Gouache Studies
5mo
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
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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3mo
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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3mo
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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4mo
These are excellent!! How are you liking the Watts Gouache phases? I've been considering taking one soon.
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4mo
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!
The big project I'm working on now in gouache is this Alex Ross master study. It's 16" by 20" on illustration board. There is still a long way to go on it, but I'll post my progress as I inch it closer to the finish line. I intentionally picked something complex because there would be a lot of practice tied up into the one piece.
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4mo
Man, this is coming along beautifully! Quite literally a HUGE undertaking, it's awesome to see it along the way. It looks like so much to balance! How are you organizing your values in the black and white stage, did you start with a particular limited value range to work within or does keeping transparency in the shadows allow you to layer up the shadows until it gives you the read you're looking for?
Since your initial post, I've been looking at a lot of Dean Cornwell images. I found this mini summary of his work and life on one of my favorite YouTube channels. The Dean Cornwell part starts at 6:52.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z2NnNbwEdA
Okay, one more link on Dean Cornwell from James Gurney's channel. This video shows his process, which is very similar to the process Alex Ross uses to make his paintings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs7VY16nTA0
This is basically the process I'm using to make the master study of the Alex Ross painting I'm doing, although I'm using gouache like Ross instead of oils like Cornwell.
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4mo
Gouache sketch from a Proko skull! Happy 4th of July!
I wasn’t familiar with Dean Cornwell until you posted your study. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole today looking at his art. That’s an influence I definitely want to let in, so thanks for putting him on my radar.
Love Dean Cornwell, especially his pirates. Gouache is tough because it tends to dry darker which makes getting accurate values hard, but these look nice. look forward to seeing more.
Now we're talkin'! I will absolutely join you in this thread.
You've got some great tile shapes going in your studies--especially the Norman Rockwell piece.
