Summertime blues

I switched off my PC at work today and said goodbye to the stressful world of embedded software engineering for a little while :)  As I've no doubt mentioned a millions times already, we're off to Dorset on the South West coast of the UK for a week and so I won't be around in blogland much now until we get back - although I will be taking some form of 21st century communication and a camera with me, so anything is possible ;). To all those I follow, please don't think I'm ignoring all your wonderful work. I'm probably lazing on the beach, walking in the hills, paddling in the sea or eating fish and chips - I can't wait. Anyway, as they used to say ... here's one I did earlier - a couple of weeks ago I think, but very appropriate! Happy painting and drawing everyone. Bye for now, have a lovely week, Michael.

Seascape IV, gouache, 6.5" x 9"

After the Deluge

I don't know about any of you out there in blogland who aren't here in the UK but recently we seem to have been having quite a bit of weather - in fact some days you could say it's been of biblical proportions! I stopped off in town again today with the intention of getting a sketch done but it was just too wet and even if I could have sheltered from the rain, there was absolutely nowhere dry enough to sit!

To satisfy my desire to paint today, I decided to try out my latest, and probably last, addition to my gouache palette - Red Ochre. I use Light Red or Venetian Red in my watercolours quite a lot so this was one I had planned to get as soon as possible. It's a gorgeous natural red that mixes beautifully with Ultramarine to give nice atmospheric skies. My latest offering for you is the third in my series of seascape practice runs. I kept the use of  white gouache to a minimum and applied the paint quite thinly for this, so it's almost a pure transparent watercolour (well almost).

Seascape III, gouache, 6" x 8"

And here is a snippet from the previous page in my Canson HP watercolour sketchbook showing all the colours I use in the Winsor & Newton Designer's Gouache range. The Zinc White is barely visible in this scan - a bit like a polar bear in  a snowstorm I suppose LOL.  I hope you can read my engineer's scribble! Happy Tuesday :O)

My gouache palette

Wave theory

'Then the tide rushes in
And washes my castles away.'


The second in my seascape practice runs. This was done entirely in Winsor & Newton designer's gouache in a small Canson watercolour sketchbook, filled with 230gsm hot pressed archival paper. The sky was a mix of Ultramarine and Cerulean blue applied wet in wet with the paint diluted to a watercolour consistency. The sea was painted with a mixture of the sky colour and Pemanent Green for the turquoise colours, then pure Ultramarine for the deep water colour and finally Zinc white applied quite dry for the surf. The distant coastline was a variegated wash using a mixture of Ultramarine and Spectrum Red (or possibly Permanent Rose). Five pigments .... Simples!

Seascape II, gouache, 6" x 8"

A further pause for thought

Some of you may remember an earlier post of mine that featured this statue of the Thinking Soldier from a slightly different angle. I did a fairly detailed pencil sketch on Bockingford 140lb watercolour paper but I didn't have a lot of time so I decided to take a reference photo and finish it later. When I got home I used my set of Caran D'Ache gouache cakes and a 1/4" flat synthetic brush to add colour, using the photo for reference.

Huntingdon Market Square, gouache on paper, 5" x 7"

Krafty planning

I recently bought a really nice A4 kraft card sketchbook made by Seawhite here in the UK. I thought it would make me paint bigger, but the main reason was to have a single sketchbook that would allow me to use various opaque media like pastel, oil, acrylic, gouache and possibly charcoal and conte, and that I could take on holiday with me in a few weeks time. I've only managed to test oil and gouache but I really like the results so far. 

For the first page shown here I used Caran D'Ache studio gouache cakes, These give similar coverage to normal tube based gouache but are in a convenient ready to use cake format so I could certainly use them on holiday.

For the second page, I used thinned oils at the top and normal Winsor & Newton designers' tube gouache at the bottom. I did a couple more samples with oils and they look really good, applied thicker than I did here, but unfortunately I cannot show those for reasons of plagiarism! If I do decide to use oils in this sketchbook, then I really ought to use a primer to stop the oil sinking but still keep the nice mid tone of the card and not loose the texture too much either.

I'm just trying to minimise what I take since boot space and weight is at  a premium. I suppose I could take fewer clothes -  I always take far more than I need!

PS Ralph Parker  has some excellent tips and general thoughts on using gouache as an alternative to oils and acrylics and even advice on varnishing gouache paintings to give the effect of oils! But please leave me a comment before you zip off to Ralph's blog!