When most people think of watercolors, the image that comes to mind is a very "loose" style of painting with washes of translucent color giving an implied image with a large portion of the natural paper showing through when finished.

In my paintings I strive for photo-realism that uses shadow and light to give the paint...ing a sense of depth and life. The combination of traditional translucent watercolors and "gouache", and opaque water-base paint helps achieve the desired result.

Today I have begun to take the painting from the sketch stage to the painting stage. I began by wetting the previously applied watercolor pencil to blend the colors and create a base for the subsequent layers of gouache.

The facial features begin to come to life and develop a three-dimensional feel. Once this layer has dried I iron the paper to reduce curling or buckling of the paper which would cause running and puddles resulting in distortion of future layers of paint.