Watercolours can be annoying as all hell when you’re just starting out, but they have a very distinctive flair you can’t really achieve with any other media. If you have no idea where to start, they can have you pulling your hair out in FAIL, but if you use the right materials and techniques it can actually be the fastest and easiest way to create a darn beautiful piece.

In this tutorial, I’ll go over some basic tips on how to get started painting a portrait. So lets get to it kids!

First off, I’ll go through my materials….

Speaks for itself really

Generally with watercolours, you can’t have enough brushes. They can be expensive as all hell though. The more expensive, the better the quality. Fortunately, there are some really good student quality brushes out there that I personally use and find do a bang up job. My favourite being Daler-Rowney’s Graduate range. They have a huge range for shapes and sizes, some seen in the image above. The brushes I’ve listed there are a good selection to get you started. You will at least need one brush of each shape.

1. A nice big wash brush. Great for the initial stages and when you need a lot of coverage, fast.
2. A smaller wash brush. This one is one of my favourites, it’s not unlike a Chinese calligraphy brush, holds a lot of water but can give you a lovely shape if you like. Again, for early stages and for brash washes and strokes.
3. Long, fine detail brush. This one is for those fine lines and details. The length of the bristles gives it an elasticity that I love, makes it easier to control and make some lovely smooth lines.
4. Square tip. I tend to use this one the least as I find it makes too uniform a stroke, but it’s very useful for architecture or whenever you want good square shapes with a lot of coverage.
5. Angle shader. Great for creating shading with colour accents at the end stages if a piece, lovely sharp tip for finer detailed shading but can also be used to make squarer shapes. Very versatile.

Right! So lets get to the paintin’s

I start with a simple sketch, not too much detail as I like to determine that as I paint. Although pencils and watercolours work very well together, I find heavy pencil work can weigh the image down. It depends on the kind of image you want in the end really, but I want to focus on the paint to create the volume and shading in this image as well as the colour, so this sketch is just to set out the shape.

I start by loading a thin dilution of a crimson colour on the nose, cheeks and lips. Also in little spots here and there where shadows might be, on the eyelids for instance.

You can see as gravity has it’s mysterious effect, there are big pools of paint gathered at the bottom of each stroke. You can leave them be and allow the paint to dry if you want, but if you want to move on fast…

A little dab with a damp natural sponge…

And the majority of the water is gone. The pigment does thin quite a bit when we use the sponge on it while it’s still so wet, but when I start a painting, I like to keep things as pale as possible. The number 1 rule of watercolours is that we start with the palest possible shades first and we build on to that layer by layer. The slower and gentler the gradient of pigment we use, the better the overall image will look in the end. PATIENCE! YOU ARE RESTLESS!

While the first layer is still wet, I then take a different shade of crimson and just drop highly pigmented drops on to the thin, wet layer. Again focusing on the nose, cheeks and lips.

As the paint is wet, those drops will slowly blend. If they look too solid to you, get a wet brush and gently blend.

Now, to even out this first layer of colour, I’m going to smooth those hard, ragged edges. Although these ragged edges are part of the style when using watercolours, at this stage I want to have a smooth base skin tone. As I work in more layers, the top detail layers can be left ragged here and there, though for more clarity, I recommend smoothing out most edges to accentuate one or two here and there so it doesn’t look too messy.

To smoothen an edge, all you need to to is get a clean, wet brush and gently rub it along the edge removing the line of settled pigment.

You can then draw that out to create a gentle gradient. This works best on skin.

Smooth as a baby’s arse!

Right, so now that we have that first, crimson based layer, I mix a secondary colour of the crimson used previously and a burnt umber (brown). This gives me the perfect warm skin tone. I paint a thin layer of this following the darker areas of the face.

If you look closely, you can see I placed this different shade where the overall shadows might fall rather than previously concentrating on the more flushed areas. It’s important to mix different shades for those two areas of colouring as it gives more depth to the overall skin tone.

Now on to the next stage of detail.

