 Hello, everyone. In this video, I am going to be talking about the lessons that I've learned when it comes to painting with gouache. Through multiple practice sessions and some experimentations, I've gathered some tips and techniques that I'm happy to share with you, but mostly I want to share with my future self because I just want to be able to remember these tips and techniques, and I also want to be able to apply them into future gouache paintings. So because of that, the tips and techniques that I will be sharing in this video definitely cater towards a specific painting style. So if you share the same painting goal as me when it comes to gouache, which falls under the category of impressionism, meaning visible brushstrokes, not too much focused on details, so unblended colors, and just trying to paint things as colors in planes and shapes. And if that's something that you have as your art goal, then hopefully this video can be helpful to you as well. The first lesson that I learned I spoke about in my previous gouache painting video as well, and that is working from dark to light. So I come from a watercolor background and I've also used alcohol markers in the past. And those were my two main media a couple years back. And the way that I used them before was I would actually do the opposite. I would go from light to dark. And the reason why I did that was because building up the layers slowly allows me to have more control of the medium. It prevents me from going too dark too quickly or muddying up the colors, especially with watercolors. And it can also happen with alcohol markers. The first couple of painting sessions that I did with gouache, I did the exact same thing. And that's because it was a method that I was very much used to. Unfortunately, it didn't work because gouache is an opaque medium. And I also heavily rely on my pencil sketches to work as my guide for what to color. So for example, I have a pencil sketch right here and it may be rough, but it gives me a guide as to what the face is going to look like, where the hands are going to be, the placement of the flowers, things like that. And as soon as I lay down a layer of gouache paint on top of the pencil sketches, those sketch marks immediately disappear. So working from dark to light allowed me to create almost like an outline. It's as if I was tracing the pencil marks. I was establishing where the face was, where the eyes were, the nose, the lips, the fingers. All details that I really rely on the sketch for. And then after that, I was able to work towards the mid tones and then into the light areas. And once I kind of have the foundation built, I was able to play around and add way more colors, way more layers, and to build it up into what I was eventually happy with. The next lesson that I learned when it comes to using gouache is to utilize the wet on wet technique. Now this can sound a little bit unconventional, especially because a lot of the tutorials on how to use gouache that I watched or that I read talked about how you have to let gouache completely dry before you add a new layer of paint on top of it. Because it can run the risk of making your colors way too muddy. And that definitely happened for me with how I painted the dress. However, there were definitely other factors that contributed to that and I was still able to fix it. But the reason why I want to use the wet on wet technique for future gouache paintings is because it allows me to achieve a variety of colors, and use in shades, especially when I'm painting one area. And you can definitely see that not just the dress, but also on the skin. And there were two factors that led to muddy colors when I was painting the dress. Number one is the fact that I had absolutely no planning for what I was going to do with the dress, which then led to number two, my complete disregard for what I just mentioned at the beginning of this video, which is to go from light to dark. Now take the skin as an example. With the skin, I knew exactly what I wanted my midtones to be. I knew I wanted some purples for the shadow colors, and I knew I wanted some yellow tones for the highlights. With the dress, the only thing I knew was that I knew was going to be orange. And because of that, I ended up laying down the only color that I knew I was going to use, which ended up becoming the midtone. And then I kind of panicked, started adding the dark tones and then adding some highlights on top of that, which resulted in great colors. And even though it resulted in some muddy colors, I think this is still a great initial layer because I was able to map out the shadows and the highlights and all of that. And I was also able to determine the colors that I want to use, like for example, maybe blues, reds, yellows, and those are all going to be colors that I will use once again after this initial layer has dried. And I will go back on top of it to then refine how I painted the dress. With that said, I would still like to use the wet on wet technique, especially for future gouache artworks. Is it beginner friendly? Probably not. It definitely runs the risk of overworking your colors very quickly or resulting in muddy colors. However, my main takeaway isn't to avoid the technique altogether, but my takeaway is to plan ahead. Even if I just flesh out the colors that I want to use, for example, the dark tones, the midtones and the highlights, as long as I kind of have that planned out before I actually start laying down the colors, then I feel like I am good to go. What I like with the wet on wet technique is, for example, when you're laying down a brush stroke is at the beginning of the brush stroke, it's a little bit more opaque because there's more paint. And then towards the end of the brush stroke, it's a little bit more translucent because there's less paint. And if the paint underneath that is still wet, it's almost as if you're mixing it directly onto the canvas or the wooden panel. And so it creates a different color without me having to mix it on my palette, which is something that I actually quite enjoy as a process, which is why I would absolutely love to master it in future gouache paintings. And I would also like to note that this painting that you are seeing on the screen is definitely not a demonstration of all of the techniques that I am talking about in this video. Instead, it is more of a painting that led to those learning lessons. So I may have done things that I am not talking about in this video or is the complete opposite, but that is exactly what has led me into that conclusion. And therefore, I started thinking that this is the technique that I want to move forward with in the future, and this is a technique that I'm happy to leave in the past. And the next lesson that I learned is when to actually use wet on dry with gouache. Whilst I definitely love using the wet on