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Welcome to the wonderful world of gouache.
Gouache is opaque watercolour.
Handprint has a lovely little treatise on the history and properties.
Gouache shares many characteristics with transparent watercolour except:1. Opacity . This allows painting from dark to light in a similar manner to oil or acrylic painting. It is a delight.
2. It is very easily lifted when rewet. This is its challenge. It makes glazing difficult and blending difficult. However it does allow some mixing on the paper.
3.It dries more rapidly.
4.It dries to a matte finish.
Starting out with gouache :
BRUSHES
Ordinary watercolour sable brushes can be used though I find they hold too much water for my liking
prefer synthetics for the most part, though a tiny detail brush is natural fibre. I have also used a No 6 sable rigger with no dramas. These are my most used brushes …
I prefer a resealable Tupperware container. I can spritz the paint at the end of a session and close it and the paint will remain pliable for up to a week. Then I wash it out. Deborah Secor uses a butchers tray and lets the colours dry out. She squeezes fresh pigment when she needs it. A plain white plate would be appropriate too. Whatever you do, don’tuse a well palette and squeeze out all your colours into the wells. Gouache does rewet but fresh from the tube is richer.
PAPER
I only use Arches paper, usually cold press (as I have a lot of it) Rough or hotpress work well also. Mountboard can be used. Pastel papers can be used. Boards can be used.Paper can be gessoed first. With thicker applications of paint, flexiblebacking can cause cracking. I’ve not had the problem with Arches but it remainsa possibility. It is not wise to roll finished paintings.COLOURS TO GET STARTED
A primary palette of yellow, red or magenta, cobalt blue, black or Paynes grey and white. Yellow ochre is a good earth colour to have. My favourite landscape palette is paynes grey, white, cobalt blue, magenta and yellow ochre.
I use Lukas and Art Spectrum because of availability.
White is the colour you need most of so try for a larger tube. It is possible to use your watercolour pigments mixed with white and black. It is a bit wasteful of the much more expensive watercolour pigments though.Colour mixing is important. With gouache, you mix tints with white and shades with black. I think making a colour wheel is very important to understanding the way of mixing and the possibilities. Its a nice way to spend an afternoon.
A WORD ABOUT WATER
Gouache can be used straight from the tube in an impasto technique.
Adding water makes it more pliable and water can be added up to a semitransparent ghost glaze state. Laying a wet wash on thick gouache rapidly reactivates the underlayers and can lead to mud and frustration. There is a technique though which I’ll talk about later. I use it in various dilutions.My technique has evolved as THIN TO THICK and DARK TO LIGHT.
Early stages are fairly dilute, like skim milk.
Middle stages are more like full cream milk ….
… and the finishing stages are like runny cream with some straight from the tube details.The behaviour of gouache with water can give stunning results.
AN EXERCISE FOR FUN
Wet an area of watercolour paper and don’t worry about the sheen settling. The wetter the better. Grab some neat paint on a brush and dab it on . Get another colour and put it next to it. Get some “milk” dilute white and drop it in the middle. Don’t stir with your brush . Just let the pigments sort themselves out.You can tip the paper if you wish. You can drop in clear water if you wish.PLAY. Once happy, let it dry flat.
Wet one followed by effect when dry. Sorry about the cat hair.:clear:
[Great ZE][/FONT]fun but what is the point?
Backgrounds!!!
… and CLOUDS!More to come.
Annie
"On the other hand, you have different fingers".
