Faces of Summer

World Watercolor Month has now come to an end. I did not complete a watercolor each day. I didn’t even come close.

At the time WWM began, I had just started working on watercolor portraits, so I knew that’s what I wanted to do for the challenge. You probably remember the portrait I did for the first prompt word – rejoice.

I loved that bright, shiny face looking toward the light. I loved the thought of the sun on my face, summer days, memories of climbing trees, playing with friends, and enjoying every minute of summer vacation. That idea, I decided, would become my theme for July’s World Watercolor Month.

Not just portraits, but portraits of children, a series I called “Faces of Summer”. I began with my “watercolor warm-up” time each morning, splashing colors on paper and then allowing it to dry. Next I drew the images — which was sometimes a bit tricky because of the underlying colors. Finally, I painted the faces. Some turned out better than others. That’s to be expected when doing a series of any sort.

I’m not showing all of my “faces of summer” here. Some were just too awful to share. Despite the results, I’ve enjoyed working on this series. Initially I thought I would continue the project even after the final day of World Watercolor Month. It is, after all, still summer.

But today I decided to set the project aside. I’ve learned a lot from it, and I’m ready to move on to other things. I have several oil paintings in progress, Inktober will be coming up before we know it, and I’m devoting a lot of time to graphite drawing, too. In other words, my focus is shifting away from watercolor toward other media.

So, I have only a few “Faces of Summer” to show. If you pull each portrait up individually, you will see it captioned with the WWM prompt word it represents.

Favorite Color

Quiet

Playful

Fall

Rejoice

 

The additional image — featured on the post — is the summer sun itself, shining down upon us, giving us warmth, giving us light.

 

I hope everyone is staying safe and well this summer.