Experimenting with Gouache

I received my new gouache paint and paint brushes today and of course I couldn't wait to try them out. This was a small set as you can see to the right of the painting it is only 5 mixing colors. I have never been one for mixing colors unless it was a color I didn't have but this is a nice set to start with, the paint brushes I also ordered are great, a set of 6 Red Sable (Wesel Hair) mix filbert brushes by magic touch, I got both of these off Amazon. However I have some Turner Acryl Gouache coming on Tuesday from one of my favorit places to shop, Jerry's Artarama, they had an awesome sale on their site.

I love doing large paintings but it does get a little price to keep buying the canvases so I have desided to take a little break from the larger paintings and scale it down a bit. I am not one for creating realistic art, I plan on working on faces for awhile in my quest to creat more artwork and as you can tell it is not proportionate, I love the larger eyes and small nose and mouth on faces. The great thing about the gouache paint is it dries very quick, ok so its a good/bad thing, anyways with not enough hours in the day I can keep working on a painting and not worry about putting my hand or arm where I just painted.

There is a learning curve with this paint, where you had a little extra time to blend with acrylics (not much) you do not have it with the gouache. I have heard it called an opaque watercolor, I would agree with that statement. I had a few problems where the paint looked dry and I was trying to fix an area and the little bit water I had on my brush pulled up some of the paint causing a bigger problem (grrr). After a litle grumbling and some not so nice words, I was able to fix it (kind of). Then it was off to playing my childeren.

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Danielle Calabro

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