Steven Wright
My Flickr Site[FONT=Calibri]Gouache and clouds were made for each other. This is a wet into wet technique just like the previous playtime.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Make a horizon line …. a few hills … whatever. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri]Wet the sky area and mix up some white and cobalt blue to make a summer sky blue. Drop that into the sky holes between clouds. You decide where they are. It’s your sky. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri]The paint will diffuse all over the place so get some thicker white and drop it in where you want the cloud bodies to go. [/FONT][FONT=Calibri]
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[FONT=Calibri]Lastly mix a grey purple with cobalt and magenta and a touch of paynes grey and shadow the clouds. Or just use paynes grey. When drying more white added can get firmer edges to the clouds if needed. When completely dry white and other colours can be scrubbed on. Neat from the tube and a firm synthetic brush. I mean scrubbed too. Circular motion.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri”,”sans-serif]Do some sunset hued clouds and a stormy sky. Once again, PLAY.[/FONT][FONT=Calibri”,”sans-serif]Here’s a quick stormy sky ….[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri”,”sans-serif]Another demo is here. https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=875932&page=3[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri”,”sans-serif]Then comes the question of a seamless blue sky and therefore of blending. [/FONT][FONT=Calibri”,”sans-serif]
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[FONT=Calibri”,”sans-serif]Basically start with a relatively thick ( cream) strong blue white mix at the top and steadily dilute it with white, adding a tinge of yellow ochre at the horizon. Don’t wait for it to dry. Take the square wide synthetic, wet it and then dry it on an old teatowel until barely damp. Then brush across. ONE sweep only, then wash it and dry it again and repeat, repeatedly until there is a seamless gradation. Practice does make perfect here.[/FONT][FONT=Calibri”,”sans-serif]Alternatively, you could do a graded transparent watercolour wash.
But that sort of defeats the purpose.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri”,”sans-serif][FONT=Calibri]Many watercolour textural techniques can be used with gouache. Splattering, palette knife rocks, drybrushing.[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Calibri”,”sans-serif]MORE PLAY[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri”,”sans-serif][FONT=Calibri]Landscape with rocks.[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri”,”sans-serif][FONT=Times New Roman]S[/FONT][FONT=Calibri]ky as before. Good practice. Wait for it to dry before starting the rocks to avoid bleeding.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri]Rocks. Mix a milky mixture of yellow, magenta and paynes grey (equals brown) and paint the rock area. [/FONT][FONT=Calibri]
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[FONT=Calibri]When about half dry, use the palette knife to scape rock faces. If you don’t have a palette knife a cut up credit card will do. Obviously not one still operational! I’ve used a bread and butter knife too in the past, before I relocated the palette knife.. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri]Then drop in some darks and whatever colours you want. Drag down some of the colour at the base of the rocks into the foreground, add some more colours.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri]Let it dry then dry brush some lights and darks. Put a tissue over the main rocks and sky and spatter the foreground. [/FONT][FONT=Calibri]
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[FONT=Calibri]More to come …. TREES[/FONT][/FONT]
Annie
"On the other hand, you have different fingers".
Steven Wright
My Flickr SiteHere is a demo of a tree. I did this in the Gouache Corner in January 2011
First the background … this is what I mean by wet into/next to wet … yes there was a sketch … why do I bother? Note how the gouache bleeds when wet. Different brands seem to do it differently.
Keep adding whites and greys and bits of whatever else is lying in the palette … quite a lot as you will see later.
Add thicker white where you want a little more definiition. Dry it flat or in the direction of the flow you want. You can see from the photo the bead of wet paint. Of you can get impatient like me and use a hairdryer. Beware that really thick gouache – impasto – can crack under the hairdryer but this runny cream consistency seems to handle it OK.
Then a wipe of greens to make a hint of land and using paynes grey draw in the tree trunk and main branches … bit like a 4 year old here
Everyone must have a brush like this ? Ostensibly a watercolour brush with a fine point but now useless. It’s taklon and perfect for this. The synthetic fibres are stiffer and a bit better. If you haven’t got one get the cheapest brush you can find and push down and splay the fibres out from the ferrule until it looks like a chimney sweep. Once the pressure is off the fibres spring back to a more goblet shape. The taklon fibres stay out better for this purpose than natural hair. I think the natural hair is better quality.
Then using paynes grey or whatever dark you want to use (a bit dilute here and could really be thicker) dab down with the tip of the brush only. Turn it frquently to avoid a “stamping pattern” and use just light touches of the edge where needs be. This automatically leaves skyholes.