Using Paynes Gray, I mark out the extreme shadowing.

And then using the edge smoothing technique and a few gentle dabs of a damp sponge I soften those shadows out. I then let the paint dry fully.

For detailing I use my long bristled detail brush. I tend to use it almost as if it were a pencil, shading with hatched lines.

I then take a wet brush and smooth that on the edges so it doesn’t look too harsh.

Next, with a large, flat, round tipped brush, I load on a burnt umber mixed with a little Paynes gray to cast shadow over one side.

Immediately after, using the same brush, I drop some cerulean blue on top and let it naturally blend over the brown shade to cool down the shadow and to make it less muddy.

As I’m working towards finishing, I add some highly pigmented scarlet to the cheeks and lips. It adds a bit more punch to the skin colour. I then blend it slightly by removing the bulk of the water, I then blend some of the edges gently.

I then put another layer of cerulean on top of the shadows and in corners here and there to give a contrast to the skin colour. Cerulean and turquoise are excellent shades to use to add luminosity to skin.

Using a mechanical pencil, I sharpen up the edges around the more detailed areas such as the eyes or nostrils. Less is more when it comes to cleaning up with a pencil, as you want the paint to do most of the work. Too much pencil can take away the paint’s character.

Then to finish, I add the highlights using white ink or acrylic paint. I almost NEVER use white watercolour as I find it melts and blends into the rest of the colour I laid turning it into a cloudy, sludgy mess. White watercolour might seem to be the obvious choice for bringing light into your painting, but it’s not. It’s a milky demon paint and it will ruin your life. When painting in highlights, be careful not to overdo it. Take it slow. With the watercolour paints themselves, you always have the option to remove them with a damp sponge and keep at it, but the white paint is practically impossible to remove without some loss of luminosity in your paintwork, so be cautious.

HIGHLIGHT SUPERTIP! Paint a line of highlight around the edge of the face on the shadowed side, it adds great depth in the lighting

FINISHED! Witness how my scanner robs all life from the paint :C Now throw all your paints in the bin and quit cos WTF scanner!?

BUT WAIT!!111 THERE’S MOAR!

All that is well and good if you’re painting pale skin, but if you want to paint darker skin, there are a couple of things I do differently.

Dark skin is tougher to get right. It can be hard for artists to get the contrast right without making it look either too dull, or too shiny. Really, it all depends on the exact shade you want to paint, and there are no set rules, but in general it’s good to have a base method when beginning.

So beginning with the same kind of sketch, instead of dabbing on areas of colour, I wash the whole skin area with a burnt umber mixed with crimson. I always make sure to include a crimson shade regardless of how dark the skin is as it will prevent the colour getting too muddy.

With a clean, damp brush, I gently remove some of the paint to create the lighter areas. So I’m almost working backwards to create my base skin tone. The rest of the technique is largely the same. But always take care not to overload the painting with too much colour. Even though the skin may be dark, it still has the same luminous qualities of pale skin, so make sure it retains that.

And that be that! I leave you with my Anna’s tip top tips to remember when painting with watercolours!

1. Make sure your water is as clean as you can keep it. Change it regularly throughout your painting. Never use muddy water, and never wash brushes covered in white paint and then use that filthy water with other colours! *scream*

2. Don’t be afraid of laying colour down. It’s a common misconception that watercolours are terminal. Anything you lay down can be removed lickety split with a damp sponge. You can even manipulate dry paint with just a wet brush. Just stay away from that darn white paint till the VERY EXTREME END!!11 *huff* *wheeze*

3. Try and mix your own shades when possible. The standard colours are instantly recognisable to every artist (I can see cobalt blue a mile off and don’t get me started on alizarin crimson…) and a lot of them aren’t made to complement each other. Mix your own using one warm shade and one cool shade to unify your pallette (EX. Mixing a little bit of crimson into all your warm tones, a bit of cerulean into all your cool ones) It’s not necessary to do so, but I find it adds a nice cohesiveness to your colours.

