Sister Equinox

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at a portrait inspired by Vila Emme’s work on Instagram for a while now. The goal was to use a limited palette and let the water do its thing, without trying to control it, blend it, or erase its traces.

I was a little nervous about this project, but it actually turned out to be pretty fun. Of the three paintings I did for the challenge, this was the most enjoyable and the quickest to complete since I didn’t have any color requirements and used only three colors.

Below:

the pencil sketch

the result after 2 hours of painting (I deviated a bit from the original sketch, which I tried to correct afterward)

a little surgical mask to protect her from the paint splatters to come, haha

I used white gouache for the stars and highlights, but I had to go over them about 15 times because it wasn’t opaque enough. If anyone knows of an extra-fine white marker that’s super opaque, I’d love to hear about it!

I added a very subtle touch of metallic/glitter watercolor to the background, which you can't see at all in the photo, so I made a video so you can see it (you can barely see it lol):

I didn't dare put any on her face for fear of ruining the whole thing 😅