Tag: Gouache

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Art Drawing Faces Gouache Painting People Portrait

Strange Light, Weird Palette

Experimental Palette Portrait, gouache, 10x7”
Experimental Palette Portrait, gouache, 10×7”

What was I thinking? The reference photo1 had strange lighting. From the left was a cold, greenish light, and from the right a very red light. To make the painting even more “fun,” I chose a weird limited palette2.

Below are my two preliminary pencil drawings and the painting, second layer done. I should have left it as it was—blocky, but fresh. Instead I labored over it, trying to match values and colors to the original despite the crazy palette.

I forgot how much I love gouache’s immediacy vs. forever fussing and overworking. By the time I decided to stop it was way overcooked and I wanted to start over to get it “right.” I refrained and moved on to the next painting with happier results.

  1. I don’t have permission to share it ↩︎
  2. Viridian green (a weak, transparent green), Permanent Rose, Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Pale and white (from a very old tube with thick sticky paint). No black or other dark colors. ↩︎
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Art Faces Gouache Painting People Portrait

Gouache Portrait of Taylor Kinney from Chicago Fire

Taylor Kinney as Kelly Severide from Chicago Fire on TV,
Gouache on paper 9×7”

I know, this was a silly project. But there’s something about this guy on this show that I find intriguing in an odd sort of way. So I painted him in gouache.

I have no idea what he’s like in real life, but it amuses me how on the show he always has this derpy, slightly perplexed expression, like he isn’t quite sure what’s going on around him. Also that when he started on Chicago Fire he played the angry bad boy and now he plays a kindhearted husband and friend (while still doing all the badass fireman stuff.)

I find it interesting that he was once Lady Gaga’s boyfriend. It’s a little hard to picture them together. She’s such a powerful persona.

Chicago Fire and Chicago Med are both dumb, guilty pleasures I enjoy. My usual TV fare is Britbox European detective shows and Nordic noir.

Taylor Kinney as Kelly Severide on Chicago Fire, gouache portrait
Reference snapshot from TV
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Art Faces Gouache Painting People Portrait

My Bestie B Being Silly: Portrait in Gouache

Portrait of B in gouache
B Being Silly, gouache on paper, 9×6”

My bestie B was giving away an arm chair and my sister asked for a photo of her sitting in it to get an idea of its size. So she perched in the chair, made a face and took a selfie.

I cropped it down to just her pretty face to try to capture her sense of fun in a painting. After 3 drawings I finally got everything at the right angles. My brain kept trying to straighten everything out and make it symmetrical.

Then came 3 paintings. The first one went directly in the trash. The second one was better but when it reached gouache’s “ugly stage” I lost my confidence and started over again.

This is the third one. I can see a few things I could fix if I kept working on it, but my current goal is to stop painting sooner rather than too late. Also I’m using gouache these days partly because it doesn’t allow the forever fiddling that oil does. At a certain point gouache just says, “Nope” and stops cooperating if you try to keep adding paint or fiddling.

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Art Faces Gouache Painting People Portrait

Brian from Police IT Department: Gouache Portrait

Brian from IT, Gouache on paper 9×12”

His name isn’t really Brian. I took a photo of him from the TV screen when I watching a European detective show on BritBox because I found the colors mesmerizing.

I don’t remember which show it was, but he was the sweet, smart guy who could always be relied on to find the solutions on his computer. Even though most of those European detective/police procedural shows follow a similar formula, with a similar set of characters (like the sweet IT nerd guy), I still thoroughly enjoy them.

Photo reference from the TV

It was challenging but fun to draw and paint from the above photo reference. I really wanted to capture his sweet expression and the vivid colors. It took me 4 drawings and then starting over after abandoning a painting before I was satisfied. I had such a great time with the headphones! But I got lazy with his shirt and left off the plaid because I was ready to move on.

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Art Faces Gouache Painting People Portrait

Grumpy Old Brit Character Actor

Portrait in gouache of old British male character
Old Brit Character Actor, Gouache, 10×7”

My last painting of 2024 is this gouache painting of a British or Irish character actor from one of the great detective shows on BritBox (but I forget which one).

I tried to do a Google reverse search from the photo I took from the TV (see below) to learn his name but it failed, giving me everything from Donald Trump (?!) to an advertisement for tweed jackets. Do you know who he is?

After dong a couple sketches it was time to paint. I was inspired to use gouache instead of oils because I hate the way my oil paintings almost always end up taking forever and feeling overworked while I try over and over to perfect it.

I don’t do that with gouache, I get more carefree, playful and have fun. It had been nearly a year since I used gouache and it felt like I’d forgotten everything.

This was my get-reacquainted with gouache painting and I’m excited to start the next one, also a still from a TV show.

Who am I? Reference screen still from TV
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Art Drawing Faces Gouache Painting People Portrait

Big Forehead Guy and Erupting Volcanoes

Big Forehead Guy #2, Gouache, 10×7.5”

I used a limited palette to paint this guy twice. I based the one above on the colors I’d seen in a run around erupting volcanoes on Zwift. I also painted him using the original blue colors of the reference photo below.

