Gouache Studies
10mo
I've been wanting to put some more time into painting with gouache lately so I'm starting a study thread, feel free to join in! Here are two pieces from this weekend's attempts.
The first is a Dean Cornwell study done along with a livestream from Jeff Watts. Clear reference was tough to find, so I just went along with the process I saw Jeff work though in the video. I spent about 3 hours on the Cornwell study and then applied the same process to an original sketch I did of Norman Rockwell from a black and white photo, which also took about 3 hours. Still getting the hang of organizing values on the palette, I feel like my palette gets crazy and disorganized quickly, so by the end of the Rockwell piece I was hunting and mixing a lot more to get back to the appropriate values. I'd love any feedback, suggestions, notes or revelations you've had during your own gouache adventures!
Tools-
Palette - Winsor & Newton Permanent White, and Ivory Black, Holbein Permanent Yellow Deep, and Flame Red
Robert Simmons 785 Round #4
Arches Aquarelle Watercolor Cold Pressed Paper
Livestream- https://www.youtube.com/live/gsTAsfjR_uk?si=l8BQy83zXAEOzYwk
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6h
A quick still life of my drafting pencil lead pointer. M. Graham gouache Zorn palette. This was the closest I've felt to being somewhat in control of the correct water ratio during the painting, "somewhat" being the operative word here. Some very basic drawing mistakes were made while my brain was focused on the painting process and observation, but I learned a lot with this one. A few more steps toward mileage, so on to the next one!
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9d
Awesome rough! I love this kind of contre jour lighting, and I love the saturated red highlights from the eyes. Cant wait to see this develop!
Moving on to original works. I did 47 thumbnails of Superman covers. I picked one to start with that was low on the complexity scale. I did six value roughs of this, and I'm going to do at least seven color roughs. My goal is to get good reps in with the various stages of the process.
Finally getting a chance to put some time into this Steve Rude master study again.
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12d
Fantastic value control here. After seeing your color study I can't wait to see this come together.
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3mo
1952 MG-TD. Tough keeping perspective lines tamed with paint, but I discovered my love for the flat brush on this one! Hit this with a little bit of airbrush to try softening the transitions in the front fenders, which had varying degrees of success and failure so I didn't go too heavy with it.
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3mo
Invented head. Still trying to get the hang of organizing my palette, and paint consistency. Didn't go too crazy with the drawing, just did a quick sketch and jumped right in. On to the next one.
I didn't get any alerts when you posted these last three, so sorry I'm late to comment.
Nice study!
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4mo
Glen Orbik study
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4mo
Happy new year! Getting back into some gouache with a Mead Schaeffer study
I'm calling the Norman Rockwell master study done. It was intimidating and humbling to walk in his footsteps, but I'm glad I made the attempt.
The next master study on my plate is a Steve Rude Batman painting.
This will be my sixth full-blown master study. After this, I want to start tackling my own compositions, which was always the plan.
This one will be 20" by 16" on toned illustration board. I picked the toned illustration board because I want to force myself to paint more opaquely.
I'll post progress as I go.
Calling this one done for now. I'll add airbrush to it when I have access to one, but for now, I added the air brush digitally. Everything else is gouache on illustration board.
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5mo
DUUUUDE, this came out great!
This is so excellent! Supes and [ I forgot their name, apologies (Marvel nerd) ] look amazing and so rich and full in the same way the original does. Awesome work!
Another master study of the legendary j.c leyendecker.
It was fun but I screw up with his iconic parallel strokes. Mines is more visible than he did on his painting.
I think these are great study practices but I guess if you’re going for one to one copying I can see that being a challenge. I like your colours, I’ve yet to do any form of logical colour mixing my approach is a lot of guessing
I made my first gauche experiment the other day, my goal was to just paint a few isolated logs so really a lack of planning was mistake one followed by not doing a wash of colour over everything, then adding blue to my inaccurately placed cast shadow really killed it among other things. I would like to join here if I can because seeing all your great studies is inspiring. Also I’ve pondered about the Jeff watts classes but I’ve more or less been trying to focus on foundational drawing ability. I shared the state of my pallet because well its probably an example of what not to do, that said it was a great time and will be doing more.
Good work, I love how you first put your brush strokes on some other paper before doing it on the actual painting. I need to do that so that my values work well. I am struggling with landscape painting a lot. I am having hard time defining values.
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8mo
Awesome work, glad to have you in the thread!! I think this came out great! Your starting sketch reminds me of a Buscema Conan background. There was a livestream with Jeff Watts, David Finch, and Eric Grove painting a Buscema Conan in Gouache. It's worth checking out for their process and insight. Looking forward to seeing more! Thanks for sharing, makes me want to break out my palette and get back in the game!! Here's the Livestream https://www.youtube.com/live/dEiGv1ShhBM?si=k8hDYQDuYJinFLz7
I took an online workshop with Jared Cullum last night. Here are a few sketches from it.
His YouTube channel is pretty great also if anyone wants to check it out.
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8mo
Awesome sketches! Thanks for the tip, looking forward to checking out his channel!
So here's another small gouache studies i did, i got lucky this time it turned out okayy..😅
Very nice studies!
A friend of mine who is a fan of Jeff Watt's turned me on to him, and that''s what got me started in the medium. He is fantastic.
Hi, I am also taking watts atelier classes of gouache phase 3rd. So right now I have decided to study frezzata's work. Here's my work feel free to say anything about it.
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9mo
These are excellent!! How are you liking the Watts Gouache phases? I've been considering taking one soon.
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10mo
I picked up a Stay-Wet Palette recently and I have to say it's a game changer! I'd been using an enamel butcher tray, and a wet heavy-duty shop towel as my gouache palette but the Stay-wet setup has made jumping into quick studies SO much faster. Anything that minimizes setup/breakdown excites me! The enamel butcher tray has been great to have along side it for larger washes while keeping the main palette more organized. Can't recommend them enough!
