Mini Portraits

 Hello there,

 

I hope you are feeling well and have lots to be thankful for today.

 Recently, I came across an artist on social media who was challenging herself to do 100 mini watercolour (wc) painting in 2025. I have been wanting to improve my portrait drawing/painting skills, so I thought I'd take the challenge to make 100 (or as close as I can get) mini portraits this year. I started a couple weeks ago and I can see an improvement already.

These are the first four.

The idea is to learn from my mistakes and highlight what I like about each one. For instance, I like the highlights in the first painting (top left) and the hair in the fourth painting (bottom right).

Fifth portrait, stage one.

I did my fifth portrait on March 25. This time I decided to use a reference photo. The results are better, but not a good likeness. I tried to 'fix' it and ended up overworking the piece, a very easy thing to do with watercolour. However, I really like the nose in the final piece.

My sixth mini portrait is of my son. My painting is a younger version of him, but I think I've caught his essence. It's not a super good likeness, but he is recognizable. I'm encouraged by how much I've improved in such a few weeks and only six paintings.

I find it much less daunting to do these mini paintings (3x3) than to tackle a full-sized portrait. It also helps my expensive Arches paper (a Christmas gift from my husband) to go much further.

How about you? Would you consider doing a similar challenge? Leave me a comment. I'd love to hear from you.

 

Blessings,

Teresa