Gouache to the Rescue?
29th June 2025
In: Art
Painting outdoors is difficult but it still remains one of my most enjoyable art activities. More often than not I am too ambitious for the time available, picking compositions that would be hard at home with all the tools to hand and a static reference!
This was absolutely the case during the week at the Blickling Estate where I set out to achieve a quick watercolour sketch of a lake scene which I had previously attempted on the iPad (see my previous post).
Normally I would have set aside this painting but on review, at home, I wondered whether I could make some improvements using gouache.
The short answer was yes. I was able to use the gouache as an opaque medium to paint over areas and then dilute it to make use of the colours of the original watercolour - see below.
Going froward, I would still prefer to practice transparent watercolour painting outdoors but I now think that there may be occasions when it would be best to work from the outset with gouache?
This is the original watercolour (approximately A5 size)…
This is the rescued gouache version and whilst it doesn’t pass the ‘keep’ test, it stands as a good learning exercise…
This was absolutely the case during the week at the Blickling Estate where I set out to achieve a quick watercolour sketch of a lake scene which I had previously attempted on the iPad (see my previous post).
Normally I would have set aside this painting but on review, at home, I wondered whether I could make some improvements using gouache.
The short answer was yes. I was able to use the gouache as an opaque medium to paint over areas and then dilute it to make use of the colours of the original watercolour - see below.
Going froward, I would still prefer to practice transparent watercolour painting outdoors but I now think that there may be occasions when it would be best to work from the outset with gouache?
This is the original watercolour (approximately A5 size)…
This is the rescued gouache version and whilst it doesn’t pass the ‘keep’ test, it stands as a good learning exercise…