This is my first ever attempt at using gouache so I began with a simple subject. I figured that it would be better if I didn’t get overwhelmed with drawing a difficult subject, and I’m very glad I made that choice because even this much painting took me well over an hour.
I chose gouache after making a trip to A&C Art Supply and speaking with Aaron about watercolor and its working properties. My main inspiration for seeking out watercolor was from Andrew Wyeth who mainly worked with egg tempera, but I didn’t want to have to deal with mixing my paint every session and the possible spoiling of eggs. So after a really good suggestion by Aaron I figured gouache would be the most similar to egg tempera due to its opaque qualities. And I must say that I really like the medium. It has zero glare, it can flow just a well as watercolor and even can achieve transparency well.
I quickly figured out why Andrew Wyeth works in very small hatching strokes throughout all his paintings. In order to achieve details similar there is really no other way to work besides short hatching strokes. It can get very tedious but the end result is really nice. Many of the hatching layers that I applied had some transparency to them which really increased the richness of the color and texture. I can only imagine what could happen after spending many many hours on a painting like this.
Close up
