Cat in GouachePhoto ref courtesy of Mendocino Animal Care
Painting copyright to Jan Gibson
Giraffe in Gouachecopyright
Jan Gibson
I'm still working on learning to paint with gouache and sometimes it seems to go well and sometimes it doesn't. Sounds a bit like life, doesn't it? lol
The cat on top was painted as if I were painting in acrylics using many layers and some brushes I bought that have jaggedy bristles and are supposed to be good for painting fur. They really are pretty good for that but it takes going over an area over and over using first one color then another until you get a fairly realistic fur pattern.
The giraffe was painted using more watercolor technique and I find I'm more comfortable with that method. Of course, that may just be because I've never really worked in acrylics that much and watercolor is much more familiar to me.
But no matter which method I use, I'm finding that I do like the gouache. I'm not so sure that I bought the best brand as I don't get that great a coverage when using lights over darks. It's not the bleed-through (I don't think anyway), but it just seems that the lighter colors and the white in particular are just more transparent than I thought they'd be.
Still learning so stay tuned as I find out more about them!
The cat on top was painted as if I were painting in acrylics using many layers and some brushes I bought that have jaggedy bristles and are supposed to be good for painting fur. They really are pretty good for that but it takes going over an area over and over using first one color then another until you get a fairly realistic fur pattern.
The giraffe was painted using more watercolor technique and I find I'm more comfortable with that method. Of course, that may just be because I've never really worked in acrylics that much and watercolor is much more familiar to me.
But no matter which method I use, I'm finding that I do like the gouache. I'm not so sure that I bought the best brand as I don't get that great a coverage when using lights over darks. It's not the bleed-through (I don't think anyway), but it just seems that the lighter colors and the white in particular are just more transparent than I thought they'd be.
Still learning so stay tuned as I find out more about them!
