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Lewis Cooper

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I rarely go back to a failed picture, CJ.  I'll often paint something on the back, or use it as scrap paper for testing colours.  But this one is sat in one of my better quality sketchbooks, so I may well go back to it some day.
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Anonymous User

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Good to hear that, Lewis. Hope you'll share it with us when the time comes.
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Lewis Cooper

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Just finished a picture and thought I'd try another gouache.  Then I thought I'd try to save the picture I messed up and showed here.  If it didn't look worth the effort I'd abandon it.  Attempting a fresh start, I painted white over the messed-up face and let it dry.  (Here is the old messed-up pic and the 'white face' version, so you don't have to scroll back to compare). You'll notice that when dry the white is showing hints of colour from underneath.  These didn't appear until it dried.  I could probably go over it again if I wanted to improve that...but it was enough for what I wanted.  The difference in the background colour is entirely down to photographic variances...I haven't touched that. I thought I'd paint a section of the face to see how it went.  This is as far as I got for now... It was interesting.  As I worked odd bits of colour resurfaced, but I was able to deal with that.  I think I will continue with this, but I won't keep photographing it.  Oil and acrylic painters must do this all the time...but as I've worked almost entirely in water based media, it was new to me.  I've realized it provides an enormous opportunity to 'keep fiddling about'.  I've got a black belt in 'fiddling about', and it's not always a good thing.  But it can be fun. Gouache is lovely stuff.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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It starting to look really good Lew, certainly worth the saving. I think I’m a member of the fiddlers club as well, potentially quite risky at times.
DSCF4152

Anonymous User

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That's looking good, Lewis. Fiddling can be a bit of a hazard, but at least you let the surface dry before making any further attempts to produce the look you want, some don't. I've been one of them in the past. That eye is very intense. Its nice to have the two pictures together for comparison, considerate. Taking photos of paintings can be a pain, the slightest variance in light can be quite dramatic.  
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, NAPA

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The snag with gouache is that further coats can pick up previous ones, but they do dry quite flat, so can be worked on again.  That's also true of acrylic, which doesn't pick up previous colour at all, unless you contrive that it should by painting transparent layers over it, but does dry (usually) quite flat - so much overworking, in both senses of that word, is possible without it showing.   Oil - well oil is different again: that can certainly show previous layers, not only because the paint might not have been quite dry that was overpainted/glazed, but because oil paint has more substance - you can end up with heavy and obvious layers of crenelated paint - often very advantageously: see Alan Bickley's latest knife painting.   This is why, when people ask "what's your favourite medium?", I don't have a clue - they're all different, and that's what is great about them; a never-failing source of interest.
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Lewis Cooper

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Yes CJ, I'm impatient too, always wanting to get on with it.  I'm typing this while waiting for something to dry.  The beauty of gouache is that it dries fairly quickly, quicker than watercolour.  Robert, I've done so little oil and acrylic I don't really have an opinion worth stating.  I watched a video about a professional artist giving tuition on gouache...he said he often starts his pupils on gouache because it's useful experience for when they move on the oils or acrylic.  I don't know how true this is, but gouache is different to watercolour but not enough to feel alien.   I don't have a favorite medium, at the moment gouache and coloured pencils are sparking my interest.  But that will change.
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Anonymous User

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My preferred medium is watercolour. I started off with oils, many years ago, in my ignorance, I found it too messy, and went on to watercolour, and haven't gone back, until reading posts about how it can be used and the way it can via different tools, also how to use mediums correctly, and pointed to a new release book and video by Haidee -Jo Summers, and great help. It was good to know that just painting shapes with a brush and paint could produce a good painting, I still practice and will continue to do so. At the moment I like using acrylic inks for calligraphy as it dries quickly and can be painted over with light washes to good effect. The metallic inks are also good for the large letters of the alphabet to start a text passage, this too is still in the practice stage, and most enjoyable. This is one of the letters painted with the Liquitex iridescent metallic, ready for a short prose, to follow with a poem. Patience is a virtue, Lewis and Robert, something I think many of us have learnt over the years :)

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by C Jones

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Lewis Cooper

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I like your Celtic letter CJ.  They have always appealed.  The old 'illuminated' books you find them in are treasure troves.  If you like surrealism, as I do,  you find plenty of that in those old books...from hundreds of years ago.  Are you writing something like that? I put my messed-up gouache picture in this thread.  I've taken it as far as I want to go now...here it is... It's a fantasy figure.  As is my whim, I'll add some text to explain who he is, and post it in the gallery. So the key thing I've learned from this is...no matter what mess you make, Gouache allows you to correct it and keep going (unlike all the other mediums I use.) I've also learned that I really like gouache.
DSCF4152

Anonymous User

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You've made a grand job of your painting, Lewis. It was well worth a second life. It has a nice subtle look to it, now. I'll pop into the galley and read your text. I have quite a few books on ancient and modern calligraphy, I practice a few. The modern uncial, and the half uncial I find the most appealing, it was used for the book of Kells, it has a fascinating history, not only of the book, but how this alphabet developed. My aim with the calligraphy I have started, is to produce and autumnal passage, and verse, know as Haibun. The remains of the book is held at, Trinity College, Dublin. When all this virus has cleared and its safe to travel I'll be heading in that direction for a few days, hopefully. I was looking on Amazon, last night, and see there are, jelly pots, containing gouache, there's some nice products, I'm going to send for a particular set, when I try it out, I'll report back. Glad you find the medium suitable, you've posted good paintings.

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