Draw a colourful whimsical girl for your art journal

January 27, 2021

In this tutorial, our ambassador Tammy Klingner @tambarambaa will show you how to paint a whimsical, colourful girl!

Are you new with whimsical portraits? don't worry, you'll get the hang of it in no time.

Gather your supplies, you will need your Life of Colour watercolour brush pens, the refillable water brush that comes with the set, and mixed media paper. You can also get the Paper and Watercolour pens Bundle

You will also need a paint palette with compartments, pencil, eraser and your black fine point paint pen.

You've never used your watercolour brush pens? Learn basic watercolour brush pens techniques you'll love, beginner friendly, easy to do for all ages!

Begin by drawing an oval face, and divide in half both ways.

Divide bottom half in half and then add another line slightly higher than half that.

Draw the face. As it’s whimsical it doesn’t require exactness or complete features. Experiment with different sizes and placement for the face features

Lightly sketch flowy hair, draw the character's neck and top.

Use your black watercolour pen to outline your sketch. Only outline parts of the features, as shown.

Next, go over lines with your water brush (note, you must untwist the cap and fill the transparent barrel of the water brush with water before using).

You want this to move a little and have more water in some sections so the line is varied. We don’t want it precise and perfect at this stage!

Let the watercolour dry off, or speed the process by using a heat gun or hair dryer before moving on to the next step.

Notice some of the black has been moved into certain areas for shadows.

Time to add subtle colour!

Scribble into paint palette with a watercolour pen. Some of the pigment will show in the bottom of the palette.

Now pick this up using your water brush and apply to small parts of face. Using your watercolor brush pens it’s just like using traditional watercolour paints!!

You can even mix colours. Eg: I mixed light blue and lime to make aqua.