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| Gouache study of 'Shore House' after George Wesley Bellows. |
Equipment used:
Small Round Wash Brush.
Aluminium Foil for a
palette.
Jam Jar.
Cardboard from a cereal
packet.
Black Ball Point Pen.
First I quickly
sketched in the main details from a George Wesley Bellows painting
called 'Shore House'. This was done on cardboard from a cereal
packet. Gouache paint covers the pen marks completely (I have left a
little showing).
I painted the sky next
and worked my way down. Gouache has to be mixed with water until it
has the consistency of runny pouring cream. If you paint straight
from the tube it can crack when it dries. You can easily blend
Gouache paints to achieve a look similar to Oil paintings. Gouache
has very good covering power and dries to a matt chalky finish.
This quick painting was
completed in about an hour as it isn't very big. I could have put in
much more detail, but decided to leave it sketchy as it's only a
small test piece. Gouache is capable of rendering very fine detail
and if you didn't want to disturb a layer then you could use fixative
to secure layers before continuing.
The painting is not
finished and has a wonky horizon, but I'm not worried about that.
I've proved to myself that a painting in Gouache can be quick and fun
to produce. Colours are bold and opaque and unlike Acrylics you don't
have to paint layer upon layer to obtain the covering power you
desire. Also, unlike Oils and Acrylics, you don't have to worry about
cleaning your brushes after a painting session has finished. Brushes
can be left with paint on them and just swished about in clean water
the next time you need them. Of course you may want to wash brushes
with soap and water if you want to paint cleanly with no hint of old
colour coming through.
I'm going to paint a
lot more pictures in Gouache because of the time saved compared to
using other mediums like Oils.
