Mountain Lake Landscape

 

This small gouache landscape is 2 1/8" by 5 1/2". It is in my 5x8 Moleskine notebook of buff cardstock. The image is an imagined location, perhaps a scene you might find in Scotland.

Pond at Dusk

 

This mini gouache landscape closes out the Fabriano sketchbook. 

The painting is 3 by 2 inches.

Summer Storm Clouds

 

This small gouach painting measures 3.5 by 2.5 inches. It is in the Fabriano sketchbook I have been working to finish and am almost there. 

I have ordered and received a very nice small easel from cups easels which I plan to use mainly for gouache. It is small and light enough for Plein air work and is able to attach to a photography tripod, sit on a table, or be held by hand.

It is made in Canada. I had a minor problem with the order and the customer service was as excellent as their product.

Pond Tree

In my attempt to fill this sketchbook, I painted another mini gouache landscape yesterday afternoon. This one measures 2 1/4" by 3 1/8". My new easel from Cups Easels in Canada arrived today. It is actually made in Canada by a small company. It will mainly be used for gouache. I also ordered an additional palette for watercolor paints. Excited to try it out.

 

Meadow Spring

 

Another mini gouache painting I did in my Fabriano sketchbook. This little painting is 6"x2". I need to do 3 more then the book will be finished and I can place it on the shelf and call it done.

Art Nouveau Madonna

I did the sketch for this little gouache painting in my Moleskine 5x8 sketchbook weeks ago. Today I finally took the time to finish painting an collage. It is another in my art nouveau series which is based on Gustav Klimt's Hope II. My purpose in studying and the artists from this period is to take ideas and techniques of these artists and add what I really like to my own work. The background is gold acrylic; the clothing is pieces of my gel plate prints cut up and collage onto the figure; the face and hair are painted in gouache. The hand was much better until I started fiddling with it to make it better but who hasn't destroyed something trying to fix it? Still, I relearned something I have known for years––always mix up more paint than you think you would ever use. Not sure if I am ready to move on to a new project yet are just move this series to the back burner for a bit.

 

Stone Bridge

Another mini gouache landscape. This one is 2.5 x 3 inches. I only have 3-4 pages left in this Fabriano sketchbook to fill before I can place it on the bookshelf.

 

Small Waterfall

Truly enjoying playing with gouache. This 3x3.5" mini landscape is done in the Fabriano sketchbook I have been using. This paper doesn't work for me when I am using transparent watercolor but it is fine for gouache paints. May just fill the rest of the pages with these mini gouache paintings.

 

Trees

 Another copy of a Thomas Paquette gouache sketch. It is even smaller than the first one, 2" x 2 1/2" inches. Even though it is so small I am still getting practice mixing colors and applying layers of the gouache paint. Plus learning drying times and how much water, if any to add. But I am not wasting loads of pigment.

Road

 

I am continuing to study other artists. One of the things I wanted to do in 2021 become more skilled with gouache paint. This is a study of one of Thomas Paquette's gouache paintings/sketches. The originals were intended as color sketches for larger oil paintings. They are very small. This one is approximately 2.5" x 3.5 inches which is the same dimensions as Paquette's original. It is in a sketchbook I use for studies.

Art Nouveau Lady 1

This was a fun project. I had been wanting to study other artists' works. I have always appreciated the Art Nouveau period and thought I would take a stab at imitating one by Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939). I had also wanted to play around with my gouache paints. Back in November 2020, I drew the pencil sketch in a 5x8 Moleskine sketchbook. I liked it but didn't get back to it until this month. I used gouache, outlined parts of the image in black ink, then glued a fake gold leaf on the surface. It is hardly perfect but it was fun and different. Once it was finished I sprayed it with a coat of Krylon clear spray as recommended. That resulted in a milky coating over the entire image. I understand the coating is needed to protect the "gold" leaf from tarnishing. But before I use it again I need to do some research to find a sealer that does not change the finish.

 

Cherries

Cherries are in season in my area. I picked these up at the local farmer's market that sets up everyday Wednesday afternoon at my church. They were painted more like acrylics with lots of pigment and as little water as possible. The basket is more than a little wonky but I like the colors of the cherries.

Watermelon

I am back in my gouache sketchbook. Watermelon, is there anything more descriptive of summer? I worked this sketch more like watercolor; more water less pigment, so I could get the green and pinkish red bleeding into to white.

Three Tomatoes

I have been painted just not blogging. Besides trying to paint in gouache, I am taking an Imaginary Trip to Selby Gardens with Laure Ferlita and a Craftsy class on mixing acrylic paint. I alway enjoy Laure's class but this time I chose the independent learning option. I do miss seeing everyone else work and getting critiques but life seem to be full of family crisis these last few months. Something we all face at different times. So taking self-paced classes on the internet allows for "me" time whenever I can fit it into my days and nights. I signed up for a regular class locally, (well kinda of locally, an hour drive from my studio). Of the 6 classes, I have only made the first 2 but hope to make the last one this Wednesday.

Pinecone

A gouache sketch of a small pinecone I picked up on a walk with our dog Jake. 

3 galic bulbs

I am continuing on my journey to learn to use gouache. Up until the last month we have subscribed to Blue Apron. That meant that in every delivery we received one fresh garlic bulb. We love garlic but a weekly garlic bulb was more than we could use up so I have a bowl full of partially used garlic bulbs in our refrigerator. I am not complaining because the fresh bulbs were so much better than the old dried up versions we can get at our grocery store. So here are 3 of them.

2 Pears

Pear 1

I couldn't sleep so I got up a painted a pear in my sketchbook. I labored really, really labored over this painting/sketch. It shows. There must be 4 to 5 layers of paint on this poor, sad, flat pear. Then I threw out my water, cleaned my brushes and start to go back to bed but I wasn't sleepy yet. So I got fresh water and tried the second of my two pears I bought at the grocery store.

Pear 2

I added more white and yellow to the green on my palette. Both pears were started with a Pentel Brush Pen. On this one I left a lot of the ink showing. Mostly there is only one layer of paint on this pear with a couple of areas having 2 layers. It looks fresher and much more interesting. I was about to give up on gouache after that first pear but think I will force myself to do one paint/sketch with gouache in this sketchbook each day until it is full.

Lemons

Another gouache sketch. This wasn't a problem with the lemons but looking back I think I tend to go too dark with the darks. Probably this is because I come from a watercolor background and the pigments usually dry much lighter than the color you first put down wet. This concept becomes a habit so I need to really work at going lighter in gouache as well as acrylics. My next goal is to figure out a way to show the texture of the lemon skin. I painted these just as smooth as the peppers, which they aren't.

Mangoes

After having so much fun with the peppers I went back into the refrigerator and pulled out 2 mangoes to paint. As stated in my sketchbook, "Mangoes are hard". I am not sure why but I found them much more challenging than the peppers. Go figure.

More Gouache peppers

This was my second try at painting peppers in gouache. I wasn't happy with the previous pepper or this one so I decided to just draw a pepper and put in a gouache background.

Once the first two were completely dry, I decided to work back into them. I was thinking I didn't have anything to lose they have turned out so sadly. Once a got a couple of additional layers on them I was happier with them. I often find I am tempted to stop painting too soon.