Adventures with Gouache : Painting Fun Florals

1. Introduction: In this busy life, sometimes we forget to enjoy the little joys of life. For me, little joys are an evening on swing. My time with my cats. Having a cup of tea, or as simple as admiring need to, trees and flowers. Nature is my biggest source of inspiration. In this class, we will be creating a beautiful floral arrangement, which can be used as pattern using cosh colors. Gosh is a very dynamic medium, and it shares a lot of its properties with both watercolor and acrylic. It's creamy consistency gives a beautiful matte and opaque finish and makes it a dream to work with. Hello everyone, Welcome to my class. I'm really happy with a textile designer and a mixed media artist. And I'm from Mumbai, India. In this class, we will start with a brief overview about gouache and how it works. If you are a beginner, then this will get you started with using gouache colors. In the class. We will cover what to control on how to get the right consistency of the paint. Also, how to layer your paints. We will also learn different brushes and how to use them to make florals. And finally, we will paint a beautiful floral arrangement using the knowledge we have learned. So come join me on this beautiful floral journey with gouache. By end of this class, you will have a much better understanding of gosh and how to use it. Also confidence to make and compose your own floral arrangement or patterns. So for you in the class. 2. Materials Required: So now let's move on to the supplies that is needed for this project. I'm using a 300 GSM, a 100% cotton watercolor sheet. And this is the size. If phi will be working on the E5 sheet and Branded I'm using is at essentials and at present is not required for gouache. You can also go for some other people. There are other brands like minora. You can go for archers. So Bruce roles who has a really nice paper, can go for these brands. So for this project you will be requiring palate as well. And I'm using this blue stroke palette and tight palette, but I'm just using it for mixing my colors as I like to make. So not in the whales are, but I like them Plains offers. So that's why I'm using this one. You can go for something which is wells or you can use a blade. Anything which works for you. For this project you do not require a lot of brushes I've just used for. And this is a size eight flat brush. You can use any flat brush. And then for the petals part, we require one filbert brush. And this is from the brand Bruce rule. And this is a size six. It's like a flat brush, but with a rounded tip. You can even paint the background with this. This is one of the most important element for this. So you require a filbert brush, of course, one round brush. This is a round brush number 11 rigger brush. So this can be sized one minus three by 0. So one rigger brush you require, or even a mini liner will also do. I use these paper tapes, these washi tapes. You can also go and use these mostly for my paintings, but you can use scotch tape as well. They give out very good clean edges and people also does not tear off. So you can use a scotch tape. 3m can also go for masking tape, but for some reason, masking tape does not work so well for me. We require some kitchen towels or tissue papers or even a clot you can keep biocides to wipe out for your brushes. You also require two glasses of water. And I use this one from Minnesota as these are toothbrush and toothpaste holder. And these come quite handy as my jars. They don't shake or less likely to spell. So I use these for the colors. I'm using. Goddess, who me, me out, gosh, color. This is a 56 colors that I'll be using this one for this project. In case you do not have these colors, don't worry, please. You can go for any, any wash colors that you have or even acrylic colors for this project. 3. Types of Gouaches: Gouache, it comes in different type of packaging, but generally all galoshes are quite similar to each other, except for the acrylic wash. I will tell you about it in a moment. As you can see from these swatches, like gosh, they are mad and they are pretty opaque. This one are the tubes. This is from the brand Ruth's true. And it is available in India, but you can, you can use any brand as well. Other one, this is from our Granger, and these are Gospels to tempera. So gosh, a lot like the paints and even like thick watercolor. So these are all to the tube. So the common tubes different use any brand is okay. Then this is another one. This is from the scalp at a trunk. I hope I'm pronouncing the name right? But these are in sub forms and you can see they're very cute and very handy. Also. You can, if you have these, you can use this one as well. In this class, I'll be using this. He made me oh gosh, set of 56 colors. And these are like cute little tabs, and they come in so many variety of colors. Another type of gosh is this acrylic gouache. I have just this one from Holbein. It is the pistol set. And this is definitely a dream to work with. These are a bit expensive than the regular washes, so that is why. But this has the property of acrylic, which is that once dried, it cannot be reactivated. And just look at the colors. They come out Matt and they are very big. So I will definitely tell you that in case you have this, then you can go ahead and use this also for the project. 