Zwift is a virtual world/video game that you move through based on your speed and effort on a spinning bike or treadmill (see screenshot below). My limited palette was Indigo, Napthol Red and Cadmium Yellow Pale.

A scene from my run in Zwift’s Whole Lotta Lava route

I thought he’d be fun to draw, with that prominent forehead and strong jawline and he was. I also painted him using a limited primary palette of yellow, red and blue, trying to get colors close to the reference photo (below).

Big Forehead Guy, #1, Gouache, 10×7.5”

About volcanoes…when I was a kid I had a reoccurring nightmare about being on an erupting volcano with Little Lulu and Tubby, characters from my favorite childhood comic books.

Below is the photo reference, my sketches, correction checks (photo tracing over sketch in Procreate) and the painting starts.

Photo reference
First Sketch
Comparing 1st sketch to photo
Second Sketch
Portrait paintings in gouache of a guy with a big forehead.
Blue painting start
Red painting WIP
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Art Drawing Faces Gouache Painting People Portrait

The Restaurant Critic

Restaurant Critic #2, Gouache, 10×7.5”

I saw a photo of this restaurant critic in Berkeleyside, an online local newspaper, and immediately wanted to paint him. I made several drawings, trying to get a likeness. And then I painted him twice. Above is the second painting; below is the first.

Restaurant Critic #1, Gouache, 10×7.5”

I think his expression shows my frustration rather than the serene smile you can see in the reference photo here. Below are the drawings, which maybe captured his expression better than the paintings.

Critic Sketch #1, 10×8″
Critic Sketch #2, 10×8″
Painting start

My drawing practice had been left behind over the months I worked on an oil painting that I ultimately abandoned. I was rusty at both painting in gouache and drawing but you have to start where you are, so that’s what I did.

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Art Faces Gouache People Portrait Sktchy Sktchy Watercolor

Is She Sleepy, Bored or Annoyed?

Sleepy Asian Girl, Gouache on paper, 10 x 7 inches
Sleepy Asian Girl, Gouache on paper, 10 x 7 inches

This was one of those rare and wonderful painting experiences where the sketch (below) came together by magic, and I liked it enough to not even check it against the reference photo for accuracy. I didn’t care if it was perfect. The painting just flowed and it was super fun to see and paint all the different colors and textures.

Sleepy Asian Girl Sketch, 10x8 inches, graphite on Xerox paper
Sleepy Asian Girl Sketch, 10×8 inches, graphite on Xerox paper

I kept pondering her story while I worked on the portrait. I had all kinds of ideas but settled on a bone-tired factory or sewing shop worker. Then I did a Google image search of the reference photo (below), which was supplied by a Sktchy artist for her class demo and for us to paint from.

Reference photo

The image search took me down a looooong rabbit hole that led to a match for the photo. It turns out the model is a Japanese artist named Serena Motola. Maybe she was just bored and annoyed to be modeling when she wanted to be painting?

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Art Drawing Faces Gouache Painting People Portrait Sktchy Sktchy

Forest Bather in Gouache

Bennett P from Sktchy in Gouache, 10×7 inches

I really enjoyed painting this calm, pleasant young man amidst the trees, seemingly bathing in the cool forest light. You can see his original photo reference on Sktchy here.

I started with a pencil sketch on copy paper. Then to check my drawing, I compared my sketch to the photo by scanning my sketch into Procreate with the original photo. On a new layer I traced the photo with a red line and layered that over the sketch (see below). Using the red lines as a reference, I corrected my original sketch on paper, transferred the sketch to watercolor paper and then painted.

Bennett’s reference photo was part of the Sktchy “30 days in Watercolor and Gouache” class taught by Mike Creighton, one of my favorite Sktchy teachers. I thought it would be interesting to share his painting; such a different feel from mine!

Mike Creighton’s gouache painting

He used a limited palette and did a lot of mark making with his brush. I know the idea of the Sktchy classes is to try to mimic the teachers in order to learn a variety of different approaches and techniques, but I almost always end up taking what I like and then going my own way.

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Art Gouache Painting People Portrait Sktchy Sktchy

Mystery Girl Detective in Purple

Kate K. from Sktchy, gouache on paper, 8.5 x 7 inches
Kate K. from Sktchy, gouache on paper, 8.5 x 7 inches

While I worked on the sketch for this painting I listened to a mystery audiobook with a female detective so when it came time to do the painting, I decided to make her a detective in a dark subway or tunnel. Using a limited, complimentary palette of mostly purple and yellow (because of her hair, see reference photo below) I put her in a purple trench coat.

Kate K. from Sktchy reference photo
Kate K. from Sktchy reference photo

The teacher for this lesson on Sktchy Art School is a big fan of patterned backgrounds, as you can see in this link to her painting. She used “Acryla Gouache” in her demo, which I have tried and don’t like. It’s basically just opaque and matte acrylic, not “real” gouache in my opinion.

Initial sketch for painting of Kate K.
Initial sketch for painting of Kate K.

In the sketch above you can see that I indicated the divisions between the shadows and light areas. I’m trying to focus on keeping my value families separated, keeping the darks together separately from the lights family.