Experiments and self portrait in water colour

About a year ago I got the sudden inclination to start experimenting with water colour. It's been a while since I've worked with it so I started off with painting according to some instruction videos on youtube (gotta loove youtube!).

Here's the result of one of those video instructions:

Not too bad for a first try I think. What I really liked with this was that it was all different shades of the same colour mix. I used only blue and black and made different amounts of water to create the different shades. It was really fun to do!

After that, I decided to go a little hard core and do a self portrait, as you do 😎
I was inspired by the book "Skin - the Song of Kendra" by Ilka Tampke which I had just read. It is about a young girl in celtic Britain, with elements of both history and fantasy, which I love! Definitely a book worth reading!
Anyway, the celtic mythology and art has always fascinated me so I used some celtic patterns in the water colour along with some nature elements around the actual portrait. Below you can see the progress from a few of my sessions. Took much longer than I anticipated.

Session 1.

Session 2.

Session 4.

Session 7.

And done!

I would probably have worked a bit more on the hair, but the paper was already "full" with colour so I decided to stop before I accidentally ruined it.

This portrait now hangs in my father's home, much to his delight. 😊