Written by Been interested in how people handle portraits in doodlewash, so today I’m featuring these wonderful watercolored people by Sarah Cruz from the Philippines (follow her on Instagram @sarahcruz.24). She is currently a pharmacist and says she’s “not sure why” but is definitely planning to embrace and live as an artist someday.
Sarah says, “I’ve drawn since I was young, 4 or 5, and I’ve always drawn people (from Japanese anime to Disney-style cartoons to realistic portraits in high school, but stopped for years after I went to college.” She didn’t know that pharmacy courses could be so time-demanding.
Sarah had always used dry medium (graphite, charcoal, colored pencils, markers). She’s always enjoyed looking at watercolor illustrations and had tried many times to use it but that only led to frustration. Using dry medium she became used to realism and liked the full control she felt holding pencils and how they don’t flow wherever they wanted like watercolor.
At the same time, “it’s the freedom of watercolor to flow wherever they want and blend in beautifully that made me love it so much! Plus, I’m lazy, so watercolor is really advantageous on covering/coloring large parts compared to the point of a pencil. So on the latter part of 2014, I decided for the nth time to try watercolor and this time there’s no turning back!”
She’s glad that as freely as the watercolor flows, she’s managed to free herself from the notion of perfection that she’d set for herself. “I have the bad habit of re-drawing portraits even up to six times until they are perfectly the same as my reference. Although realism is not bad, using watercolor I’ve learned that if I want perfect resemblance or hyper-realism, a camera would have done a better job. I was reminded that I want to paint people so the outcome should be a painting of people.”
When Sarah started she used the grid method, then moved on to her current method of draw, erase, draw, erase and draw again until she can get the resemblance that she wants. “I sometimes start with the circle for the head but mostly, I start with the eyes before the whole head.”
I highly recommend you follow Sarah on Instagram or check out her blog on Tumblr. She also sketches bits of everyday life, which are equally awesome. Thanks so much for being part of Doodlewash, Sarah, and we can’t wait to see more of your watercolored people in the future!
…wonderful work
Sarah is pretty great eh? I wish I could sketch people this well!
Those are pretty awesome! Definitely following her on Instagram!
Awesome!! Yay! Please DO! She’s great!
Just did! 🙂
Just lovely <3
Fantastic!
Thank you for sharing these sensitive water colors. There is always so much to learn from one another.
Thanks so much Sharon! I totally feel that way. I’ve made it a mission to find and share fabulous watercolors that people may not have seen yet, so we can all learn something new together! And meet wonderful new people! Sarah is awesome!! Definitely check out her Instagram feed! 🙂
Thanks Charlie, you are providing a wonderful opportunity for all of us. I did visit Sarah’s Instagram and I’m in awe!
Thanks! Glad you like it. There’s only one problem though. Something is missing from the Guest Posts. YOU!! Hehe When am I featuring Sharon Mann? 😉
You are so sweet! I’d be honored anytime. 😍
Cool! Yay! Just shoot me a note via my Let’s Connect link and I can give you the details of what I need to make a post! 😃
Will do!
I enjoyed this article Charlie,Sarah does beautiful work..I am enjoying being part of the doodlewash community and the guest artists stories…Thank you so much..