Watercolor Class with Stephie Butler

A class photo - I'm standing on the left, Suzanne, Melissa Fischer (organizer), another Pat, Joanna, Stephie Butler, ?
Seated are Pat (Melissa's mom), Joanna Lodewijks-Pijlman, Thaddeus (Melissa's brother), and Melissa's sister, whose name I've unfortunately forgotten.

Portrait of a Boy by Stephie Butler in watercolor (Note: all photographs can be enlarged by clicking on the image.)

I spent two wonderful days in Stephie Butler's watercolor portrait class last week and wish to share a little of my experiences there. Stephie (website: http://stephiebutlerstudio.wixsite.com/stephiebutler) is from Great Britain and only comes to the USA every so many years to teach her watercolor techniques, philosophy, color theory, and tips. So it was wonderful for me that I discovered her class just three weeks prior to her teaching within a reasonable driving distance of our home!

Below are images of a few of the watercolor paintings she brought along - or demonstrated during her teaching sessions while here. I love her loose style, although I discovered it's not so "loose" as it appears! It's well thought out ahead of time, I assure you!

This is her set-up, along with paint samples showing the basic 4-color skin mixture Stephie uses in the majority of her portraits.

These two color charts illustrate the varieties of skin tones Stephie employs in her portraiture. She uses one yellow with one red for nearly all the actual skin tones.

Then for shading, Stephie mixes mauve tones from various shades of blues and reds, as seen below.

Stephie Butler teaching & demonstrating watercolor portraiture last weekend in upstate NY

Joanna Lodewijks-Pijlman - wC painting above and completed below.

Below, are the two paintings that I completed - several others are "in progress!"

My completed watercolor using a photograph supplied by Stephie Butler.

MY second watercolor done using a photograph by Gunnar Salvarsson, with his permission. I altered it quite a bit, making the girl much older.