5 Comments

I have gouache somewhere around but have never used it. Not even sure if I still have the introductory set from Michaels. It was a gift. The reason I asked was it looked more like water color than a what I thought gouache would look like. I have never used gouache. I was just noting that you somehow made a paint designed to be opaque appear transparent. Magic.

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I love your gouache winter sketches. Thanks for sharing the seasonal weather information as well!

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Thanks, Chris!

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Michael went you use gouache do you have to thin it down and if so how much to get it to appear as a thin watercolor wash? Perhaps I should ask the question this way some of your brush strokes are much darker that others especially the darker colors. In the lighter washes did you have to dilute the gouache and if so how much to get the soft yellows, purples, greens, and blues to get the effect of watercolor appearance?

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Hi John - I think the gouache down considerably so it acts like a watercolor. It thins down so much it becomes almost transparent. If I want more opacity, like in the dark notes, I will use a lot less water, maybe none at all. I'm using "pan gouache," so it thins to transparency pretty easily; the flip side is that it is harder to get the opacity. With tube gouache (is that what you're using?), opacity should be easy, but you may have to work at getting it to thin.

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