Art and Creativity: Star Gazers on my birthday (Watercolor Painting)

It was just two times when I received a bouquet of flowers on my birthday. I admit that I really love flowers. I love giving flowers to my mom and aunties during their birthdays. I also love to receive, but yeah apparently, I do not receive that much. #sourgripping haha!

The first one was during my debut celebration. I remember, I hurriedly went to the hotel from my major class when I was in third year college because the party will start in an hour. My mom kept calling me because I need to be dressed up and have my make up on before my debut celebration starts.

The second one was well, on my 24th birthday (this year) last June 23. I have not received flowers from my boyfriend and I felt bad. I think it was evident on my face that my brother was so concern with what I felt on that day. After having my simple birthday celebration with my family at Bigby's, my brother hurriedly took my hands. He took me to the flower shop inside the mall. He said, I should pick the flowers that I wanted. I pointed at those three star gazers.

The store keeper said it costs Php500.00 or $10. He nodded and took his wallet and paid the price for the flowers. In response, I giggled. I was really very happy. But probably more happy if I could grow those flowers in my garden.

He then took a photo of me holding those flowers.

I could still remember that day even until now. I could not help but smile on my brother's sweet gesture -- and because of that I wanted that memory to be kept not just on a digital copy. I wanted to paint that moment in my life and possibly frame it. Hence, I painted.

Before sharing my painting or my self-portrait holding those flowers, I will share to you the procedure.

Before sketchinf, I decided to savor that moment again and imagine how I looked. I was literally giggling at that moment.

I took my pencil from its case and started sketching myself. I made a round shape for my face and then carefully sketeched it. My face is round so I do not need to put some contour effects on my portrait. I was really at my happiest state at that moment so I made sure I made my eyes small like typical Asian eyes as what they call it. No offense meant. 😊

I also made three starfish shapes as well. These shapes will be the stargazers.

I started painting the corners of my face with yellow ochre watercolor mixed with a bit of brown. I made the side a bit darker to create some sort of illusion. Variety of hues of brown and flesh is also important so I mixed different colors as well for our palette.

I painted darker tones of brown and flesh below my lips, nose, and areas surrounding my eyes to make it a bit realistic. This is also to avoid a flat or no dimension artwork.

I also made sure not to cover my entire face with paint so that it would highlight my wide forehead and also my nose. If you can observe on photographs, there are areas in our forehead and nose that seem to shine.

I supposed I was done with the color of the face, I painted then my lips with light pink mixed with maroon. I also painted my brows with grey mixed with dark brown watercolor.

Using my thin brush, I painted my eyes with colors grey and black. My eyeballs do not seem to be present because my smile reached my eyes at that moment. I also started painting my hair with grey mixed with yellow ochre. I also painted it with brown, grey,and black to have variation of colors. In watercolor painting, and even in art entirely, one does not really need to copy the image reflected.

I added outlines on my hair and details using black paint.

I started painting the flowers then with white mixed with a little amount of grey because plain white looks so dull. I even painted my dress with a little bit of blue, although I was wearing white on that day.

I was almost through so I started painting the background with dark purple mixed with pink.

And now I am done with my self-portrait. I hope you enjoyed my simple tutorial on this simple watercolor painting of mine.

By the way, I am still accepting portrait commissions online for few amount of SBDs. This is for the benefit of chosen little children that I will be giving art materials. I hope I could still gain your support. Thank you so much and have a great day! It is already 4:41 in the morning here (December 7) and I need to sleep now. Bhu-bye!