Week two of my 30-day gouache challenge is complete. I’m still really liking the medium. My husband compared the look of these paintings to a paint by number kit. I like it though. I also like the subtle watercolor look I achieved on a few pieces.
I think I may be starting to get the hang of gouache. I mentioned last week that I thought I might end up just painting subjects on a white background, but on day four I started painting backgrounds again. The subject seems to dictate the need or not for a background.
Day five has to be my favorite painting so far. It’s a portrait of my mom’s dog. The dog passed away quite a few years ago and I’ve been wanting to paint this picture for a very long time. I’m glad it turned out so well.
I bought a painting on eBay a week ago from an artist I’ve been following for a while. The artist ended up striking up a conversation with me and gave me some really great advice for gouache that I’m excited to try out. She recommended working on gessoed hardboard, which can be varnished. It hadn’t occurred to me to varnish gouache, but it can look very similar to oil once varnished. She also told me that unsuccessful paintings on the hardboard can be simply washed off. I love it. I’m really excited to try out this advice in the future.
The paints themselves are really creamy and rehydrate really nicely so far with one exception. I don’t know if it is the color or the brand, but it’s Burnt Umber by Winsor & Newton and it doesn’t rehydrate very well. It dries very chunky and crumbly and I have to work the chunks with my brush to get them to rehydrate. The other colors crack as they dry, but they don’t crumble and they rehydrate really easily. Once I run out of the Winsor & Newton brand I’ll try it by M. Graham. If it still crumbles, then I’ll know it’s just the pigment. If you have experience in this I’d love to hear about it.