http://www.painters-online.co.uk artistMarch 2021 21
PRACTICAL
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ROBERT’S TOP TIPS FOR
NEWCOMERS TO GOUACHE
l Never paint too thickly in the early stages.
l Try to develop the painting from dark to light;
however, leave the extremes until later.
l Be aware of creating dirty colour. Apply the colour
lightly initially and experiment on a scrap of paper
first if you are not sure.
l Try to resist adding detail too early.
l Be patient and wait until the paint is completely dry
before layering the next colour.
l Don’t work too small or your painting will become
too fiddly/busy.- Do the edges work? Too many
hard edges scattered around the
painting will destroy the balance
and lead-in. In general, eliminate
most of the harder edges around the
outer areas of your painting. It may
help to squint your eyes to identify
the worst offenders. By softening
a few edges and retaining some of
the harder ones, you will be able to
move the emphasis and strengthen
the focal point.
u Winter Morning, Norfolk, gouache,
93 103/4in (23 3 27cm).
Very stiff card, primed on both sides to
prevent warping before texture paste was
applied, resulted in a lovely sensitive surface
to work on. The board was tinted with a very
watery wash of burnt sienna acrylic. I used
a limited palette of primary yellow, primary
red, permanent alizarin, ultramarine blue and
white. A very loose block-in was then over
painted with quite a few layers of broken
colour. The tree, bushes and fine grasses were
added last, taking care not to disturb the
underlying paint. As always, I took special
care to let each successive application of paint
dry before adding another
p Light on The Fells, Seatoller, Cumbria, gouache, 93/4 3 113/4in (25 3 30cm).
Here I painted on tinted pasted mount board with quite a heavy application of
texture paste. The painting was developed by layering on top of a loose block-in.
The colours used were primary yellow, yellow ochre, primary red, permanent
alizarin, cerulean, ultramarine blue and white. The darks in the trees were mixed
with a combination of ultramarine blue, permanent alizarin and yellow ochre. A
very small touch of white was used for the slightly lighter areas in the foliage
u Pony in The Snow, Scotby,
Cumbria, gouache, 71/2 3 61/4in
(19 3 16cm).
This was painted on a block of
Arches Cold Pressed watercolour
paper. I decided not to tint the
paper, instead I used the white
of the paper for most of the
lightest areas of snow. My limited
palette was yellow ochre, primary
yellow, burnt sienna, primary red,
cerulean, ultramarine blue and
white