Gouache for Beginners : Basics Every Beginner Should Know

1. Introduction: Are you someone who feels curious every time you see a new art medium, but also a little unsure where to begin? NUL is the perfect time to try something new, especially something creative. If you've been wondering what exactly G is, why so many artists love it, or whether it's right medium for you, you are in the right place. And if you felt excited about Goh but also confused or overwhelmed before even starting, don't worry. You are not alone. That's exactly why this class is creative. Wh can look intimidating at first. Is it what color? Is it acrylic? Why does it behave differently? These coins often stop people before they even pick up a brush. In this class, we will gently clear the confusion and help you truly understand the medium step by step without pressure. I am Variga an artist and teacher. And in this class, we will focus on building a strong foundation with Goh. We will explore the materials you need, understand how Gach behaves and learn its unique properties or techniques. All explained clearly, so you feel confident before jumping into full paintings. Once you are comfortable with the basics, we will paint two cube wash artworks together using simple techniques to help you experience the joy of working with this medium without overthinking or perfectionists. This class is meant to gently guide you into the Gauche, a calm, supportive introduction that prepares you to explore Gauche comfortably in your sketchbook or illustrations. And when you are ready to go further, I have more BikinaFriendly Gauche classes waiting for you on my profile to support your journey. By the end of this class, you will understand how he work, how to control it, and how to enjoy painting with it confidently and comfortably. So why wait, pick up your brushes, grab your sketchbook, take a deep breath, and let's begin this che journey together. 2. Materials Used: Before we start painting, let's take a moment to look at the materials we will be using for painting with wash. One of the beautiful things about wash is its versatility. It's a very forgiving and flexible medium, and you don't need a huge or complicated setup to begin. With just a few basic supplies, you can create bright, expressive and satisfying paintings. Let's start with the most important material, the paint. Guache paints are available in many forms. You will find them in tubes, small bottles, and even jelly cups. All of these work perfectly fine, gouache is highly pigmented and known for its bright opaque colors. So no matter which format you choose, you will get vibrant results. I personally started with the Jimi Mia jelly cups, and honestly, there was no training pair. They are easy to use, beginner friendly and very satisfying to paint with. But remember, there is no right or wrong choice here. Swat wash set you already have or feel comfortable starting with Next is the paper, which plays a big role in how your painting stands out. For Gauche, I recommend using watercolor paper, this light texture. That gentle texture helps enhance the fresh strok and adds character to your painting. Make sure the paper has its mad finish, avoid glossy papers as Gauche doesn't sit well on them. In terms of thickness, try to use paper that is at at least 100 or 200 GSM. Anyway, I usually choose papers for my paintings with thickness around 200 or above. I also like to use handmade papers for wash. This helps the papers taste stiff and reduce buckling when you paint. Ticker papers always makes the process more enjoyable and stressry. Now, let's talk about the brushes. While wash is water based watercolor, I find that acrylic brushes work better for Woche than very soft brushes. Acrylic brushes are slightly firmer, which gives you more control over the page, especially because gosh is thicker and more opaque. To start with the gosh, we mainly need three brushes, one flat brush, one round brush, and one small detail brush. These three brushes are more than enough for a beginner. You can create a wide variety of brush strokes and textures with just these brushes. As you continue painting, you can always expand your brush collection based on your preferences. Sometimes I also use a thick basil acrylic brush to create bold, easy strokes or texture effects, but this is completely optional. Next is the palette. A palette is essential for mixing your paints and adjusting their consistency. Wahpk best when it's mixed to a smooth creamy texture before applying it to the paper. For this, you just need a flat surface, and you don't need anything fancy, a plastic part, a ceramic parte, or even a simple plate works perfectly fine. You will also need two jars of water. One jar is used to rinse off the paint from your brush, and the second jar is used to clean the brush properly before picking up a new color. This helps to keep your colors fresh and clean while painting. Keep a cloth or tissue paper nearby to wipe excess water or paint from your brush. This wall habit make a big difference when working with wash. For sketching, you will need a pencil and eraser, and to secure your paper while painting, you can use masking tape or washi tape. And finally, most importantly, bring a genuine interest and curiosity to explore the medium that's truly the most valuable material of four. With these simple supplies, you are more than ready to begin your wash journey. In the next lesson, we will explore the properties of wash one by one. So let's move on to the next lessons. 