Painting Portraits in Watercolour
Liz Chaderton
Strictly speaking, this is not a book about portraiture, and that's a good thing. What Liz Chaderton actually offers is a way of capturing facial character and avoiding the fine detail that would be required in a formal sitting. Liz uses washes, blending, wet-in-wet and some quite surprising colour choices tolife and character. This is not a substantial volume, but Crowood are adept at presenting all the material you need without crowding the page or leaving illustrations orphaned from the text. Although all the images here appear as if done from life, this is belied by the opening chapter, which explains in some detail how to work from photographs. This is typical of Liz's thorough approach, which includes advice on tone, colour, layering and mixed media. There is a welcome lack of fuss over facial details. Overall, a useful and enjoyable guide.
