GOUACHE INTEREST?

 It seems like every spring I’m in the mood for something new and turn to printing with acrylics or painting with gouache.  I have 2 books on how to learn and use gouache but haven’t really delved into it enough to know what I’m doing.  So take a few online short courses from Sktchy or Domestika every now and then.  And got a good 40% off on this lesson by a girl in Spain doing gouache portraits (also animals).  

She is not the greatest teacher and I thought I’d missed an introductory video but, no, she doesn’t talk about the colors she uses, the paper she paints on, or the type of brushes (but I learned that in other lessons so no big deal unless you’re an absolute beginner).  So I watched her paint swatches of color on the portrait she did and then did my own, using my colors.  

Her painting is light and candy-colored and mine…isn’t! Ha ha

But I don’t hate it.  Not finished yet - need to darken the left side of his face so it’s more shadowed (esp. the eye) and move on.  Next is a lion, which I won’t do because I don’t like it very much with all the colors…but I will do the 3rd one she is offering = a dog.  For some reason, I think dogs are ok in lots of colors but lions deserve more respect!

So what have I learned?  A lighter first layer is best and you can still use all the colors you want.  Shape the figure with the 3nd and 3rd layers and look for those darkest darks, lightest lights, and hard and soft edges.  Whew!  Plus, gouache dries differently…I think, if I remember right, dark colors dry lighter and light colors dry darker so…hard to keep that in mind while doing everything else, but I might be figuring some things out.