Hello everyone,
Have you ever tried gouache?
Last time I did was many years ago and I wasn’t that impressed. The opaque medium seemed to kill the pigment saturation and I missed the watercolour glow.
When Daniel Smith offered to send me some gouache paints to test and review, I was in the middle of a Patreon project in which I was painting the same Brunnera leaf in a range of different media, or media combinations. It was perfect timing. I love to experiment and try new things so I put together a list of colours that echoed my watercolour palette and waited for the brand new tubes to arrive, which never gets old. I always feel a huge amount of anticipation and excitement when waiting for a paint delivery!
I must admit I had to make a conscious effort to not be prejudiced: I didn’t have particularly good memories of trying gouache before. In fact the only time I used gouache and ended up with a satisfying result was while working on an illustration contract for which I had to paint a lump of chocolate. I was painting a series of illustrations for food supplements flavours’ labels. One was chocolate. Watercolour was just to clear and transparent to give the solid, creamy but tough appearance of chocolate. I decided to try gouache instead and that worked very well. For botanical work however, I had my doubts…
I started the tests with a colour wheel, to explore the colours in a logical and familiar way. I was extremely surprised by the results. Somehow, the colours keep the pigment intensity while being opaque.
The Brunnera leaf painted in gouache was actually more subtle and more refined than the ones I did in coloured pencils.
Here is the video of the colour tests and review, with a demo of the Brunnera leaf:
Please click here for a link to the Daniel Smith gouache range on the Jackson’s website.
Please click here for a link to the ceramic mixing palette I am using in the video You can get 10% your whole order on the Meeden site with the coupon SANDRINE10
You can click on this link to go to the Art Materials section of my shop, where you will find the cute little wooden palette I am using in the video.
The next step is to do a couple of paintings to try the gouache with different subjects. I will do some landscapes on white paper, using different methods and styles, then I will try a painting on black paper, to see how far the opacity can go.
Happy Painting!
Sandrine
Sandrine Maugy 