HANDLING DARKS AND LIGHTS

One of the advantages of gouache is its unique covering power—but the paint needs to be controlled carefully so that you don’t lose the drawing beneath it. There are a number of effective ways do this.

DRAWING DARK OVER LIGHT

One way to keep a drawing from being lost when painted over with gouache is to first paint the background and then use the tracing paper method (see page 4) to transfer the drawing onto the completed background.

For example, if you are painting a farm scene, you could paint the sky and then redraw the buildings over the sky you’ve painted. You could also paint around the buildings. (To paint around a tree, however, is impractical.) Another approach is to ink over the drawing and paint over it with light washes. This way, you can still see the drawing through the paint. Thinned acrylics can also be used to define the drawing. Generally, I paint around things, but if I cover the drawing, I redefine it by using the tracing paper method.

STEP ONE In this farm scene, I paint the sky and ground with ivory black gouache and zinc white gouache mixed together in various tints. The snow is pure white zinc gouache painted over a slightly moist foreground.

STEP TWO Then I use the tracing paper method (see page 4) to transfer the building and trees from my pencil drawing onto the completed background.

DRAWING LIGHT OVER DARK

Gouache is great for working from dark to light colors. For example, when painting silver objects, I paint them pure black, then dark gray, light gray, lightest gray, and finally, pure white. To those who have never used gouache, it may seem strange to paint in this order, but this is the easiest and most effective way to use gouache.

When painting an object completely black, you’ll lose the drawing underneath, but this is not a problem. You can use the tracing paper method to retrace the drawing; however, you will coat the back of the drawing with light-colored chalk or pastel or white charcoal. The lighter color will transfer onto the dark gouache underpainting, restoring the original drawing in full detail. (Note the importance of keeping the final drawing until the painting is finished.)

STEP ONE First I block in the background and table with a cobalt blue gouache and zinc white gouache mixture. For the table I use a mixture of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and zinc white gouache. Then I paint the teapot with a solid layer of ivory black.

STEP TWO Now I transfer the teapot details from my original drawing onto the black under- painting, using a coat of white pastel on the back of my tracing paper.