4. Take care of them brushes! Goes without saying, but you wont believe how lazy I used to be with that. When your brushes keep their shape, they create the best strokes.

Good luck!

Painting in Watercolours – A Tutorial

Just a quick post this time to say the Shop is now re-opened. Get our new comics straight to your door, pay via PayPal!

The Shop is now open

In Anglise, the peace has been kept for centuries by
Knights, an elite caste of magic-using warriors serving
the code of strength, skill and honour; ‘Fan Dan Go’.
The year is 1975, Imperialist rebels fight on the streets, armed with deadly magical rayguns.
Who’s gonna put them in their place? Knight First Class, Rekki Lune! The fiery, foxy, flare-wearing firecracker armed witha hundred pounds of steel and a short temper….oh, and some of her friends
A collection of the first three chapters of Fan Dan Go,
the webcomic by Kate Holden updated weekly at
fandangocomic.com

Volume 1

110 Pages Full Colour

Shop – Fan Dan Go

IndieManga’s first anthology. The book is approximately 100 pages and features the following exciting things:

Fell by Kate Holden
Alice Fogarty Hates Small Towns by Sally Jane Thompson
The King’s Silver prose story by Rebecca McCarthy
Rake: Drink & Driving By Kate Holden & Rebecca McCarthy
Valley of the Shadow by Anna Fitzpatrick

Shop – Origins

Features five self-contained short comics by Anna Fitzpatrick, Sally Jane Thompson, Kate Holden, Rebecca McCarthy,  and Sarah Burgess.

130 Pages.

Shop – Legends

Aer is the most talked about superhero of her generation, smart and powerful she has defeated many a villain. But very little is known about her. Where did she come from? where did she get her powers why does she fight?

Doug is an under achieving journalist whose life has been consumed by an obsession with Aer. When he literally finds the right kind of dirt on her, he realises he has the leverage he needs to get the worlds first exclusive on the elusive heroine.

What happens when Aer finally lets someone in?

24 pages B/W A4.

Story by Rebecca McCarthy Art by Chris Pullen

Shop-Heavier than Aer

IndieManga will be at the MCM Expo at table K4 29th and 30th October ( Saturday and Sunday, Friday is looking unlikely).

We have 2 new books out, if you can’t make it they will be available to order from IndieManga.com after the con:

Heavier than Aer ( A4 28 pages black and white)

By Rebecca McCarthy Art By Chris Pullen

Aer is the most talked about superhero of her generation, smart and powerful she has defeated many a

villain. But very little is known about her. Where did she come from? Where did she get her powers why does she fight?

Doug is an under achieving journalist whose life has been consumed by an obsession with Aer. When he

literally finds the right kind of dirt on her, he realises he has the leverage he needs to get the worlds first

exclusive on the elusive heroine.

What happens when Aer finally lets someone in?

Fan Dan Go volume 1

Story and Art Kate Holden

Over 100 full colour pages plus extras, collects chapters 1-3 of the web comic

Fan Dan Go’ is an action comedy comic set in the Retropunk Fantasy land of ‘Anglise’, a magical alternative version of 70′s England. It’s about the adventures of a group of hip young Knights trying to keep the peace and make a living.

IndieManga at MCM Expo!

With the relaunch of the site, I felt it was a good time to start with some fresh tutorials. Manga from Scratch was a bit old, a bit verbose and not clearly planned.  So I’m doing some new ones. This is ‘Make Great Comics’, and this is our first instalment: Concept.

One of the questions often asked of creators is ‘where do you get your ideas?’ The idea or concept is simultaneously the most and least valuable commodity in the creative process. Obvious without ideas we are nothing, a good idea is a wonderful thing, after all, but in the end, it is an insubstantial concept and its success depends heavily on the execution. An idea that never gets made into something that can be shared is functionally worthless, a good idea drawn and written badly is a waste and meanwhile, a very dull sounding idea can transcend its humble foundation through excellent writing and art. Ideas are literally the stuff of dreams.

-How do I come up with good ideas?