4. Water Control: Now we are going to learn about water control. I'm going to explain what a control with these goose stroke. Watch that. And also I will show you using goddess see me Mia wash, which I will also be using for the project. So I'll show you that both of these. So I have my palette ready, and I'm going to use this flat brush. This is a blending brush. So I'm going to use this next doctor with these two bonds. So it gives you have two vans. I'll just show you how to take the consistency. First, we'll put some on the ballot. And for me there are three stages of water control. So this one, I've not I've just dip my brush and dried it. So this one is the dry stage. So this has no water. And as you can see from here, that this is quite dry. So this is definitely not the consistency that we're looking for. So I'll just put a little drops of water in this and make it look creamy. We can see how creamy this has become. So a little bit more, just one drop or two drops of water is required, and then just mix it on the ballot. And then we go again. This is the consistency that I work with mostly. And so now what happens when we put more water? So I just show you when, what happens when we put more water. This is very diluted and this is quite watery as you can see. You can also see the page beneath. You can see the whiteness of the beach with this. So all three have the users. So there's no right or wrong, but I mostly try and work with this middle one and gives you using something directly from the top. So as you can see, it is pretty dry. Sadly coming onto the brush. So this is the first stage. So this is the dry states. You can see the dryness on the people. So this is the dry stage. Now. Some on the ballot, and I've put some water in it. This has come to the creamy consistency. Now, how to determine whether it's creamy or it's watery. So when mixing, you will just understand the consistency if it's not running around in your palette. Like this one. See this one is, this one is quite watery. So, yeah. And then this seems to be right. Now Let's try this one. There. You see, it's very opaque. And in case you feel that something is not opaque, you can go back on it again also. What happens when we put some more water in this? If you put more water. Now I've put more water. You can see that how we're running it is on the ballot now. So now this, this is giving those very liquid. So this is something which we don't generally use. But as I said that all three stages, they have their own users. Like you can use this one for your backgrounds in case you want to, colors to be mixed and strokes to be seen, then this is something which you can definitely go for. I sometimes go for a light background or a transparent background. So I use this and these strokes, they come in handy when I'm layering on gouache on top of each other. So then this one comes in handy. And this is the right consistency that I generally work with. So there are stages in between these also, like there could be one stage over here and one-stage away, or maybe you are comfortable working with this stage. So it depends upon you entirely. 5. Layering of Gouache: In this example, you can see that how gosh gives a translucency effect and it takes the background color as well. So quash can be led multiple times from deep to light as well as from light too deep. This is all to one of the properties which costs shares with acrylics. Acrylics also you can go about from deep to light as well as from light too deep. So, but we have to remember the point that gosh, can be prevented once I apply a tiny bit of water also on this, it will lose its shape. So we have to be careful of that. Now, let's do another exercise in which you will use a deep background as well as a light background and show you how to let them up. Let me first start with this light background. As you can see, the color has almost dried up and it's not even coming on my fingers. So I will just spray this a little bit and then try to take some color out of it. So some of my green as the end on the brush and probably it's just showing quite a little bit. So remember the consistency we're looking for as creamy. In this, you can even go in this exercise, since I generally go for this, but for background, you can go for something which is in-between this. So it does not do what tree as well as it does not really take also. Because if it is too thick, then it is quite possible that when we're layering up, then probably some more, some color from blue can lift off. Let's start layering. And this is the base layer that I'm putting. This is the first one. Just observe how I'm putting the colors. Then I'm