A wedding is always a great opportunity to do some people watching and people sketching. This painting was worked from a photograph. A bride is always a lovely subject to paint or draw.  

We were drawing and painting portraits in the classroom today and this was my chosen subject. Three female smiling faces, all happy and pretty. When a female smiles we see a wide shape that usually shows the full row/s of teeth. When drawing and painting teeth it is the negative space around the teeth that you use to make the shapes of the teeth. I often impress into the paper the shape of the teeth as well. Differing skin tones, even on skin that has make up applied, gives great opportunities to mix your own skin types. Skin comes in all colours so you can really experiment with reds, blues, greens and yellows. Any of these colours mixed with a base skin tone will give you some very pleasing tones for various parts of a face, neck arms etc.  

Painting sparkly material: I use magic pearls, interference acrylics, and also glitter glue.  

When painting small portraits the fine detail of line can be tricky. What I generally use is a graphite pencil to complete any fine line, right at the end of the painting. I have experimented with all types of pens over time but the graphite can be far more subtle and unobtrusive on skin tone. If you start introducing hard thicker lines you will age the subject. 

When painting hair always under colour with skin tone, work from light to dark.