I’m so embarrassed to put this photo up on the web 😅! It’s not horrible but boy, I really thought I would be better than this.

I bought a gouache airtight water palette, and the blending medium from Winsor and Newton, a couple weeks ago and I’ve been itching to use it. However, I’ve been too busy with other art projects to give it a shot. I finally bit the bullet today and decided to procrastinate on more pressing matters by doing a little value study in gouache of a “simple” subject.

I knew it won’t be easy peasy, but it turned out to be more difficult than I had anticipated. The diffused light just wasn’t helping. The cast shadow was feeble and the core shadows even more so. I kept thinking that I’m seeing reflected light everywhere but maybe it was just a figment of my imagination (reflective lights are too cool to not add in things).

I was painting from observation, not a photo, but honestly, even the photo that I did take wasn’t helping me much. I’m such a noob 😀😁! This really was a humbling experience.

The primary light source was the huge window/door on the left, but since the walls are white there was some reflected light too (I guess, I wasn’t just imagining it!).

In desperate attempts to define the shape, save the painting, separate the egg and the base, I made several mistakes such as put dark lines along the edge of the egg on the left, and blend paint more than needed. At some point I was just putting random values that were already on my brush down, instead of mixing and picking the “right value”.

I guess, if I think about it, there are 2 big things I struggle with right now:

1. Observation – Seeing what’s happening. This is especially difficult in diffused light setups when the shadow and the light areas aren’t as well separated.
2. Technique – Gouache is challenging for me. I was trying to use the technique that Jane French teaches in her Domestika class. I had pre-mixed a few values on my palette but they dried up within minutes! Jane uses oils in her class so it makes sense that her paints stay nice and fresh. I could use my stay wet palette but they require so much ceremony that I’m scared I’d lose my spark before I even start, especially for a tiny painting like this one. How do I use my normal pallette tray in a way that I could mix a relatively large batch of color withput it drying up quickly? Should I completely give up on the idea of premixing colors? That doesn’t sound very practical. Surely I don’t need to premix all the values, but being able to use and resuse a few should work. My issue seems to be that the paint dries quickly and to reactivate it I need to add some water which changes its value and/or transparency. This confuses and frustrates me and pretty soon my untrained, impatient mind starts mixing values willy nilly, or painting large areas with the same value 😤. Predicting values with gouache is hard enough without the additional challenge of trying to bring back dried up paint. How do people do this?

Alright, time to stop complaining and start acting. Here are the usual points:

• Things I liked:
  • I liked working with the airtight palette and blending medium. I was feeling less precious about fresh paint.
  • I liked the act of painting too. It’s been a while and felt nice to both study and paint and build some much needed brush mileage.
  • I accidentally used perylene black instead of jet black for this study. Since it’s a much more expensive pigment I almost never use it especially for silly little studies but I’m glad it’s now out in my airtight palette. I now have to use it or I’ll lose it.
• Things that can be improved
  • Edges of the cast shadow(?) should be blurred with the local color of the table.
  • Reflected light on the right is missing
  • The cast shadow right under the egg should be darker and then the value should rapidly become lighter
• Practical things to try
  • Do a study in direct light with only discrete 6-7 values (max) to practice before doing diffused light studies
  • Do a quick study before the final painting. Use markers or pencils to keep it quick and simple. Keep this study under 3 minutes.
  • Paint mixing – Try one or all of these ideas in sequence to see which one works.
    • Mix large quantities of darkest value, and gradually add white to lighten it. With updating values, don’t completely replace the pool of darker value. Leaving some can help as a reference for later.
    • Try the mixing palette with wells
    • Don’t be a lazy bum – just use the stay wet pallete.
  • Breathe! Don’t be in a rush to finish the painting.

I hope I’ll do the next study sometime soon. I want to build a momentum and use this excitement!