just smoothing that out. Now, the main thing is that I have to let it dry. Let's wait for it to dry, dull then let's put this color since this was pretty watery. So I'm just trying to put a little bit of more color in it. It has dried out. After drying, it becomes a little thick. But still I just check. Yes, this seems to be a good consistency. And just put in a drop of water in this. I love the sound. Now, let's paint this. So this is a bit, as you can see, there's more diluted, so I'm just putting in some more paint. Yes. It's fine now. Now smoothen it out. Right? Now, Let's wait for this to dry. So now this is almost dry. So always remember the property that gosh, the lighter color will always drive and she depot, a deeper color will always dry one shade lighter. So you will see the difference once both are completely dry. I'm using a scarlet know to leave this just making a tiny, tiny bit. Let's mix the consistency. Since I only had water on my brush. So I don't need to put more in it. So since this yellow one is now dry, Let's let this up. So. Single stroke. And now I've laid it with a red one. You can see I show you this again. I'll just take this green that I have in my palette. And I'm going to put it over here. Can you see the publicity? It gives you feel that it requires another layer, give it another name. Data. So you have to make sure that when you're putting another layer, we don't scrape off the layer beneath it. So if I keep on repeating, repeating this movement like this, and what will happen? I will reactivate the color which is beneath it. So I will reactivate the yellow. You can see how some yellows over here. Then, you can see now you will reactivate the color below. It is extremely important that layering up, you use this consistency. Or if you have to show some dry or take strokes, you can go for this one as well. Now this one is pretty much dry. I'll just let this up and show how you can go about letting light colors on the background as well. So for this one, since this is, this was a lighter layer and since this is a creamy yellow sheet, so what happens is that even if it gets mixed up a little bit or it will not matter much. But since this is a deep color and we are putting, let me try and put some creamish color than this. My brush has a bit of green on it. So I'm just putting in some more color. So now let's layer this up. So just remember, the minimum stroke they do use is bad, don't see almost. So if I do few more times over here, this will reactivate. So what I will do, I'll just put it like this and maybe I can come back a little later on this, or I can even put a little thicker, put off the color on this. So as you can see, it is a bit difficult to see. This is nice. So just remember like how I paint, I generally tend to use the background color to my advantage. So it kind of gives this translucency when I'm putting a lighter color on top of a deep color. So it just gives me this translucency, which I actually want for my flowers or petals with some white color as well. So let's put some light on the ballot. I think in some water. Okay, my water is becoming in green, tablet green, but it's okay, Let's do this exercise. And then I will add this up. So I've loaded my brush quite a bit. Yeah, so this looks good. So now let's see. So you can see how this one has become lighter. This is reactivating the layer below, and so it will mix with the color. In case you're going for that kind of look. You can definitely use this as a tool to your advantage. So I'll also show you how white, but look over here. Since this is a lighter base, as you can see, the white is coming on more. You can see more thickness in this. And in case you want to layer this red went up more. We can also do that over here as a little light, but you can do more on this. Still a bit wet, but still you can see the layering ovale. So the things to remember in letting up is that it's better to have fewer strokes so that you do not activate the layer within. And also that you can layer on top of each other. And also once when the layer is dry, if you want to have more thickness in the layer, you can just give it one more cotton. 6. Brush Control: In this section of the class, we are going to learn how to make different strokes for different brushes. So this exercise is important so that you get a hang about how your brush works. Let's start with a round brush number three. Okay. And I'll just did the parent do water and let's go for the good red color. Let's start with this. So you already now know how to mix your colors and what is the right consistency. And also about layering up. So here we're just going to get a hang off of how to use these brushes. So there are simple exercises that we are going to follow, like how to make these lines. You just have to use the tip of your brush. I'm sorry, that is out of focus, so I'll just do it again. So you have to practice how to make line. These lines. I'm just using very light pressure, very light pressure on, and just using