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Monday, April 23, 2012

Sketching Spring Trees

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

Spring Trees, done on Easter Sunday, UniBall Vision pen, Daniel Smith watercolors, Stillman & Birn Beta series sketchbook.

Winsor & Newton Gouache, Stillman & Birn Beta series sketchbook.

 I thought this wold be an interesting comparison of two similar (yet very different!) mediums ,watercolor and gouache. Gouache is sometimes thought of as opaque watercolor, in the 19th century it was called body color, meaning that it had a heavier consistency than watercolor, hence it had more body to it. You can thin down gouache like watercolor and create semi transparent washes or you can build up color as I did here.

The watercolor and pen is a very fast way to work and the transparent color seemed the best choice for capturing the very sunny day and the light colors in the trees.  When i did the second sketch clouds were rolling in and the weather was changing and layers of heavier gouache seemed the right choice for that particular situation.

Gouache and watercolor also work well together, allowing you to sit opaque layers or areas on top of transparent areas which produces a really nice effect.

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