Watercolor portrait painting tutorial with layering technique, watercolor crayons and wax paper cut-out
November 6, 2012 2019-02-06 13:28Watercolor portrait painting tutorial with layering technique, watercolor crayons and wax paper cut-out

Watercolor portrait painting tutorial with layering technique, watercolor crayons and wax paper cut-out
This is a portrait of my youngest daughter I painted some time ago. My daughter has a fascination for space exploration and wants to learn as much as she can about that subject, of course she wants to be a cosmonaut!I like to paint portraits that are telling a story, they are like illustrations of a book that the viewer has to make up. I also wanted that painting to talk about the magic of youth and the feeling that you have so many options possible for your future.
Here are the steps I took to paint this portrait:

This is my drawing on Arches paper, I did preserve some whites with resist mainly for the eyes and patterns in the background

I applied resist on the white of the eyes and for the highlight on the eye, as well as along the face where the light makes the skin appear white.
I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not effect in any way the cost of the purchaser’s order but it helps me keeping the content of this blog free.
![]() |
Daler-Rowney Masking FluidThis fluid is used to create striking white highlights or to mask areas for overpainting at a later stage. It forms a fast-drying, water-resistant film on watercolor paper and board, and is easily removed when dry. |

I am starting by painting a layer with yellow watercolor ( yellow Ocher and Lemon yellow)

I am cutting out a few shapes in wax paper and will place them on the yellow watercolor layer in the background while the paint is still wet.

Here is a close-up of the background with resist and cut-out wax paper shapes. I want the background to be somewhat between a wall paper and a representation of my daughters thoughts.

Once the yellow layer has dried I paint a layer with different tones of red, aiming for variations that go from orange to more pink tones of red,
I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not effect in any way the cost of the purchaser’s order but it helps me keeping the content of this blog free.
![]() |
Yarka St. Petersburg Professional Watercolor PansSame palette of traditional colors the great masters used a century ago. Liquid-poured means semi-moist pans respond instantly to a wet brush. 24 pans in plastic case. Also individual pans. – Master Set |

The last layer is a layer of blue, I am also using different tones of blue, from Ultramarine blue to Prussian blue. I accentuate the blue highlight on the hair, I then work on the background adding more definition to the patterns with watercolor crayons. You can see faint patterns where the wax paper cut-out were placed.
Comments (2)
silvia
wax paper wewre simply put on the watercolor paper or glued?
Sandrine Pelissier
Wax paper cut-outs were simply placed on the paper, they stick to it because the paper was still wet.