I'm nearly ready to call myself a two medium artist at this point. I've been playing around with water media lately (pen and ink/ink wash/watercolor/gouache/watercolor pencils . . . yes, the wide gamut of water media). I still don't think of myself as an expert, but I must admit a great fondness for it when it works---and it doesn't always work, mind you.

I started playing with watercolor first and found it a bit difficult and didn't like the restriction of using only the white of the paper as white . . . in other words, I prefer to work more sloppily and fix my mistakes later on. So I added a white gouache to my watercolor palette---this improved my enjoyment (and success) tremendously. But moving from watercolor to a full gouache compliment was the moment, for me, of true bliss. I love it. It gives you the watery feel of watercolor but adds the ability to correct mistakes and add opaque details later on rather than having to preserve details throughout the painting process. Not to mention the ability to add dramatic darks and vivid colors quickly without layers and layers of glazes.

Climbing the Crepe Myrtle, 13.5x7.5", $125

So, I will be doing more of these gouache paintings going forward. I may even get around to putting mat board around them and selling them one of these days. We'll see. Thanks for checking in, and if you want to see more of my painting process, check out my Instagram feed!

climbing the crepe myrtle