![]() When I picked up painting again, I went straight into acrylic paint. It was fun and forgiving and I enjoyed the medium. Over the last couple of years, I have taken lessons in watercolour, pastels and gouache. I love various mediums, given I do mixed media, that is a good thing! For the last twelve months, I have been enjoying the medium of gouache. So what is gouache, I hear you ask. Gouache is a water-based paint not dissimilar to watercolour, it is however, matte, opaque and creamy. Being similar to watercolour, it is more opaque, which means you can layer from dark to light and correct mistakes. I love how the medium quickly dries to a matte finish, making it ideal for photographing, and scanning for prints and doesn't have that shine. As I have been venturing out on en plein air excursions, gouache is an ideal medium to take out and about. It is compact enough for a small palette, dries reasonably quickly and can be activated with water. I enjoy being able to sketch and then paint while I am out, sometimes in my sketchbook and sometimes on watercolour paper. These en plein air paintings are then reference guides for future work. The fact I can paint in the colours of the day is ideal to capture the moment, the shadows, the highlights and the essence of the session. Although you can paint larger paintings using gouache, it is often associated with smaller works from an A3 - A5 painting. Smaller work on A3 to A5 is ideal when you have limited time and space, making gouache the perfect medium. The artwork you see here is a small artwork on paper using gouache. This was done with an initial light translucent wash and then layered with a more creamy gouache texture to give depth to the piece. Have you heard of gouache or do you use it? Leave your comments below, I would love to see your comments. Featured Artwork: The outback shed
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AuthorLee Cummins is a mixed media artist, workshop and art class facilitator. Archives
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