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Freda Anderson demonstration Watercolour Portrait, 20 October 2009 Visit her at www.fredaanderson.co.uk
	Freda said that much of this evening's advice would apply to other types of painting. But for portraits, where a likeness is essential, she finds that the initial drawing is the absolutely essential foundation. She starts in pencil on thin layout paper. When she is satisfied with the likeness she traces it to the position she wants on the final support. A light touch is necessary, otherwise you dent the paper. Using the tracing as a guide Freda then redraws on the final support with watercolour pencil, again lightly, but correcting wherever the likeness is unsatisfactory. The final redraw is with a brush, making further corrections to the pencil drawing. All the time it is invaluable to refer back to the source (model or photo) so that errors are not reinforced.
Freda likes to be at about the same level as the sitter. The pencil drawing had been finished before the demo (Freda's time was limited by the AGM ). Her drawing procedure is to start with a couple of marks to define the height of the head and an oval for the general shape (round? angular? pointed?). Marks for the features are then made as if it were a normal face but adjusted where the subject differs.	The essense is repeated measurement and lots of practice. After getting the general shape down, her routine is: a line for the middle of the face; eyes around half way down (above or below as the subject is above or below the artist); top of eyebrows, bottom of nose and bottom of chin equally spaced, with bottom of bottom lip half way between; width of eyes and space between eyes about equal (wider spaced in Africans); width of nose equal to space between eyes, width of mouth equal to space between pupils; ears extend from eye-level to nostrils, but drop with age; eyebrows are very distictive, nostril shapes too, defining if the nose is retrousée; eyelids almost disappear in older people; lip shapes differ but are nowhere near as important as the shape of line between the lips; finally, shape the hair-line and neck.
A little masking fluid for highlights makes the initial washes easier but if you are not too much of a purist you can use white acrylic gouache at the end. Once the features are accurately placed and the brush is in use Freda starts adding shadow (indigo and a madder brown) and then touches of colour. Shade and colour were built up in multiple glazes, remembering such things as darkening the whites of the eyes, not overdoing the colour of the lips and checking repeatedly against the subject.
The end of the demo, here, will require a little more work: perhaps some splatter into the background and some wet paint, for more runs, to make the (accidental) run look intentional. There are a couple more of Freda's demos at www.fcsaonline.org.uk/History/Anderson/Anderson.htm

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