the tip of the brush. So this comes in handy when we are making any twigs, little stems. So this comes in handy. And also we have to know always that you should always see how the dots come with that particular brush. As you can then use those dots. Some small dots, some big dots. As they, these doors, they always come in handy. And now something which is very important to the lesson that we will be doing is I call it the tip and the belly. So we are going to use the tip and then we're going to do the belly lift off. And then belly. This exercise is very handy for leaves and petals and this is something which it's important that you practice. Again tip, belly, liftoff, dip belly, and show it to you again. Dip, belly, dip. So let's make a flower center now. And again tip, barely dip. So it comes very handy and making flowers then leaves petals, so definitely evoke more on this. This is extremely important. Again, you can see this is pointed along pointed brush, so I'll just use the tip. Then you can use the belly. Then again. Then you can also use it like a stem. You can also did this one into handy and make a stem. So let's do it. Full belly. Then again, practice the dots. Revealing different brush makes different dots. You can use it for different types of flowers and affects that you want to give. So now I'm going to use this filbert brush. I love this brush as I feel that it is a very versatile brush. So this is a flat brush and it has a rounded tip. And I believe that it makes the most beautiful petals and leaves. So I'll just show you how to use this one. So again, we have to do the same exercise that we did here. The brush sideways. We'll take it like this so that we know how to make lines with this. You can practice this quite a bit. Then also see how you will make some pig and then thin lines. And see how thin and thick it goes. So you have to make sure that you plan and you practice this. And then let's see what happens when we use it flat. So I'm going to use it like a flat brush. This. So you can see how it gives strokes. Just using the tip and then slightly the belly. Because this is the tip and the belly then lift. So this is one way to use this. This is the flat way to users. Then you can also use this in this manner. You can use it the sideways also. So do use it sideways. Again, you just do a tip. Remember the tip and the belly. So tip, then belly the left. Today. You see how it gives very organic looking leaf. So in case you want to go, you can do more. So then again, let's do this one more time. The belly lift. The belly lift. Also you can see how this gives small strokes on so for once when we do that spot exercise, so this brush, it can give you something like this. How it gives different, different strokes. You can use it sideways as well as even use it. The front, the wider part of it. So just see how your brush works. It's very important to know your brush and to control your brush when. And as you can see, these are the bigger strokes. The best thing about these brushes that it gives you smaller and elongated strokes as when you can see how it gives. Just taking it sideways and doing a flip. I'm putting more pressure on the tip and then lifting it off. So the next brush is a round brush number one. So this is a miniature brush. As you can see. You can use like miniature brushes for your fine lines. We believe that the other brushes, that one's bigger, better, fine lines. But as you can see, this is also giving you a very nice controlled all the water is very less than this. So you, as you can see, this dotted outdoor really taken over. The paint has faded a bit. Try out, then a little thin click. And then you can also see how that tip and daily exercise works. Belly to belly. Small miniature leaves can be done from the right. And one of the best uses that I do with this is the spot. You can just give like pretty spots. The center of the flowers are some, some other flowers that we do, the smaller ones, something you can just give some stem. So some flowers like this. So just practice the spots with this as this, as this comes in, very, very handy. So I would recommend that you do this with this exercise, with all your brushes. So the three things that you have to do is make lines, then this tip and belly exercise, and of course the spots. 