Descending Ashtray

The first image is a watercolor I did on Sunday evening, another study for the military storage facility sculpture/large watercolor I’m planning. I include it here mainly as contrast to the first gouache I did tonight. The areas which are intended to be fairly solid, flat colors are not.

The first gouache I tried was scary flat. I was pretty unhappy with it when I first began, but discovered that unlike most watercolor, you can blend gouache even when it’s dry. And you can use watercolor as tint for it. But, the gouache is really opaque, so you have to think about what you’re blending in. White gouache can overpower dark watercolor, for example, and create a grey where you intended shadow. Just a little different way of looking at things. Another pass at the RAF (more camoflaged and bullet-ridden; I was just goofing around).

After blending practice on the above, I thought I’d try something with more tones, like a flag. The rendering is a little cruder than I’d like, and the photo doesn’t do it justice (excuses, excuses), but I feel like I made some progress. It’s difficult to mix the gouache - the colors are just so much stronger than watercolor, and they dont’ get very transparent.

It’s really worth a try, I think. The flat colors obviously appeal to me, but the shading possibilities seem more like acrylic to me, and the opacity is really unbelievable. Stay tuned as Dave teaches himself to paint.