Painting size limitations with gouache? - WetCanvas: Online Living for Artists

This topic has 14 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 9 months ago by AllisonR.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

Author

Posts
April 12, 2017 at 11:30 pm #995017
DougInNC
Default
Just started trying out gouache after trying for a year or 2 to wrap my brain around watercolor’s working from light to dark process. I was attracted to gouache from watching James Gurney’s YouTube videos and I do like it so far. Reminds me of my experimentation with oil painting as a teen, minus the mess and l-o-n-g drying times.

However, I have yet to see any examples anywhere of works larger than, oh, 6″x9″.

Is it limited to only sketches, or small finished pieces? That’s not necessarily a deal breaker for me, but it likely means I’ll have to keep looking for the media that works for me in larger sizes, or bite the bullet and learn to adapt to what seriously feels like trying to paint backwards in watercolor. If I could produce anything like Gurney’s work, I’d be content painting small pieces for a few years at least.

If anyone can point me to examples of larger gouache works (if there are any) I’d appreciate it.

Thanks,
Doug
April 13, 2017 at 3:09 am #1268305
Yorky Administrator Ormskirk
Default
What attracted me to gouache apart from James Gurney’s plein air gouache was seeing an 18×24 inch detailed gouache painting in the local Palette Club exhibition. So I would say there are no reasons why you couldn’t paint large.

The painting I saw was behind glass, but another idea is to paint on a Gallery Wrapped watercolour paper and protect the painting with Dorland Wax so it needs no frame. Apparently they sell very well, CharM is a proponent of this technique.

Gallery wrapped “canvasses” are made by stretching your watercolour paper over a frame or better still a cheap blank canvas. See the Watercolor Handbook link in my signature for Gallery Wrapping and Dorland Wax instructions.

Doug

We must leave our mark on this world
April 19, 2017 at 4:03 pm #1268317
Boafamily
Default
24″x12″

24″x36″

16″x40″

48″x60″

Doug,

Here are 4 quick examples that I have created, so be encouraged.

www.anthonykwilson.net
April 19, 2017 at 4:05 pm #1268306
Yorky Administrator Ormskirk
Default
Wow! Love that explosion.

Doug

We must leave our mark on this world
April 19, 2017 at 5:28 pm #1268318
Boafamily
Default
Thanks Doug

www.anthonykwilson.net
April 21, 2017 at 10:06 am #1268314
DougInNC
Default
Boafamily:

Thanks for sharing your fascinating work as examples of larger format gouache paintings. Your paintings are mesmerizing! I must say I had this overwhelming urge to try refocusing my eyes to reveal a hidden 3D image. (Anyone besides me remember those?)

Doug… the North Carolina one
April 25, 2017 at 11:19 am #1268316
Boafamily
Default
DougInNC I remember those all to well my friend thanks.

www.anthonykwilson.net
June 4, 2017 at 12:43 pm #1268309
Old Tex
Default
I’ve been away from WC for quite a while and found myself browsing the forums this morning. This thread caught my eye. I started painting little 5×7 gouache landscapes and when I jumped to 8×10, it seemed huge. Over the past few years, I’ve worked as large as 16×20 and even 18×24. As with any medium, the larger size requires some adjustments, but it’s easily done. If you go to my site at https://ralphparkerart.com/gallery-1/, and scroll down you’ll see some of the larger pieces. I always like to direct gouache folks to the work of Gordon Snidow ( http://www.gordonsnidow.com/about.asp ) and go to the bottom of his “About” page, there are some interesting notes about his work methods. (It’s been awhile… I hope I put the links in correctly).

[FONT=Arial Narrow]RALPH

[FONT=Arial Narrow]My Art Showcase blog: www.ralphparkerart.wordpress.com
[FONT=Arial Narrow]My Everything Else blog: www.ralphparker.wordpress.com
June 4, 2017 at 2:08 pm #1268307
Yorky Administrator Ormskirk
Default
Hi Ralph, I have been following your blogs for years and love what you do.

I have been doing gouache ATC size paintings and they are very acceptable.

Doug

We must leave our mark on this world
June 15, 2017 at 1:49 pm #1268311
Barbareola
Default
Carl Brenders is a wildlife painter who paints in watercolour and gouache. He ist truly fantastic! I had the opportunity to see paintings of him last year. One was 21 by 36 inches according to his website and at the exhibition there were even two paintings that were even larger.

Such large paintings will need a lot of paint and that won’t be cheap, but yeah, can be done.
June 19, 2017 at 12:50 am #1268312
Merritt
Default
This is one of my gouache landscapes, its 50cmx32cm on 300 gsm Archers, Its a real pity you all can’t see the very fine detail of this painting (hard to show you when limited to this 800pix limitation) I have used Goo for decades and there is no limitation to size that I know I have painted up to A1 but I’m sure some have done pieces larger than that it all comes down to time,expense and affordability of materials. For what its worth, I only use Winsor & Newton designers Gouache when I paint Goo, IMO you can’t buy a better produce for this medium.

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.
June 19, 2017 at 12:55 am #1268313
Merritt
Default
One of my landscapes its 50cm x 32cm in Gouache I have painted up to A1 …..Pity we have this 800pix restriction in posting picks the resolution was allowed to be higher you would see the very fine details in this work but restrictions are restrictions!

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.
June 19, 2017 at 1:01 am #1268308
Yorky Administrator Ormskirk
Default
You can always post crops of your work showing the detail.

Doug

We must leave our mark on this world
July 1, 2017 at 10:21 am #1268310
paletteone
Default
Go check out this site. Daniel Tennant paints gouache up to 30″ x 40″. Also check out Ted Nasmiths site, he uses guache exclusviely for his LOTR work. His work ranges from small thumbnails to 20″ x 30″

http://www.tednasmith.com/

http://www.danielktennant.com/artwork/photorealism/index.html

So much to paint, so little time.

http://www.nlisinski.com
July 3, 2017 at 7:23 pm #1268315
DougInNC
Default
Thanks, everyone, for all the responses and the references to examples. It was beginning to look to me like gouache artists switched to oils when they chose a large format. James Gurney appears to be an example of this. Not that that’s a bad thing but I gave up oil painting when I realized I would never be without at least 1-2 cats in the house. 😉 I look forward to browsing all the works you’ve pointed me to.

Doug
Author

Posts