"Day One - The Ray Project"

As I promised you yesterday,  we are embarking on this journey today to paint a portrait of "Ray Charles". After deciding on a photograph (this one happens to be black and white) I did a quick pencil sketch on to the watercolor paper. Now I use 550 lb. Arches watercolor paper, so stiff that you can barely tear it, but it also usually won't buckle no matter how many layered washes it receives. Another tip at this stage is to tear the watercolor sheets to the size that you need them, never cut with scissors. These sheets are made to have a deckled edge, so just fold back and forth until the spine of the fold will tear and leave a jagged or deckled edge. You will notice at this stage that I have what I called color blocked the pencil sketch. This just means that I have already made a decision where the lights and darks will go at a later stage, so that I can paint around my highlights. I choose not to use opaque white paint for my highlights (some watercolor artists do) so I take very careful steps in the pre-painting to let the whiteness of the paper be my highlight hue. This is what I call working backwards but it really doesn't take any more time to do. Also at this stage I have put in my background color wash behind the head and the large wash on the coat. These are just my jumping off points - a place to start. I will stop here today and let everyone that is painting along catch up. We will be back tomorrow with Day Two of the Project and you should see more likeness come to shape. Enjoy!