Adventures in Gouache!!
I have been drawing exclusively digital for a few years now. I like the convenience of having every tool at my disposal (and an Undo button) but recently while having a conversation with a pretty stellar comic book, Stéphane Roux, artist he mentioned a great way to learn color and light was to use paint and pencil, shade a piece then paint over it. I loved the idea so I got online and ordered some brushes that would travel well and a set of gouache paints a 12 pack. After fiddling around a bit I realized I needed some help so I purchased two courses on Domestika. I've been working my way through them and realized I needed better paint so I bought a better set that was over half off. It was a primary set of red, blue, yellow, also green black and white from Winsor Newton. I started the tutorials and I was in love. So for the last two weeks I've spent my lunch hour at work painting and trying to emulate the images the ever skillful Ruth Wilshaw was painting before my eyes. While it's only been two weeks and only a quarter of the course in I feel like I am hooked on gouache.
Before playing with gouache I was dabbling in watercolor, I fell in love with the Viviva color sheets and their travel friendliness. This meant I knew I needed a travel kit for my gouache adventures! I searched around to make the perfect travel kit. I own a beautiful fishing tackle tin that fits pencils and my colorsheets perfectly, then I hopped online to find some good travel brushes. Imagine my surprise when I found the perfect set! They were collapsible and came in a beautiful faux leather travel pouch by Kolinsky. Next I found a collapsible cup, and repurposed an old hard case for comics into the perfect carrying case for my bits and bobs.
While the travel brush set it pretty awesome I still needed a fan brush so I could emulate Mr. Bob Ross and his happy little trees! (Still working on that technique) I bought one but the fan was WAY too big for the practice sheets I created from larger watercolor pages so I had to wait a bit so I could purchase a full set of fan brushes that had the right size in it ...sigh.
After I gathered all my supplies I went to work! It's been a learning curve for sure, again I've only really drawn digitally for at least the last 3 years ish but I'm still having fun learning and the classes I purchased on Domestika are really helping! I will post links below to a few other supplies I've purchased and enjoyed but most of them are linked above! If you have any questions about any of them hit me up!
Gouache Beginners Travel Supply List!
Online Classes:
Painting Atmospheric Landscapes with Gouache - Course by Ruth Wilshaw
Fantasy Landscapes with Watercolor & Gouache - Course by Ruth Wilshaw
Paint Sets:
Winsor Newton Primary Paint Set - A little on the high side but often 50% off
Talens Art Creation Goauche Set - More affordable and more colors but the quality isn't as good as the Winsor Newton set. However truly not bad for the price.
Brushes:
Kolinsky Sable Travel Brushes - I adore these brushes I carry them even if I forget the paint I love them so much!
The Fan Brush Set... - I ended up chopping the end of the one I needed off so it would fit better in my kit. These are long boi's.
Misc Paint Supplies:
Collapsible Cup by Faber Castell - I never thought I would use this as much as I do
Acrylic Paint Palette - I LOVE this set I use the smaller one on my tiny desk and the larger rectangle one goes everywhere with me!
Small Spray Bottles - Gouache is a water based paint so these are perfect for any travel kit to help wet a palette or even re wet paint.
A Travel Paint Tin - This has some flaws but will someday come in handy when I get better at mixing colors.
Painters Tape - I love the width of this tape however be careful on textured paper it will tear it up a bit especially if you leave it for some time.
The Fan Brush Set... - I ended up chopping the end of the one I needed off so it would fit better in my kit. These are long boi's.