The Books-a-Million Cafe Sketch

To see my paintings visit my website www.janblencowe.com

As much as I love eBooks, Kindle, on line magazines, shopping at Amazon.com  and digital media in general I still will always and forever love a beautiful hardcover book with gold gilded edges and visiting a book store. 

I also really love bookstores that have cafes. They are perfect for settling down and reading your latest purchase or for sketching. Usually people are relaxed and likely to stay for an hour or so and therefore they make good models!

I'm trying to improve my skill with gouache, and I think this is my best attempt so far. My biggest problem with using gouache is that I water down the paint too much, and don't dip back in or make more mix frequently enough and struggle to spread too little paint too far. Or as Bilbo Baggins stated on his 111th birthday “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter, scraped over too much bread." ~ JRR Tolkein

Gouache can be delicate and the previous layer can "lift" or dissolve into the layer you are adding if you don't allow enough dry time. I read in the Daniel Smith catalog that you can use Golden Super Loaded Matte Medium with gouache to create a surface that does not lift when re-wet.  This sort of makes your gouache more like an acrylic but not really as you have total control of how much medium you add and at which point in the painting you add it and if you add it all at in certain parts. I'm finding it very helpful right now.

This done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha Sketchbook, with W&N Gouache.