Lady in red

Based on a vintage-inspired editorial from an old issue of Preview, this lady in red has been my watercolor project for the whole month of February. I had been feeling largely uninspired by the usual landscapes that we do in class, and recalling how much I enjoyed doing my first fashion illustration, I decided to try another fashion-influenced project. 

At the end of each class, I would take a photo of the day's work. It helped me see what I needed to fix and improve before moving on. For example, looking at this photo of the initial sketch helped me shift her features from fully Pinay to more Chinese, and fix the proportions of the body before getting the paint in.

Getting the sketch right and painting in the underlayers was slow work, but it all took off when I laid in that brilliant red in week three. Now that was fun...


Painting her clothes in week three was the most fun I had while working on this painting—that pop of red, the satiny folds of her skirt. After filling in the background and taking care of a few panic-inducing accidents with that blue paint (blue fingerprints on her face!), I thought I was finished in week four, the middle photo. But my teacher Penny rightly pointed out that the dark background now made her seem flat and pale. So after creating deeper shadows with hues of red and dark blue in week five....

... Penny and I finally pronounced her complete.

 

In these four weeks I learned (not completely, but more than before) to give up control, let accidents happen, and allow mistakes to contribute to the whole. She doesn't look exactly like the original, but duplicating the photo wasn't the point. In fact, I love that she turned out more like a film star from a bygone era than a model dressed in new clothes.

Of all my watercolor projects, this lady in red is the one I like most. I'm more than happy with my perfectly imperfect work!