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Watercolour mixed with goache
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Message
Posted
The main mediums I use are waterproof pen, Daniel Smith and Schminke watercolour for mainly my own style of urban sketching. However, I have a self made pallet of Windsor and Newton Cotmans which I basically never reach for. I also have a largish tube of W&N white Goache. Has anyone mixed the two? I fancied do so, to just see how it would work, but would be very interested to hear from any members who had mixed white goache with watercolour.
Posted
You’d end up with an opaque colour of course, which is the opposite of what watercolour is about… so why would you!
Nothing wrong with using a bit of body colour within a painting, generally that would be more in the foreground, but transparency is the keyword in this medium!
But of course, paintings using gouache are readily accepted, but that’s in total contrast with watercolour!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
Alan is absolutely correct, you only end up with an area that look’s different and tends to stand out because of the opaque flat look . I’ve used watercolour for the last twenty years, still learning , I have experimented with mixing gouache and watercolour soon decided it’s not tor me . Use one or the other but certainly not mixed , try experimenting with salt , candle wax etc , you get some really good effects.
Posted
We learn more from our mistakes than we do from any other way of learning. The day I stop making mistakes when painting is the day I stop as there will be little challenge in perfection every time, and it’s out mistakes that makes our paintings different from the rest . There are good mistakes and bad mistakes but we never highlight the good ones just accept them as skilled work .
Posted
Out of sheer devilment, may I push another spoke into the wheel .... All gouache is, is opaque watercolour, but Alan referred to body colour - that's watercolour to which a degree of opacity has been introduced, artfully modulated by ourselves; gouache is too crude to be used in that way in the majority of cases - it wasn't designed for that purpose. A touch of opacity can be achieved by adding Titanium White (which manufacturers increasingly offer in watercolour: I find Chinese White (zinc) far too thin) or, and rather better perhaps, one of the semi-opaque watercolours, like Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow or Red. It needs careful judgement, or you do end up with an opaque mess which loses everything that makes watercolour special.
Could you combine watercolour and gouache? Well - people have combined it with acrylic ... and on the whole, that might end up looking rather better: there is a painter who does this, and he was shown in The Artist (I think) a good many years ago; I've forgotten both his name and the technique he used. But that's for someone who really knows what they're doing - (i.e. not for me). I daresay there are painters who combine watercolour and gouache successfully? Anybody know? But I've seen snow scenes painted in watercolour with Titanium White gouache used for the snow - and.... well, I'm always conscious of the gouache in those paintings, and invariably think how much better the picture would look if the artist had reserved the white paper. Still: you probably can combine these mediums: I think we'd be entering very difficult territory if we did. So I won't!
Posted
Hi Robert, I'm not sure I will try. I was thinking of using stuff up that I don't reach for. The urban re do that I've just put up I used the windsor and newton and enjoyed them. So they will get used. But thank you for joining the conversation. It's interesting what you have said. I have used titanium white and Daniel Smiths Buff titanium, which is just divine for mixing. The main reason I asked is because I do not (on the whole) use a classic watercolour technique in my art. It's more illustrative if it needed a category. Nearly childrens poster paint style! Bit more expensive! But still painted quite thick. However, I am not going that way. Worth asking I think.
Posted
An interesting read. I don’t offer advice, there are plenty better qualified here than me to do that. As you can readily see above.
For what it’s worth I do often add body colour to my watercolours. I tried Chinese white but was not impressed, as Robert said, it’s a little thin for my purposes…so I mix a little gouache with the watercolour, and not just white. But I’m not a proper water colourist. Poster paint is often closer to my colouring. In fact I don’t think of myself as a painter, I’m someone who draws stuff and sometimes it gets coloured.
What I would say is allow yourself a little playtime where the end result doesn’t matter…it may help for the odd occasion when you might want to add body colour. Play is fun, and if painting isn’t fun, I don’t see the point of it.
Posted
Thanks for that Lewis. Like I said before, my art is very poster paint in texture. I rarely paint wet on wet. Skies probably being the exception. I so agree it has to be fun also. Before I worked on the naive loose technique I use now, I was a person who produced art that might have been a photo. It was laborious, and very stressful. I would get very upset when things didn't work out. Now I really enjoy my art. After I put my picture up today I did have a little play mixing the white goache with rose madder. The swatch was lovely. If I did do that, I would do the whole painting like that. As the other members have said it would look strange within a watercolour.