Process of my self portrait in watercolor!

This is a piece I created a couple of months ago using watercolors, ink, and color pencils. Its a fairly basic composition of myself and a small hummingbird in front of me with a blank background. I started this piece by taking a reference photo of the pose I wanted to use.
I changed the saturation of the photo to black and white because it helps me personally develop a better sense of the values.
I then proceed to sketch out the very basic outlines of my face.

Once the sketch is complete I begin to apply a light wash of skin tone. With watercolors I generally work from the lightest values to the darkest. For some instances I have to let the layer dry before applying another one but there are also moments in which I work while its still damp.

Once the watercolor layers have dried I outline it with a black ink pen and then start adding more detailed layers with color pencils. When I am satisfied with the way it looks I then add abstract patterns and lines on the entire portrait. I feel that doing this gives it some unique character and a sense of motion. When I completed the self portrait I added in a hummingbird just off of my imagination. I’ve drawn hummingbirds very often so the image is already engraved in my subconscious. I did the same process for the hummingbird, working from light to dark then outlining it with abstract lines.

And there you have it! A quick little preview into some of my mixed media art! I hope you have enjoyed seeing the process and I thank you for taking the time to go through my post! May you have a wonderful moment wherever you may be, one love!

-Eddie Martinez
E T E R N O

(Here is also another self portrait of mine but in graphite)