Then mix a dark green – yellow ochre, cobalt blue and paynes grey here. You can see what I mean by the palette.
Use the same dabbing technique on the lighter areas of foliage. The tree is starting to get some depth. Because I couldn’t resist fiddling I also ran some brown down the trunk (yellow ochre/magenta/paynes grey)
Then mix a lake of a more yellow green and dab it closer to the light and then a tinted (with white) version of the same colour
Last steps are flicking in the small branches in paynes grey overlaid with a little blue and “grounding” the tree – tying it to the earth.
The grass effect was done with a small sable brush on it side dragged vertically over the tooth of the paper. Dry brushing.
Then a little fiddle with the purples and the blue. :rolleyes:
It is a matter of experimentation and play until you get the “feel” of it. We all use different paints and different brushes and different papers. It’s really a matter of finding what works for you where.
NEXT is using gouache with watercolour.
Annie
"On the other hand, you have different fingers".
Steven Wright
My Flickr Site[FONT=Calibri][FONT=Verdana]GLAZING WITH GOUACHE[/FONT][/B][/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri]It is tricky but can be done. I work with skim milk or thinner consistency mixes and paint them on with a soft brush. Basically I’m trying to spread the water bead without touching and stirring the underlayers. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]This technique is useful for atmospheric recession in landscapes, or for shadowing say flower petals. Once the area has been wet, it is vital not to go back to it. It is a one pass only technique. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]COMBINING GOUACHE AND WATERCOLOUR[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]When used together gouache is usually the last layer, because of its lifting characteristics. It can be done but thus far, I haven’t overlaid gouache with a watercolour wash. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Aside from the obvious use in correcting lost whites there are more exciting ways to combine the two mediums. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Somewhere you may have a beautiful watercolour painting of a subject that the background has spoiled. Ideal! [/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri]Based on Jean Pedersens technique, grab a flat synthetic and use white gouache with an echo of the main colours. Don’t mix it up, just catch it on the brush. Cut in around the subject in random brushstrokes. Cut in around the edges. A dry brush over the edge here and there will tie the subject to thebackground. [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman]Works for portraits too ….[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]You can use white or black or any colour you like. The matte of the gouache enhances the transparency of the watercolour. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Then you can use a watercolour base coat for a gouache painting.[/FONT]
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[/FONT][FONT=Calibri]As a footnote … this is a distillation of my approach to gouache. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]Other artists have a VERY different approach. I would recommend looking at the work of Deborah Secor, Larry Seiler, Ralph Parker and Robert (Skappy).[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]A browse through the Gouache Corner Archive ( https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=759241 ) is well worth the time. [/FONT]
Once you get started and comfortable with the medium, you will develop your own style. :thumbsup:
Annie
"On the other hand, you have different fingers".
Steven Wright
My Flickr SitePlease feel free to ask questions. I will try to answer them and demonstrate.
It’s a huge topic. I’ve focused on landscapes because that is where gouache excels. Do the sky, do the distance, do the mid ground then do the tree and foreground.
I will LOVE seeing your work.
Annie
"On the other hand, you have different fingers".
Steven Wright
My Flickr SiteThanks for this great tutorial and demos Annie – count me in – it’s just what I need to kick me up
I’ve always admired your skies – actually all of your work.
A couple of questions – Is there a homework thread for this?
Do we start with wet in wet exercises?
Is cat hair mandatory?Comments welcome and critiques greatly appreciated
Ros
My Blog ***My Flickr Site***InstagramWhat a great tutorial Annie, just what I need to encourage me to get the gouache out again.
Doug
We must leave our mark on this worldGot my gouache tubes out of the closet where they’ve been tucked away for a number of years…only the yellow has gone solid, the rest are still fluid. Don’t have all the colors I would like, but will make do with what the ones I have.
I’ve just tried your first “let it flow” blocks to see what gouache feels like on the brush. Hmmm, a lot like regular watercolor.
Great start, Annie.
Sylvia
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