Japanese Style Watercolor Portraits provides the professional guidance and all of the expert tips and techniques you need to succeed at creating beautiful, realistic watercolor portraits.

With 48 step-by-step lessons covering tools, techniques, sketching, painting and finishing, this book takes you through each step of the watercolor portrait process. Author Hiroko Shibasaki provides expert guidance on the best materials to use along with many insightful tips that every artist should know.

The portraits presented in the 12 comprehensive painting tutorials express a distinctively Japanese aesthetic. The subjects in the foreground are rendered in exquisite detail, while the backgrounds are only subtly suggested. This technique places the emphasis on the masterful portraits, leaving it to the viewer's imagination to fill in the peripheral details.

The lessons in this book cover all the key topics, including:

• Working with a model
• Completing the sketch
• Preparing and mixing paints
• Blocking in skin tones
• Rendering details such as facial features, hairstyles and clothing
• Blending and shading the colors
  

ABOUT HIROKO SHIBASAKI

Hiroko Shibasaki is a Japanese artist who has worked primarily with watercolors since 2006. Her accolades include the 2011 Japan Watercolor Exhibition Incentive Award, the 2012 Japan Watercolor Exhibition Maruyama Banka Award, the 2017 Japan Watercolor Exhibition Alumni Incentive Award, and the 2019 Japan Watercolor Exhibition Prime Minister's Award. She is a member of the Japan Watercolor Painting Association and is a watercolor painting instructor at the college level. Shibasaki lives in Japan.