It’s getting colder and darker with the winter coming up in the Netherlands. Days are getting shorter and temperatures falling. But let’s not despair. Before we know it, Spring will come and we can look forward to warmer and brighter days. Let’s just close our eyes and think of beautiful vivid colours. And paint about it! I of course thought of our Little One floating around the azure blue sky in her cute little “bunny and bear” jumpsuit, surrounded by love. Let’s go for kawaii thoughts!
Doodling Away
This is the first painting using gouache only. In the past, I’ve always incorporated it with watercolour and been meaning to use it solo. Here was the chance to! I had some leftover brown gouache from a previous painting and decided to make a random doodle of Little One on a page from Strathmore’s Mixed Media Paper.
Colouring Time!
Holbein’s Acryla gouache was used for this painting. Gouache typically come in tubes which one mixes with water, and a little goes a long way. Like watercolour, gouache is composed of pigment and gum arabic but what makes gouache different is that white pigment or chalk is added. This gives a more opaque and matt finish compared to watercolour. I must say I was quite impressed about how strong and rich the colours came out. A bit like acrylic paint except using gum arabic instead of polymer emulsion. In fact, gouache is even more matte than acrylic paint. I continued happily painting using these beautiful colours and smiling at myself as I noticed how lively and vibrant the painting turned out. Something we need in this dreary winter weather!
Adding Details
I wanted to see what would happen if I added more on top of the gouache painting. That said, I used Acryla Gouache which contains a slight trace of polymer resins used for acrylic paint but without sacrificing the matte finish. As such, once dry, which is quick, it seems to be waterproof. I used my white Uni Posca markers for fine details and little doodles. Sure enough, the white didn’t dissolve with the paint and remained white. It was just a quick and easy painting today as I was merely wanting to try out gouache paint. I love it!
I wonder why I hadn’t ventured using gouache on its own earlier! It is not a paint medium used so commonly as watercolour or acrylic and hence tends to get cast aside. I would most definitely like to paint with it more often, as I really love how rich and vibrant the colours turn out. Depending on the sort of piece I want to produce, the opaque and matte finish is also impressive. These amazingly lively colours certainly brighten up those dark dreary winter days and make me want to produce more kawaii paintings like this!
My Kawaii Quarter 