7. Taping the Paper: So now we're going to take our paper and I'll just show you how to tape your paper. So I am using of the epidemic. You can use a masking tape as well. Like to keep like 0.5 centimeter on all sides. Press it down and take out all the bubbles. And I do it for every side. Again. Just put the tape on the paper lightly and then press it along. Alright. That's it. So just do it one final time. Present it with the tip of your fingertip and you're good to go. 8. Let's Get Started - Background: So now let's start painting. I'll be using this lilac color from the human Mia gosh set and also the flat brush eat. So we have to make sure that the consistency of the water is nice and creamy. It should match, should not be very watery. And it's short. It should not be very thick. Awesome. So yes, that seems nice. Weekend. Go ahead with this. So now let's being the overall background with this. Nice and good long strokes. You can smoothen out bent as you go along. I generally like to take one direction. And it can be either you can start horizontally like I have done, or you can also take it vertically. Just take some more paint, add a little bit of water to it. Even smaller than adult. We are almost done with the background now. In case you feel that there are places which seems light, you can just paint over them as we are not using two colors in this. So you can paint on it and flatten out your background. So that's it. So now we will wait for this to dry. And then we will start with the flowers. 9. Flower Petals - 1st Layer: So I already have the colors swatch with me. We have used this lilac. So now I think we can go ahead and use this magenta pink for the base layer of the flower. Then we lose a little lighter, maybe a little bit of this light. Pink over your, you can use this. Now, Let's start though with this thing. Go, we put this a little bit on our ballot. Well, let's look. So pretty amount of water since this is the base layer, you can make it a tad bit lighter also. You can dilute it more and use it and then you can put more layers on top of this. So for this, I'm using my filbert brush six, and it is from the brand Bruce through. So now let's start making the base of the flower. So I'm planning to do, to floss and this lets give up petals. So just think of where you want to send it to be. Your petals. Overlap them, some smaller ones. Let's make this one a little bigger. Since I have made a lot of flowers. So I generally don't require to make a circle, but in case a circular oval works for you, then definitely go for it. Make us feel good. And then I'll make a smaller so glows depicting your center and make your flowers around it. Just place your flowers and keep some space. You can put in small, small petals as well. I think this one is busy, so let me do one, also. Small petals. Let's add some small beckons here and there. That all we have to wait for this layer to dry up. And then we'll put the lighter tones on above it. Till then let's do the stems and some other flowers as well. 10. Stems and Leaves - 1st Layer: I am now taking some olive green color. And I'm putting it on my palette. So this looks like the right consistency. Now, I am going to take my rigger brush. Now. There's a rigger brush three by 0. But you can have any liner for this. So the state get onto your brush, just eat the color on your brush and make the stem. So you don't have to follow me or you can just do can they can be attached to each other as well. So like I'm doing it separately. Just take out some stems so that we can put the leaves on these. Now with the same or filbert brush, you can go for the threshold. So let's make some leaves. The leaves, just the tip of your favorite brush. And I can just use them from tip to belly sideways. Right? Let's do one here. What I'm doing is I'm just taking the brush sideways and I'm first taking the dip very likely. Then I'm putting the belly, then lifting. Again, we'll do the same thing. So just notice I'm still going for the creamy consistency over here. Just maybe a little bit more of water. But you can see the translucency in the leaves, how they give a beautiful effect. The color in my palette is now very less So. I'm adding a little bit water, but I'm also adding some color to it so that I don't ruin my consistency. Given leaves some shade, maybe some ongoing lives I'm going right. It's more like, you know, your brush control is quite important in live. There. Let's see what other flowers we can give and those bees that is there. And later on we'll put some more lighter leaves on top of these ones. So now I will just take some brown and I'm going to mix this with the green which is already there on my palette. I'm doing this so that the twigs which I'm going to make for this, it doesn't look very different from the leaves that is already there. I think it requires a little bit more green. Yes, this is a good mixture. Let's use this. Let's make some very thin twigs with this, I'm using a mini liner brush. You can use any brush that you want. So just make some thin lines with this. There's no actual rule to how you can make a twig, but just some crooked lines which you can just paint together. And that's it. You're good to go. So now let's just jump ahead a little bit and make some more twigs all around. I think now this balances the twig but quite a bit. But it's still a little wet. So I don't want to go into that. Let's finish the buds first. Four bytes, I'm thinking of giving entirely new Carlo to introduce. 