Blues Harmonica

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. When I decided to paint my harmonica instructors portrait it was obvious to me that I couldn't get everything I wanted in one image so this is what I came up with. His name is Nic Clark and he is a young star teaching at Swallow Hill here in Denver and playing and recording with different bands around the country. Anytime Nic has a harmonica in his hands he is happy and more than anything I wanted to capture that happiness in this painting. Only capturing a likeness doesn't interest me because I want that special something that sets the person apart from everyone else. Nic is so animated and full of life he was an excellent subject.

The drawings nearly drove me crazy as I used sight measuring from the photo's I had taken. The two workshops I took with Charles Reid were very helpful and I referred to his books a lot when I was painting. Starting with the portrait in the upper right corner seemed like a good idea because most of his face was covered with his hat. It took several layers of paint to get the hat the way I wanted and I used burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, and mineral violet. For skin tones on all three I used mixtures of yellow ochre, cadmium red, cobalt violet, rose dore, and mineral violet. It was the different combinations of these colors along with different values that gave volume to the hands and faces. Fortunately I have harmonica's of my own and a levi jacket much like the denim shirt that nick was wearing and I used those for reference.

For the harmonica's I used different shades of gray mixed with cerulean blue, cobalt violet, and yellow ochre and his shirt is ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, and Van Dyke brown with an emphasis on the blue. The stitching on the shirt is unpainted white paper and white opaque watercolor. Finally I didn't like all the unpainted white paper surrounding the portraits so I added a blue and violet wash here and there to tie the three portraits together. I have been living with this painting for a couple weeks making little adjustments here and there and studying the photo's. I see Nic every week in harmonica class and that has been helpful. If you would like to know more about painting portraits in watercolor I recommend the books by Charles Reid. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton