Working with gouache paint is so much fun! I would like to share another experimental painting I made the other day. This time, I used black paper. Seeing that gouache gives a matte and chalky finish, I imagined it would look stunning on dark paper. And I was right! Little One was further thrilled to be subject of the painting again, and how sweet does she look surrounded by her pretty dresses. Today, she tried on a funky hairpiece with metallic purple streaks, how cute is that! She loves bright vivid colors too and trying to decide what to wear today. Looks like she’s gone for the yellow one! Now that compliments well with that funky hairpiece.
Leftover Gouache Paint
The painting starts off with some excess yellow gouache when I was working on another piece. As usual, I don’t like to waste leftovers so tend to wipe it off the brush on separate paper then take it on from there.
As I began working on other gouache paintings, I further applied the excess paint onto this paper. More colors were eventually applied whilst I decided it would be a good idea to draw other dresses too. Obviously the lighter the colors, the more they popped out against the black paper. Some acrylic inks (Antelope brown and white), also leftover from another painting, were used for the face and the hair. Then I drew the eyes with some markers and gel pen.
Finishing it Up
To finish it up, I painted in the collar with white gouache. The purple dress did not stand out as much as the other dresses had and in fact looked a bit out of place. Hence it was painted over with some Coral. And the hair! I wanted to experiment with some Metallic Violet but was not sure if it would look good as a dress, seeing the purple didn’t work too well. That was then used on Little One’s hair which eventually became a hairpiece. I love how it blends well with the brown! Finally another I wanted to try out was gouache in fluorescent colors. As you can see below, they worked beautifully! So here concludes my experiment using the gouache on black paper. I think it looks great, and Little One does pop out so cutely!
Although it’s just a rough sketch this time, the whole experiment of gouache on black paper was a great success. Best results come from pastel, metallic or fluorescent colors. In future, I’ll definitely be using this idea on another painting, something more detailed and elaborate. Gouache is definitely the best choice of all the paints to use for black paper. And now, Little One is very happy in her purple hairpiece and being surrounded by all her pretty dresses, how kawaii!
My Kawaii Quarter 