Gouache, my current love

 

acorn study in art journal

Left is gouache, right is traditional transparent watercolor. Lately, I am enjoying gouache. It reminds me of oil painting with out the hassle of oils. Painted in my art journal. 

What's everyone up to for 2021 with their art? I am in a weird place. Not feeling compelled to do much art at the moment. I was with kids for almost 3 weeks and did no art. Reading a lot since I got home.

I know the spark will return. It always does. I will be in the fallow for now. It's OK. I am familiar with this and it no longer scares me. I used to think this was  permanent place. But I have learned, over time, that it is not. It's a respite. So I will repose. 

Happy Painting in the meantime. 

Not much painting these days

My muse comes and goes with the seasons. I used to fight it and it would frustrate me. No more. So these days I have been doing crafting and not fine art. I love both. I know the fine art will cycle around again when it is ready to appear. In the meantime, have a look at my fun crafting. I do love paper crafting! 

This is the last thing I painted- not finished. I wanted to see if I could make the watermelon look "wet". I used gouache for this. I think I finished it but didn't take a picture. 

Happy Painting!

sunny side up

sunny side up

gouache

5.5" x 8" in art journal

I was cooking this egg and loved the little bubbles that were going on around the edge. So before I flipped it over (I like over medium), I took a snapshot of the egg in the pan. I painted this in my art journal using mostly gouache and a bit of watercolor. I am pleased with the bubbles. I also like the color I achieved in the yolk.

Christmas Cardinal

In my mind, Cardinals and Christmas go together. Not sure why. I painted this this week in gouache on paper in one of my art journals.

Happy painting!

Holly and berries in gouache

A very quick study of holly with berries in gouache. I think it's a little over worked. Learning gouache is a journey. It's very different from transparent watercolors.

I have holly bushes in my front gardens. I love them! This being a fairly new house, they were planted as small babies and have grown quite a bit. This is the first time they now have red berries. So happy! It's the small things in life that make a difference.

Happy painting!

gouache landscape of rocks

landscape

gouache on paper

5x8 journal

Pure fun and experiment with no thought to the outcome. I concentrated on getting the values of the rocks correct. I did this fast and furious. Well, furious for me...lol

Playing with gouache

ice cream 

gouache on paper

3x5

As gouache and watercolors are different, but similar, I like to play with my new gouache paints. I find them juicy and luscious. This little experiment was the last page of my small 3x5 journal. Now onto my new 8x5 journal, which will seem huge after painting in my little guy for this summer.

For a reference photo I used one from Dreama. I love her colorful style. Someday I want to take one of her online oil painting courses.  Her color palette is colorful, happy and bright. I just love it.

happy sunflowers

sunflowers

goauche on paper

Another experiment using colors in the background that I don't normally use. So I added pinks and blues in the background. I think it adds to the 'happiness factor' in this little painting. What do you think?

Happy Painting!

Avocado

Avocado 

gouache on paper

in my art journal

I had lunch today with a friend. We both had a delicious egg sandwich with avocado on the toast. Yum... So I painted this tonight. I used gouache and tried to convey that buttery consistency of an avocado and the shiny look of the pit. I love painting in gouache.
Happy painting!

Water water everywhere...

water and jelly fish 

gouache on paper

3.5x5.5

I experimented last night creating water. I bought a new gouache color called Marine Blue by Daler-Rowney and it begged to be used. I used several different colors of green and blue to make the water. I added the jelly fish with white gouache that was tinged with a tiny bit of blue. I can see this used in card making as well, as a background. 

Happy Painting!

copying to learn a medium

limited palette of colors

copy of Julian Merrow -Smith's painting

My new gouache paints arrived and I could not be happier. I ordered a limited palette of cools and darks of each primary plus black and white to get me started. Looking for something to paint I chose an oil painting by an artist whose blog I follow, Julian Merrow-Smith. He is a British painter who lives in Provence and posts daily paintings he produces. I find copying a good painting helps me to improve my skills.

This painting so captures for me, the beauty of Provence. I learned a lot from this painting. For one, I have to get away from my mind in what I 'think' a tree looks like as my tree looks to be from the USA and not France. And my darks are not dark enough. But I am pleased with my first go round with a professional grade of gouache. All the greens had to be mixed, as my limited set contains no green.

Happy Painting!

falling in love with gouache

Italian countryside in Tuscany

gouache on paper

3.5" x 5" sketch journal

I love gouache! I decided to give it another go. I have a very old set of cheap student grade gouache and I hunted it down. I mean cheap! I think I paid $6.00 for a set of 16!  But they still worked. I am trying to remember why I originally bought them. (It will come to me at 3 am.) So I started playing. I used a reference photo from my recent Italy trip.  I love them! I love that they are opaque. That you can layer. That you can lift off. That you can paint impasto or like transparent watercolor.
That in some ways they are like acrylic/oil when you paint with less water. But that once dry, you can fiddle more if you want. I think I have found my favorite medium. I have painted in transparent watercolors for many years and I usually had a tube of white gouache around to add a highlight here and there, but that was my extent of how I used it.

So I ordered a new set today. I think the set I currently have is over 12 years old and several of the tubes are dried out. But I was even able to cut open the dry tubes and re hydrate them. My new set arrives Saturday. (Don't you LOVE Amazon??) The new set is a professional grade paint and I can't wait to see how much better gouache can be.I can't wait.

I wanted to show you my very cool palette. It's an old milk glass egg  holder I found on eBay. How cool is that? It it perfect for any water media. I've decided to dedicate it to my new gouache obsession.

Happy painting!


#gouache  #gouachepainting