Sunday, February 10, 2013

Cottenwood Down II, 12x14


Hand warmers, toe warmers, long underwear and rain gear....it was still cold but so worth the little discomfort to be able to stand in front of this scene for an hour.

It is now more than a year from that day.  Yesterday I took a workshop in 'gouache resist' from a very talented person with 27 (I think) children's books in print.  She has used this technique for many of them with outstanding results.  Pierr Morgan's website is HERE and her blog is HERE.

There has been a children's book on the way back burner for a long time but I never found a technique that I wanted to use for it until I saw some of Pierr's work.  So I took her one day workshop and played and learned about it.

I've painted with gouache for well over a decade and never heard of 'gouache resist'.  Because dry gouache is still water soluble the whole idea seemed bizarre.  I had to know more.

After several attempts in the workshop I was searching for something else to do when I spied Cottenwood Down II hanging across the room, leftover from the Friday artwalk.  OK.  Now realize that this was my first experience with this technique and there are many things not going the way I expected.....but this is what I got using that painting more as an inspiration than a guide:


Not bad.  Possibility.  Certainly playful.
Here is another from the book idea:


Pretty cool.  Check out Pierr's website for more information on the technique and examples of her books.

5 comments:

  1. Darrell- I used that technique sometimes when I worked as a greeting card artist- learned it from someone who worked for Hallmark. It is fun!

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  2. Thanks for the post. Pierr's website and images are beautiful.
    Interesting progression of images you have posted. I really love that last one - very different, tightly composed and brilliant colors. It would be perfect for a children's book - dramatic and scary, but in a playful way.

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  3. I love this technique. Very interesting. It reminds me of painting on black multi-media board, but different. Maybe even a bit print-makerly (made that word up) ...ever see the White line prints by the Provincetown printmakers? Only this is using black ....wonder what white ink would do.
    Thanks for posting Darrell.

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  4. I'm really enjoying your blog. Good work! - Mark

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