wet technique when I'm painting a specific section, there definitely is a time and place for both. And how I like to use wet on dry is number one with highlights. There are three instances where I like to use the wet on dry technique and one of them I already mentioned a couple of seconds ago, that being refinement. So for example, if I laid down some colors using the wet on wet technique and I wasn't super happy with it, the next thing I would do is to let that layer completely dry. Once it is dry, I will then add a new set of paint on top of it to try and refine that area. And that is actually something that I'm going to do not just for the dress, but I'm also going to do it for the skin, for the flowers, for the background, for the hair, all of that. The second instance that I like to use the wet on dry is for adding highlights. And I like to do this because when you're adding a light color on top of what is already been painted, it can actually run the risk of reactivating the gouache paint underneath, especially when you're using water. So what I like to do when I'm adding a highlight is not only wait for the layer underneath that to completely dry, I actually try to avoid mixing water with the light color that I'm using. Because if I mix water with it, it makes it a little bit more translucent, less opaque, which means that when it dries, it can become a little bit dull because it'll show through the color underneath. So I like to lay it on thick. And if I'm also waiting for the layer underneath that to be completely dry, then there's less risk for me to reactivate that under layer. However, I only really try to do this when, for example, I just feel like there isn't enough contrast or there isn't enough pop in a specific section. So I will usually do this, for example, for the face, like I could be doing it for the eyes, or for the lips, or for the nose. The third instance of when I like to use the wet on dry technique is when I'm working on a section that is right next to a different section. And I don't know if I explained that properly, but for example, the flower, I would consider that to be its own section because it's all in the color yellow. The leaves would be a different section because it's all colored green. So I guess you could divide it based on different colors and not so much that like different shades, but more like if they're really different areas. Luckily with this painting, I was working on it for a couple days and I was working on it a couple hours on each day. So it allowed the painting to dry. For example, I worked on the skin first and then that dried and then I worked on the dress and then it dried and then I worked on the background and then it dried. So it was great. All of the edges were pretty crisp. When it came to painting the flowers, I worked on the flowers and the leaves all on the same day. And because I was only working on it for a couple hours, I really just wanted to smash out the painting and to finish painting the flowers. So I got a little bit impatient and I started to paint the leaves whilst the flowers were still dry. This kind of led to the edges to not be as crisp. I was also kind of struggling to paint super close to the flowers with the green paint because I didn't want to end up mixing them together, contaminating my brush with yellow. And so I struggled a little bit with that, but eventually what I will do after this is I will literally let this section dry, let both the flowers and the leaves dry, and then I will come back onto it to refine. The next thing that I learned when it comes to using gouache is the importance of underpainting. The artwork that you are seeing on screen, unfortunately, I actually forgot to add an underpainting, which then led me to the conclusion that I actually really prefer to use an underpainting. I think it just completely adds to the finished artwork. In my previous painting, which I will link in the card section of this video, that is when I tried my hand at a translucent solid block of underpainting, and that is definitely what I've seen a lot of tutorials recommend. You either start with the actual watercolors as you're underpainting, or you can use gouache, but you just really, really dilute it with water so that when you're laying that underpainting down, it's not as thick. Therefore, you're not risking the paint getting reactivated, especially when you start layering your colors on top of that. For this painting, when I was adding the flowers and the leaves, that's definitely when I realized how much I would have preferred this painting if it had an underlayer or an underpainting. And that's because there's gaps between the flowers and the leaves, and I feel like instead of it being white, it could have been a nice pop of color or it could have been a color that ties in all of the colors that I'm using in this painting together with either a general warm tone or a cool tone, or it could have been a contrasting color to really either make the colors pop or to desaturate the colors. There are so many things that you can do with an underpainting, and that's what makes me excited to actually use that in future gouache paintings. So because I didn't have an underpainting underneath this, a lot of the white is showing through, and so I had to go in with a darker color, kind of very similar to my background color to try and fill in those gaps. But I've definitely seen a lot of artists, especially who use a solid block of color as their underpainting, that usually leave gaps between sections to let that underpainting shine through. I am yet to use that technique, but I'm definitely a fan. I think it looks great. It really adds a lot of interest and it really makes the colors just pop. So this is definitely something that I would like to bring forward with my future gouache paintings, and I can't wait to use it for the next one that I create. And those are some of the lessons that I've learned. I feel like as I do more gouache paintings, there will definitely be a lot more as this painting has proven. It is not a demonstration of all of the learning lessons that I am mentioning or that I have mentioned in this video in one painting. In fact, it is the opposite of that. I did a lot of the things that are the opposite and I realized that, oh, I actually prefer this method. So I am yet to do way more experiments and way more practice sessions with gouache. And hopefully I can learn a lot more with this particular medium because it is very fun to work with. It can be very forgiving and challenging at the same time, which is pretty exciting. And if you are looking to learn more about gouache, I have actually gathered a lot of the videos and tutorials that I have read and I've watched so you can also practice using gouache for your own paintings. And if you want to watch another gouache painting, that will be the next video.