Very Late, But Here is My Portrait

This week's challenge, due last Sunday (7/15) was mine (Laura McHugh West). The challenge was to create a portrait of someone and embellish the background with things that person is about.


I chose to study my friend Mia. She is Persian and a beautiful woman. Strong, with decisive opinions, and a very good heart. I love her a lot.


I started by painting her face on a large (15x22) piece of watercolor paper. I'm not very good with portraits or watercolor, so I used a photo of her to lay down the basic proportions. I did that by tracing over the photo on the paper with a blunt object. That gave me a basic idea of where to do the outline.


It is surprising how much even a small change in the dimensions of a cheek, eye or hair style can change the look of a person.


Many friends who also know Mia saw my initial drawing, here, and recognized her. One person commented that her eyes are very souful, so I knew I had captured the essence of my friend Mia, because she does have very beautiful eyes. This is not the completed Mia, becuase I still had to finish her hair. I wanted to do the background first to be sure to keep the colors all in balance.

Mia is Persian so I wanted to start the background with a Persian tiled theme. I painted squares in watercolor as though she was standing up against a tiled wall. I also did some on her eyes and hair using a blue black for the hair and Inktense watercolor pencils on the eyes to maintain a bit more control. I went over the eyes with a small brush with some water on it.

I did more work on the background which then seemed too bright for what I wanted to do over it, which was put things I know Mia likes in the square so I covered it with a wash of opaque white paint mixed with just enough water to thin it  out so the background showed through a bit.

For the embellishments, I chose inspirational sayings my friend posts on her Facebook page. I find them soothing and wise and they reflect who she is - wise, kind, gentle. I tried to mimic the fonts used on the Facebook images, then added some small whimsical drawings to finish it off.

I hope you enjoy Mia's portrait. This was a challenging challenge because it is not good when you don't get someone's likeness in a flattering way, but I believe Mia will be happy with the results and the lesson for me is even when you are afraid, dive in and see what happens!