I painted this one a few months ago, and at the time I was experimenting. I wasn’t sure if I could layer colors from dark to light with gouache. This is normally how I paint – always starting with the shadows or the darkest areas of the painting.

Some artists paint in the opposite direction – light to dark, and I thought maybe it’s because that’s what works best with gouache? I didn’t like the thought of having to completely reverse my way of doing things, so I decided to give my usual way a try. I dried the dark colors with my handheld fan, and then started layering over it with lighter colors. 

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.

William Wordsworth

I know he was talking about words, but I like filling my paper with paint, instead. 

I think it was in these moments of experimentation that I fell even more deeply in love with gouache. I thought by rewetting the under layer with my brush, it would make the top layer a muddy mess, but nope. I was able to lighten in the exact spots I wanted without any issues.

Gouache is incredible, and versatile, and need I say how much I loooooveeee gouache once again? Well, in case you missed it, I do. lol 

The way I set up my gouache palettes is always changing, but I think this might have been the palette I was using at the time. The only thing missing is white, which I might have been using right out of the tube..not sure? Or, maybe there was a row of white that I cut off when I took this photo?  

One thing I’ve learned when setting up a gouache palette is not to place the darker colors too close to the lighter colors because as you can see in the photo above, the dark colors kept dripping into the lighter ones. It turned into a real mess. 

The palette I have set up now is completely different. I’ll write a separate blog post about it sometime, so you can see where I made mistakes with this palette. For now, I’ve gotta run. I hope you’re having a fabulous Monday. 

Taking Up Residency In His Head
Gouache portrait painting 
Available here

More paintings are available in my shop. 

Thanks for stopping by.

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