Warmth in Watercolor: Paint a Luminous Portrait with Kayoko Takahashi Gentry
Learn a patient, layered approach to capturing a striking profile bathed in warm light.
In this watercolor portrait lesson (64 mins), Kayoko Takahashi Gentry walks you through her patient, layered approach to capturing a striking profile bathed in warm light.
Starting with a rough pencil sketch on cold press paper, Kayoko builds her subject’s luminous skin tone through successive transparent washes, softly blending edges and lifting highlights with precision.
She demonstrates how to mix reds, yellows, and blues into glowing midtones and deep, expressive shadows, carefully controlling moisture on the brush and paper to shape the planes of the face.
As the lesson progresses, you’ll learn how to preserve the light by intentionally leaving areas untouched, then deepen contrast with richer pigments and subtle edge control.
Kayoko’s signature warmth and attention to color harmony extend into the background and abstracted clothing, where she shifts into freer, expressive brushwork. The result is a radiant, elegant portrait that glows from within—a study in both technical layering and creative interpretation.
Ready to warm up your canvas with Kayoko? Let's get started!
