Monday, October 13, 2014

GOUACHE + INK GOLDFINCH FINISHED




After the India Ink dries completely, you take a sprayer and wash everything off - the ink and the white gouache.  You can do this outside with a garden hose, under the sink with the kitchen sink sprayer, or in a tub of water (which you have to change about 3 times because it gets grey and yucky pretty fast).  Any way you choose, wash off all the ink and gouache you want, leaving some ink behind (or a lot, depending on your preference).










And then you have this.
The white gouache has allowed the white of the paper to show through and the India Ink has gone into all the areas you left without gouache, making a nice print-like painting.  (I used Daler Rowney white gouache on this one, something I had leftover in a tube; and the white after everything was washed off was a dull greyed color - so I think Winsor Newton gouache gives the best result if you want your whites to be clean and bright before putting color on at the end.)

At this point, you can leave it like this, or go back with your watercolors and paint in some color.  (You want to make sure the paper is dry before painting on it and that may take a while since you're using 300# paper and it's pretty soaked after washing off all the gouache and ink.  So I'd give it another 4-5 hours to dry.)





When my paper was dry, I went back with my watercolors and gave the goldfinch some color, even in the background area (a pale wash of brown from a mix of 3 primary colors).






I hope you enjoyed the demo and will give this a try.  It's really easy.  It just takes time for each layer to dry.  If you don't like waiting, you could work on 2-3 of these at a time.  

10 comments:

Debbie Nolan said...

Rhonda - wow this is really amazing and so striking too. Think I am just going to have to pull out my gouache and India ink and give this a try. Hope I can just get around the being patient part - lol! Hugs11

Autumn Leaves said...

Loved your demo, Rhonda. Your end result is astonishingly gorgeous too! Bravo!

Studio at the Farm said...

This is beautiful, Rhonda! So striking ... love it!
Kathryn

Carol Flatt said...

Wonderful, Rhonda! I love the results. I've always liked the effects of something printed whether it be woodcuts, linocuts or resist techniques. Your goldfinch is a beauty. I'll definitely try this method to see what happens. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.

RH Carpenter said...

I hope you do try it, Debbie - yes, the patient part is the hardest part for me, too! ha ha Hope you share when you try it and how it worked for you.

Thanks, Sherry and Kathryn!

Carol, thanks, I like the print-look to it, too. Let me know how it turns out when you try it.

Lorraine Brown said...

Thanks Rhonda for this great step by step, your little finsh turned out brilliantly. Something new for a to do list for sure

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Lorraine. Glad you enjoyed it.

laura said...

What a great drawing of the goldfinch, Rhonda.
I enjoy this method (though it can be a bit tedious!)--the results are always good!

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Laura. I find it a bit tedious, but the outcome is so nice and you can vary it with color before or after. This was my favorite new technique shown in the Val Webb online course we did.

http://carolking.wordpress.com said...

cool technique. love the goldfinch!