Experiments

Here I began playing with different kinds of paint to see what kind out outcome I would have. I began with watercolour  and started using it in several different ways, one of the techniques I tried was with beginning with the paper being wet, and painting the base colour of the portrait and allowing it to settle then painting over the top of it to create a layered effect. 

I then tried on dry paper just trying to get an outline which was much more difficult because it made me more conscious of making mistakes. After trialling that I found it easier to start making the most of the mistakes and then at a later stage I began to paint over them and starting to remake layers and work with tone and intensity. 

As you can see I later tried acrylic paints which I was new to working with. I chose to use very few colours so that I could create a good tone for the skin colour and so that you could see where the shading  was, I then chose to ink over the top of it to create a mix of texture but I'm not sure I like the overall effect because I don't think the mix compliments each other well, so the combination seems to clash.