Portrait of a Boy and his Grandpa - Watercolor Demonstration Part 3

I've been having so much fun painting this portrait. If you missed the beginning two posts, you can find them here:
Part 1 - watercolor portrait of a small child's face
Part 2 - watercolor portrait of a man's face

OK, now that Pop's face is painted, I paint in a wash for his hat. This will get shaded after it's dried.


In the meanwhile, I begin painting the boy's shirt. It has lots of folds in it, so the first thing I do before painting any details or color is to paint the shading that will indicate the folds. This makes things much easier since the shirt has 3 colors and part of it is striped:

Now I can paint the dark blue stripes that run up and down over the folds:

Let's see how things look so far. It's a good idea to step away from a painting every so often. I leave the painting on the easel and do something else while things dry. Then I  come back and look at it from a distance with fresh eyes:

Every time I do this, I find some small adjustment that needs to be made, so I do that first before I forget.

Now to continue with the boy's shirt. There is a block of green color at the top. I paint that making sure the shadows run into the striped area as well. I also add a bit of red to the green in the shadows. This helps to tone down the color a bit:

Now that the clothing is painted, I turn my attention to the background, painting a graduated wash of blue for the sky starting at the top and continuing a bit below the horizon line:

Next I add the water and surf rolling in.

I keep the colors fairly soft and also wash over the entire ocean and beach with pale blue to visually push it back so that it does not distract from the figures:

And now the portrait is completed! I'm pleased with how it turned out. It will bring the boy and his grandfather fond memories of their time together at the beach, don't you think?

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