Gouache is an interesting medium that I’ve never had much to do with in the past. The Watts Atelier curriculum sees a phase of gouache painting before any progression on to oils. It is in the gouache phase that a technique called tiling is introduced whereby paint is applied in distinct shapes – or tiles – of pigment, I guess kind of like a mosaic in effect.
Gouache is effectively opaque watercolour but unlike acrylic, it can be re-activated again with water once it has dried. This means that these tiles can be either left as distinct patches, or the adjoining edges can be re-activated and softened to create smoother blends.
I thought this sounded quite interesting so I gave it a crack. For a first shot I was reasonably happy with the end result although I don’t think I quite nailed the ’tiling’ aspect of it so much.
I intend to do a few more of these in the short term, and will revisit regularly as I found it quite a quick and efficient medium to paint with and would be great for small studies and the like.
