as possible. Typically, such illustrations are painted in 2-3 colors (one dark for accents with heavy application and the base in a diluted form and a bright color).
I do not dwell on detailed description of face construction, on how to mount paper on a sketch board and how to mix paint. In this tutorial I describe the work with watercolor in particular. You can take inspiration from another photo and draw your own illustrations based on it, relying on my steps :) The step-by-step work in watercolor will be almost the same.

1. As always, we start with a pencil sketch.

2. Next, with a very light mixture of carmine and cadmium orange outline shadows on the face and a little on the hair. I also mark eyebrows and lips with this mixture, leaving a highlight on the lips with white, the neck.

3. I take payne's grey. with a highly water-diluted color I mark dark elements — I paint the eyes (please note that I make the iris darker on top and lighter towards the bottom — this will make your eyes visually more voluminous), shadows on the eyeballs, the "base" for the eye makeup. I leave the highlights white. Also I mark with payne's grey shadows on the hair, the neck, the nostrils, touch a little (very little!) under the lip and through the closing of the lips, but only in the center and in the corners of the lips, the solid line will create a feeling of a "child's" drawing and turn down the volume. And the glasses. Reflections on the rim are left white.

4. It is extremely difficult to divide the further work into stages. In general I try to work across the entire "sheet", not to "overwork" some parts. Furthermore, I originally planned to make fashion styling, I don't need too much details. I made a filling of the face, then the hair and the clothing. And back in the same order, if necessary.

5. Then I wet the area of the jacket and made a dense filling (payne's grey) on a wet sheet, "bypassing" the volume of the folds on the fabric. I wet the sheet to make beautiful and smooth color transitions. I didn't want to add extra graphics. By the way, in this photo you can clearly see how the selected paint has divided into pigments (the color is more gray, something is clearly streaked with blue). I work with Van Gogh paints, I like to use them even in a pure form without adding other shades, taking the "dividing" of the pigments into consideration, that grey never looks boring and "flat" to me.

6. Work out the volume of the nose (darken it with a more dense mixture of carmine and cadmium orange), the shadow side of the nose and the area beneath it. Add brightness with the same mixture to the lips, the cheeks, the ear, the forehead, slightly touch the hair (as for the hair, do it intuitively, because it is more important to mark the darkest areas with payne, creating volume, and the mixture of carmine and cadmium is more for stunning picturesqueness). Plan a piece of jewelry on the neck. Draw eyebrows — not with a thick solid filling, but by the growth of hairs, with paints of different colors. And make brighter the rim with a more dense mixture of payne. Add shadows to the jacket.

7. Complete the piece of jewelry on the neck and the earring. Finish the eye — the eyelashes edge, the lashes, add some eyeshadow on the eyelids. Darken the corners of the lips and the line of closure of the lips in the middle.

8. Add the final touches with a white pastel pencil to the hair and the glasses.

Voila!