For my March product of the month I wanted to create something with a splash of colour as I was feeling the spring vibe that came with the sunshine we had at the beginning of the month! Gouache paint sprung to mind! In my free time I create little illustrations using the paint for its vibrancy, fluidity, and opacity, which means you can build up layers of it. Being a lover of bold colours and an indecisive painter, I love it! It offers the intensity of colour that you get with acrylics but can be a lot smoother and free flowing depending on how much water you add to it! It is also similar to acrylic in that, if you decide later on you want to add in other details or make any little accidents that you want to change, you can go over what is already there once it’s dry. This works best when layered on thick with little water. You may find you need to go over and build up the layers to stop the paint absorbing into the background; this is where gouache is water based but because it has solid white pigment in the ingredients to improve its opacity.
To enhance features of the drawing, I come in with fineliner pens over the top; however I have always found that some are quick to ruin when used on gouache in comparison to use on their own, or on a watercolour painting. I was introduced to the Faber Castell Pitt pens, which contain Indian ink and was pleasantly surprised at how well they work on gouache in bringing the drawing to life! Because of their softer tip, they flow well on the gouache with no damage to the pen or painting, no matter how many layers of paint has been built up. Unlike fineliners, which although are wonderful for creating pieces with fine details and an easy option for pen and ink drawings as opposed to a dip pen, they can be too harsh on gouache; which having a creamy, powdery consistency can cause the dry paint to crumble and flake off the page.
For the painting, I used the Da Vinci Cosmotop Spin in size 3 and the Winsor & Newton Cotman brush in size 1, which were perfect to fill majority of the piece and paint grass strands and flowers, but to finish the rabbit and other finer details I needed something much daintier. For this I used the Da Vinci Nova Synthetic brush in a size 3/0, which was great for producing hair-like results and made finishing the rabbit’s face very easy too.
To highlight, I simply used a white Jellyroll pen. They are my go to choice of gel pen as I find they flow so well compared to most brands and create a purer white line as well. They also come in many other colours which can all be great for highlights too. All this combined with the matte and radiant finish of gouache makes the end piece look almost digital, meaning that if you wanted to enhance it digitally you could do so quite easily without worry of light reflection on the paint from your scanner! But even without doing so you would still have a wonderful, flamboyant illustration or painting!