11. Small Flowers - 1st Layer: Now let's introduce a little pop color, a little orange or yellow, orange. In this. You can also use a white light bill of goods, white or an off-white. I'm now using a round brush number one. What we're going to do is just put some tiny dots. We'll put some tiny dots. And just randomly digging the stems. You can leave some space between the dots as well. I'm going to put some more in case you feel that it requires more so that you can easily give that the brown part. You can just do it a little later also. How the colors, they're just complementing each other and just giving such write log. Let's do some not going to leave it like this. Later on we'll come and put another layer on this. Little lighter, yellow or maybe a little white. I think that's it for now. 12. Flower Petals - 2nd Layer: Now the pink layer, so pretty much dried. So let's make the next layer. So I'm thinking of for this light pink to, for the next layer on the fly. And in case we require a third layer, we can even go for that. So let's try this. I'm using the same brush that I've used earlier, my filbert brush number six. This time, what we can do with the pain should be a little thicker. It should not be watery or runny. Make sure let's load up your brush. And you're not going to give these big strokes and not so many, probably going to give like just 50% or even 40 per cent of the strokes. Some places being does not dry it. So just to give a good thick coat, single strokes. We'll do the same over here in overlap them. So have some fun in outside. I'm liking it and I don't know. I feel like I can give few white strokes are for free white strokes as well on top of this. So we'll do that a bit later. Let's wait for it to dry first. They'll then we'll do other detailing. 13. Leaves - 2nd layer: So now let's do the leaves. I told you that we'll be doing a little lighter shade. So I'm going with the lighter, olive green for this. This is all gray. And now let's use this and all the leaves and they countered percent probably will give 50 per cent less of the lighter color. Just take someone the palette. Make sure that consistency is nice and good in case you're using from a tube someday. So it makes it to the right consistency when this was right. But I have put some water in it and I'm taking using it directly now. I think this is nice. Now what we will do for this is we will put the leaves on the existing gold leaves itself. So we will give some just in the middle, overlapping the others just gives an in depth, a little dimension to the overall leaves and painting. That's it. So now let's do some other thing like we can now concentrate on the flowers. As I said, we'll give it another color so that it also gets some depth. 14. Small Flowers - 2nd Layer: So I'm using this color now and the name of the color is yellow teeth. So yeah, it's funny. But let's use this. It was a white for this one. So let's use this a little bit. Let's put a two. I will be using my size one round brush will require the consistency to be a little thick and not watery. These makes sure that it does take I be using on top of these yellow, not exactly covering them, making some flowers on top of it. So as you can see how I'm making the flower, I'm just putting fuel round blobs together and the center is left in the middle. See how these clouds are forming. Just remember, you can lay them up as many times as you want. If you want to go for a white after this, you can also do that. They're there. I think it looks quite nice. 15. Finishing Touches: Well, we can just give small leaves also video. So taking the theme green, that lighter green that we, I have used this as, the olive green one, will just give some leaves on these brown stems. I just wanted to finish off these flowers. First battles, they were a 100%. Then these were 50 per cent. So now I'm going to put this one as maybe like five per cent. So just a few buttons, That's it. Since there'll be slanted, still not dry. Bankers mixing and my wife, I think that's it. We're done for the same dough. Now we'll finish off the center. Shabby, good the brown, or let go for this yellow one. Now using this brush number one, round brush number one. And I think that maybe requires a little bit of brown mixed with this yellow, orange. But the slight disperse it. So we have to make sure that the base layer, which is this pink, is not seen. And we go about giving it a shape. They call me giving the sheep to the petals. So that's it. And I think we can now give a little bit of brown also in the middle. Does Brown has become the war treat and a want? I'm old brown, green and let's give a center. And now the center so that it has a depth and it feels like, as it's not all the same color. It's kind of cute now. So in case you want to give a center to your flowers, these small, tiny ones, you can do that also. I'll just give these tiny, tiny brown in the center. Even if you leave it like that. I think that's okay. So now we're done with this. Let's be the deep end. Let's see how the pink painting has gone. This is one of my favorite, but it's better to peel it at an angle like this. So this is a false been doing. I hope you loved it. See you guys in the next class.