In this class, we will be using basic watercolor techniques and just a few colors to create beautiful portraits of pets and animals. Pet portraits make great gifts and are one of the most popular subjects for commissioned artwork, so painting animals is a great skill for all artists to master. In the first part of this course, I will be demonstrating, in detail, the concepts and process for painting a cute, fuzzy kitten. After we’ve gone over this simple process which can be applied to painting any subject, we will move on to look at a few variations we encounter when painting animals — Spots, stripes, iridescence, and scales. I’ll discuss ways to change the background environment of your portrait as well as how to decide what to include or leave out of pet portraits. I will also show you a great technique for creating an ink underpainting for your watercolor portrait. Finally, there is a bonus video in which we review the watercolor painting process as applied to a horse and we’ll also discuss how to identify the “undertone” of your painting and how to use color in a way that promotes harmony throughout the composition.
All of the photo references I’ll be using in my demonstrations are available for you to download in the Projects section of this course. To access the Project section, you may need to log in to Skillshare on a browser if you do not see it in the Skillshare app.
The techniques and materials for this course are simple and minimal, and it is meant to be friendly for all skill levels. I hope you’ll join me in this course and I’d love to see your pet portraits posted in the Projects! I’m happy to give feedback and answer any questions you have!
