Find Artistic Freedom through Creative Constraint with Kirsten Britt

In this lesson (71 mins), you'll learn how a meticulous underdrawing and a limited painting palette can lead to a surprisingly subtle and expressive ink-and-watercolor portrait.

From start to finish, artist Kirsten Britt shares her process of depicting a mature muse whose wild hair, deep-set wrinkles, and joyous smile suggest a life story worthy of your canvas.

The core of this lesson is about liberation through limitation. When you aren't managing twenty different tubes of paint, you are forced to rely on the foundation of your drawing to do the heavy lifting.

• The Ink Foundation: Learn to use a Pigma Micron pen to plot head shapes and features without the ability to erase, forcing an honest, loose approach to the contours of the nose, eyes, and "dog leg" shadows of the face.

• The Two-Tone Strategy: Kirsten limits her palette to just Perylene Violet and Payne’s Grey Bluish, demonstrating how two colors are sufficient to establish weight, depth, and temperature without overcomplicating the wash.

• Highlighting with Intent: Instead of relying on the paper's white, you'll use a white gel pen or gouache to pull specific highlights—like the thin stretch of a bottom lip or the "whispy" energy of hair—out of the toned paper.
• Character over Perfection: The goal is to capture an "essence" or a "flavor" of the subject through cross-hatching and wiggly lines rather than striving for a photographic, polished finish.

By the end of this session, you’ll see how a "less is more" philosophy prevents overworking and helps you ground the portrait in a unified, sophisticated mood.

Ready to free yourself up through creative constraint? Let's get started!