Painting A Woman Playing Guitar

For her skin, I mixed green and red, with a little more emphasis on red. I laid down masking fluid on the bridge of her nose, the tops of her cheeks, the tops of her brow-bones, and the center of her chin so those parts wouldn't get paint on them. Then I painted the first layer of color on her skin using wet on wet.

For her hair, I mixed purple into some yellow that was already on my palette, then some more yellow into that. As with her face, I applied the first layer of color to her hair using the wet on wet technique. 

Later I went back to her face and painted on the first shadow using the same color as I did for the first layer, just with less water.

I decided to the shadows on her face needed some blue in them, which I layered on top of the main flesh color. I also painted darker layers on her hair.

My goals for today were to paint another layer on her hair and to paint her eyes. I'd been thinking that my second layer on her hair was too yellow, so I mixed more purple into it to make it browner.

Her eyes had highlights and rims around the irises that I really thought would add something special to the piece. Before I started painting, I laid down masking fluid in the appropriate places to preserve my whites their. Now, I was pretty happy with the way the right eye turned out, but I felt like the left eye was a fail. I'd painted the pupil without waiting for the iris layer to dry completely. In my experience, small details in eyes, pupils, rims, etc, are always best painted using wet on dry, and oftentimes its even best if your brush isn't very wet. I know this, but I get impatient. Anyway, I went over the left eye with white acrylic paint and started over.

I needed something to do while the first new layer of paint on my subject's left eye dried, though, so I painted her mouth using some mixed red paint I already had in my palette.

Using my liner brush almost dry and some black paint, I painted her eyeliner and lashes on her left eye.

Today I made some good progress on her left eye.

​Her blonde hair needed some blue shadows. I thought the orange on my palette was a bit too bright as it was, so I added more orange it. Note to self: If you want soft edges, make sure the part of the paper you’re painting on is sufficiently wet.
Her top is a very brownish red color, so I started by adding brown to the red that was already on my palette. It was too brown, though, so I added more red. Adding a bit of green, the compliment to red, was what really did it.

Her eyeliner and lashes on her left eye still need some sharpening up and I worked on that today. I also saw that the left side of her face needed some more blue shadows, especially along her jaw. That was after I worked to soften the edges of the blue shadows I’d put in her hair. I used wet on wet to paint these shadows.

I painted the pink in her cheeks today and finally was able to get enough black paint on my brush to make a bold line above her left eye. While I was working, though, I realized I never painted a line on the bottom of her right eye. ‘Cant forget that.

​I started to paint her guitar, first using the same brown I’d been using for her skin for the side. I did a wash of wet on wet first, then used a smaller brush and the same paint with less water in it for the texture lines. I mixed yellow and purple into this color to paint the top part of the guitar.


I thought I was done with her top, but I saw on the back there were some folds. I mixed more green into my red so it to tone it down again, since I’d been using it for her cheeks and so had added red to it. I took a small brush and, with very little water mixed in the paint, I painted folds in the form of darker shadows along the back of the woman’s top.

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Today I painted some blue gray streaks in the background using a small filbert watercolor brush. As always, I started with the lightest shade, and, after waiting for that to dry, I layered darker colors on top of it, using the same color, with less water.