The first thing should always be to consider what you find interesting.  A place, a feeling, an action, it could be anything. Have you ever been just in a place and seen something interesting and your thoughts have gone off on a strange tangent? Or observed something in your life that your mind squirrels away for later? A good creator sees gaps and oddities and thematic links between things.  You need to open your mind to those links and start thinking ‘outside the box’ to use a horribly clichéd term. Personally I like to start with spider diagrams! I love spider diagrams! You start with a word and come up with words relating to that word, and words related to those words, spinning out a web of fascinating links and ideas. Let’s demonstrate here. I’ve given myself the starter word ‘Chess’:

This is just a small, quick one (five minutes or so). There are avenues I haven’t explored such as ‘game’ and ‘man vs computer’, but this is just to show you how it works. As you can see, a pretty basic one word idea has taken us to some very interesting places. Our chess themed comic could be about a working class black guy fighting an unending struggle for social mobility against a society run by powerful white people. It could be a fantasy story about a Knight who has a strange, pathological desire to take the most convoluted path they’re presented with, unable to settle down and take the simple ‘straight ahead’ road. It could be a story about a Woman who has to work twice as hard as her male counterpart and achieves far more, yet is never seen as important. It could be a story about a battle that keeps being fought, yet both sides forget it has taken place the next day and go to fight again. All this from just the name of a boardgame! Try taking a word you like, or flicking to a random dictionary page, and seeing where your spider takes you.

-Idea Katamari

I have a few comics which I call ‘Katamari Comics’. A Katamari is a ball of collected bits and bobs, like in the video game ‘Katamari Damarshii’. Sometimes I have an odd idea, and I think hmm, that is an interesting idea, but on its own it’s not really enough to make a whole comic about, so I file it in my head and/or write it down in my ‘ideas book’. If I come up with another idea that is of a similar ilk, I may tack on other ideas to it, creating a resulting combination of ideas. My webcomic is just like this. It’s a combination of a couple of characters I came up with for another comic which had a very lacklustre concept so didn’t make, but liked the two knights (Rekki and Subo) mixed with a desire to make something that was like a shounen action manga but with a female lead and aimed at a more female audience, mixed with an idea for a fantasy setting where it’s the 1960s/70s.

-Idea Books and Boards

It’s a good idea and very inexpensive to get a book or a computer folder set up for jotting down ideas and collecting inspiring images.  I use mine to record interesting thoughts, concepts, things I’ve seen in dreams, character ideas, word play, mythology… Just about anything I think is interesting! Any old notepad from a stationary shop will do. Just keep it to hand. Look for thematic links between your concepts, read lots of books, try different hobbies and visit interesting places. There is inspiration everywhere if you just look for it.

Make Great Comics! Part 1: Concept and Brainstorming

The old shop is now offline, the new (and I hope easier to use) Pay Pal shop will be up after Expo, when we can divide up new stock. This Expo will be really interesting

Shop offline

You don’t have to spend a fortune finding the good software and tools for writing comics. A lot is available for free. Here I’ll briefly guide you through my favourites.

Libreoffice – Libreoffice has basically taken open over from Open Office as the free alternative to Microsoft office. So if you want a decent quality free word processor I highly recommend it.

Celtx - Celtx can technically be used to manage the creation of a whole project. There are places to add character bios. In fact it automatically tracks new characters. I use it mainly for it’s script writer, it also has a dedicated graphic novel export format which exports comic scripts into table like formats, dividing each panel up into different boxes.

After the Deadline a free spelling and grammar checker that you can get both as a Libreoffice plug-in and as a web browser plug-in. It’s grammar checking is really intelligent and I find it much faster and more accurate than other similar tools. If you’re worried about your writing being sent off to their server to check you can also host it on your own server.

Wikidpad I’ve not had a chance to use this and compare it with Celtx’s project management tools, but those of you writing longer more complex stories might want to give this a go. It basically creates a wiki locally on your system, so you can create universe ‘bibles’ , to keep track of stories, research etc.

Useful tools to use when writing comics