Portrait of a Boy and his Grandpa - Watercolor Demonstration Part 2

The other day, I demonstrated how I painted the little boy in this custom portrait. Above is the painting where we left off. Click here to see part one of this portrait.

Today, I was going to go straight to his Pops (his grandfather's) face, but my painting students arrive as scheduled in the morning. They are not beginners and are pretty independent - they mostly want critiques and advice.

So to keep myself busy while they paint and to keep myself from hovering over them too much (!), I decide to work on this painting. I don't want to work on the face - that takes too much concentration and I need to be available to answer questions. So I work on the boy's hat.


 It will be navy blue, but the first wash is light.  I'll add more washes to darken it when this one is dry:

Once the students have left, I can work on Pop's face. I have already done a preliminary wash of color, now I add another wash over that to shape the face more. Then I paint details of the ear and eyebrows:

Below is how he looks so far. Not quite there yet, but adding the hair and glasses will help me see what adjustments can be made:

His hair is salt and pepper. I wash the area with very pale gray and let that dry. Then I add medium and dark gray tones leaving some strands light to indicate hair:

After the hair is painted, I make more adjustments on the face until I'm satisfied with the likeness:

Below is what is finished up to this point. Next time I'll finish the two figures, then paint the sky, ocean and beach background.  What do you think so far?

Click here for Part 3 to see the painting finished.

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