Day 293 "Eye Practice a la Charles Reid' 9 x 12 . watercolor & ink - Step by Step

I began an oil painting this morning, and within a half hour, the island was fogged in.  Not in the mood to paint fog, I broke out my fabulous "Portrait Painting in Watercolor" book by Charles Reid, Watson Guptill, 1973, inherited from my mother's library.  I need a lot of practice with portraits, using watercolor wet in wet, and drawing the features of the face.  So I spent the afternoon following Charles Reid's steps for painting the eye.  

I began with an ink contour drawing, put fifteen of them on the page and here is the result.  As you can see, I have a lot of inconsistency in value and edge control but can see some successes. Below you can see my progress from the initial drawings, and I added Charles Reid's step by step illustrations below.  Very interesting exercise!

Fifteen Contour Drawings

This is my two hundred ninety-third daily drawing.  I tried Charles Reid's steps for painting mouths back at Drawing 229 and certainly need more practice.  I am enjoying the exercise!! 

Thank you for your continued attention and interest.

Add a wash over each

After the first six

Here are Charles Reid's steps.  I added a note to myself after the third.