Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Seeing a Door in a New Way


We had a busy day 3 and John demo'd two paintings. The first picture is my interpretation and the second is his demo. Since I took the photo, I've already dithered this painting some more (and so has John dithered with his).

One of the techniques in this demo is "gouache resist".
Gouache: gouache |gwä sh; goōˈä sh |
noun a method of painting using opaque pigments ground in water and thickened with a gluelike substance.paint of this kind; opaque watercolor.a picture painted in this way.
ORIGIN late 19th cent.: French, from Italian guazzo.

Anyway, the curlicues in the upper doorway are painted in gouache. Well, first a light wash. Dry. Then paint with white gouache. Dry. Then paint over entirely with a dark color. Dry. Then with a sprayer of water spritz off the layer of dark paint that rests on the gouache. Gently.

John has used a layer of light guoache also in the right hand corner to "mystify" that corner. I did it in the left corner but obviously I need to do it again more heavily.
This technique can be done with gesso (permanent) or with gouache (not permanent). Both require whisking the area with a soft dry brush.

I'll share the second painting tomorrow because I really was not anywhere finished with mine at 5 pm when I officially became brain dead.

Incidentally, the tiny bits of color in John's upper door is water soluble crayon.

1 comment:

  1. Looks like you're having a great time. There's always something to learn and something to try. Dillman's, as I remember it, seems the perfect place for that.

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