'Gouache on the Fly' Demos

 

Last week we ended....

    ...Gouache on the Fly, my course in using watercolor instead of gouache to fill a very portable sketchbook.  True, we also used white gouache and a little black, but most of the paintings were done using tubed watercolor like it was oil paint.  We had a great time exploring this approach and here are the demos I did for those in the class but I thought you might enjoy them also.  This is my third sketchbook done this way and I'm still enjoying the processs.  Below are full page (8.5x11 inch) scans that begin in value studies and move on to full color.

Black and white gouache and one from a mix of two complements.  There is some unintentional green on one rock on the vertical piece which was an accident.

The top one of the bridge is on a piece of watercolor paper; the bottom one is right on the sketchbook paper and is a value study done in a warm and cool color but not representative of the color in the scene, just the values.

Sketches are out of order.  Some were done earlier in the course than others and they were put in the sketchbook where I could find room.  The top one is another warm and cool value study done with Alizarin Crimson and some sort of green I mixed.  All are done on card stock of varying colors or watercolor paper.

Top one is another value study in warm and cool.  Two colors plus white gouache sitting in our living room.  Don't ask me where the fish came from....

A redo of an earlier one with an emphasis on the watercolor transparency.  

Thanks for looking.  Because this was an online course most of the images are fron photos.  Normally this method is something I use almost entirely for field sketching. 

Back soon!

"Gouache on the Fly" Course at Winslow Art Center

 

I have painted in gouache for.....

.....many years, decades actually, but on and off.  It is a marvelous medium, very forgiving and convenient.  Compared to oil paint, some control is lost.  It doesn't exactly dry in a value that's similar to the way you mixed it.  It also goes matte, losing some of the color intensity from what it looks like in the liquid state.  That sounds frustrating and it is....but it is compensated by its fast drying, allowing the ability to quickly make it lighter or darker and go right over the top.  Sometimes it's important to accept something uncontrolled and new.

A few years ago I began a notebook of heavy weight card stock paper in several color tones as a foundation for sketching with gouache (gouache is basically watercolor with calcium carbonate added for opacity and body).  With a small kit I could carry it around with me almost anywhere and do sketches quickly, close the notebook and walk away with dry paintings to use as a library, of sorts, of material for other paintings or personal exploration.

Missing for me was the transparency mixed with opacity effects so I began mixing in some watercolor.  Soon the watercolor was the main medium but it was used with white gouache for the opacity part.  Eventually I stopped carrying the colored gouache in favor of less expensive tubed watercolor.  By using watercolor thinly in washes, but also thick like butter using straight paint or mixed with white gouache, I could realize the best of both worlds and that made it more fun and descriptive.  

Beginning March 28th, 2022 I will be teaching a course in this technique through the Winslow Art Center online courses.  The notebook I will supply for free once you sign up and the other supplies you will need are inexpensive. It makes for a great travel medium and its speed allows for many more studies than other mediums.  Once dry, they can be covered with a variety of media that makes them very impervious to being harmed and can be framed without glass.

Here is a page from one of my sketchbooks showing a painting right on the notebook paper and another pasted in using a different paper:

Both of these paintings use a combination of transparent and opaque effects as well as warm and cool, dark and light, soft and hard edges and various textural paint effects.   I like nothing more than sitting down in any old spot and painting these satisfying pieces.

The course is 4 weeks long for three hours each meeting day.  When you are finished you will have a notebook full of your artistic excursions.  We will do weekly optional critiques, I'll do frequent demos and we will explore lots of compositional experiments.

 Please join us.  The class size is limited so come join us at the:  Winslow Art Center .

Black and white gouache with a couple spots that show through to the paper for color.

Ragland 5, 30x36

Neil Young....

.....had his boat, Ragland, moored in Eagle Harbor for a year or so while he was selling it.  During that time I painted it plein air at least four times.  I thought the island should buy it just for it's ambiance, especially since long gone harbor businesses used to build boats like this by the score. 

I liked the paintings I did which you can see Here (at a distance), Here (similar to this view) and Here (another at a distance) and this one, which I never posted:

My paintings, although I enjoy them, never quite matched my impression of what it was like to stand out there as the sun set.....so I decided to do another in the studio that spoke more to the experience.  Thus, Ragland 5.

On a totally different note.....Exquisite Corpse.....
......I was out having lunch with the Balcomb boys the other day.  Put a paper covering on a table with three artists, a photographer, a musician and a painter, and what you get is a table full of drawings, doodles and ideas.

Somewhere during our meal we began adding on to one another's drawings and the musician asked me if I had heard of 'Exquisite Corpse'.  I had no clue.  It began, as much as anyone knows, as a parlor word game where each person added on to a sentence.  Then it became add on written stories and, eventually, even the surrealists used it to explore visual ideas.

Then, this morning, I ran across a recently posted example of it on a grand scale.  Three well known excellent watercolorists paint together on a huge piece of paper to create a spectacular work.  Joseph Zbukvic, Alvaro Castagent and Herman Pekel.....all well known artists.  It's 30 minutes long but worth your time: HERE    Enjoy this one!   You won't believe the size....

Relaxed, 12x16

I love watercolor....and I greatly respect anyone who can do it well....which I don't think I do.  It takes more patience and thoughtfulness than I possess.  I think it's my ADD.

This portrait was an accident from a few years ago but I've always kind of liked it.  It was one of those 20 or 25 minute gesture pieces that pretty much painted itself.  Actually I was off getting coffee when my brush started in.  By the time I got back there wasn't much for me to do....luckily.  Think I lost that brush somewhere....

'Everyone Can Draw.  Yes, Even You' is the title of the drawing course I begin teaching at the end of the month.  This is learning to draw without the pain.  My courses are all 'no fail' courses.  Just having the courage and interest to show up makes you a success.  Find out more about this class and others at the Winslow Art Center site.