Autumn… last year

Today we have the last day of Autumn, so theoretically I managed on time with my autumnal gouache sketch. Theoretically, because it was ready in autumn 2017… so it waited more than a year to be put together and described as a video tutorial.

Done vs undone

I wanted to do it the best as I can, so I needed time. Surprisingly – waiting didn’t help – I still couldn’t find time between my work, personal projects, and family duties.
That is why I thought – if done is better than perfect, can we assume that:

done is better than undone?

I made this assumption and instead of keeping this video deep in my computer folders I am releasing it as a speed process. Without voice comment this time, text only. It has some pros… you don’t have to hear my Polish-English accent 😀 and bad grammar. Oh wait… Bad grammar is even more visible in text…

Materials

The painting was made in my small sketchbook, which I made myself on 200g paper without texture. I like this kind of paper for gouache the best so far. I used Talens gouache and two kinds of brushes – wide, flat brush for bigger areas and textures and small, round for details.
I used the photo of my husband form one of his forest trips as a reference.

Gouache landscape painting process

1. I made a quick sketch with watercolor pencils ( they are soft but not grainy, and it doesn’t matter the will be blurred in the process. I drew the main shapes of the picture – trees on the second plan and the person.

2. I added big areas of paint diluted with a lot of water. Thanks to that gouache behave just like watercolor. Colors mixed with each other smoothly.

3. I added more paint, less water and painted darker shapes and edges. I left the background plan undefined and blurred to simulate the distance.

4. I used various strokes to create textures (leaves, grass on the foreground, tree branches and shapes in the background). I add more opaque paint to paint dark silhouettes of trees on the second plan.

5. I painted details by using a thin brush: branches, twigs, grass grubs, leaves. Light thin strokes on twigs and grass made the whole painting more detailed and stand out from the background. I often use watercolor or just color pencils to paint more details on dry gouache painting. It works really well.
And that is all!