3. Gouache at a glance : Now that we are familiar with the materials, let's take a closer look at the properties of Gach, what makes this medium unique and why so many artists love working with it. We will go through these properties at a glance so you can understand how Gach behaves before we start painting. The first and most important property is opacity. Unlike watercolor, Gach is naturally opaque. This means you can paint light colours over dark ones, cover mistakes, and layer confidently without worrying too much about what's underneath. This opacity makes Gosch very forgiving, especially for bigness and allows you to work more friendly and intuitively. The next property is the finish of wash. When wash dries, it has a soft made finish. This is very different from watercolor, which looks tansparnt and logs, and acrylic, which is often dries with slightly shiny or plastic life circles. Wash sits beautifully between mate velvety and easy on es. This finish make it perfect for sketchbooks, illustrations and flat clean looking artworks. And next is high pigment ratio. Guash is made by a high concentration of pigment, which is why the colors appear so rich, bold, and vibrant. Even with a small amount of paint, you can achieve strong bright colours. At the same time, you can thin it down with water to create softer uter tones when needed. Once you understand these properties, opacity, mad finish, and high pigmentation, gouache become much easier to control and enjoy. In the coming lessons, we will explore more properties and start applying these properties through simple techniques. So you can see how oh truly comes alive on paper. 4. Mixing and Applying on Paper: In this lesson, we are going to explore one of the most important and comforting properties of gosh. It's water soluble natural. Gosh is completely water soluble, which means it can be reactivated easily with butter, even after it has dried. And the good news is your pain will almost never go to waste. Any excess paint left on your palette can be reused later, even after a long period of time. To reactivate Gosh, all you need to do is add in a little water and mix it well. The pain comes back to life beautifully. If you're using jelly cup gauche paints like the one I use, this property become even more helpful. These paints can be left completely in their cups, which actually helps to prevent mold. Even after weeks or months, you can simply add water mixed thoroughly and use them again without any problem. Now, let's see it is reactivating property inaction. Here, I'm adding water to a guh layer that has already dried on paper. As you can see, the pain starts reactivating immediately. Because wash is highly pigmented, a lot of color gets lifted and spreads across the paper when water is added. This is something to be mindful of while layering, but it's also what makes Gach very flexible and forgiving. Let's quickly compare this with watercolor and click. Watercolor is also water soluble and reactivate easily when water is added. However, its pigment ratio is much lower compared to Gach which is why watercolor looks more transparent and lighter. Acrylic, on the other hand, behaves very different day. Once acrylic paint dris, it becomes permanent and does not reactivate with water at all. This makes wash a unique medium. It sits comfortably between watercolor and acrylic. Now, let's move on to mixing wash and applying it on water. I'm taking a small amount of wash on white palette. Using a slightly wet flat brush, I mix the paint well until it reaches a smooth, creamy consistency. This step is very important.Guah should never be too thick or too watery. It works best when it feels creamy and smooth. If at any point, the paint paints too thick, don't worry, add a little water and mix the key. While adding water to this gently, you can use a small spray bottle or simply dip just the tip of your dish into the water jar and bring a little water to the palate. Continue mixing slowly until the paint turns into a smooth, creamy texture. This consistency helps the gauche flow easily on paper, gives you an even application and prevents rough or patchy areas vi page. Once the paint is steady, load your brush, well with paint, not dripping, but nicely coated. Place the brush gently on the paper and start applying the paint using soft back and forth movement. There is no need to press hard, let the brush glide across the surface. These gentle strokes help the paint spread evenly and create a smooth opaque layer. If you see dry patches or streaks, it usually means the brush needs a little more pain. While the paint is still wet, continue moving the brush in the same direction. This is important because changing direction too often can leave visible brush or distal marks. Consistent strokes help the paint settle nicely on paper. Try not to go over the same area again and again once it start dry goes dry scuply and overworking can disturb the surface and create uneven textures. When the paint is mixed to the right creamy consistency, you will notice how easily it flows and how naturally it covers the paper. With little patience, this moment will start to feel very natural at relaxing. Now I'm filling another box on the paper. This time, the paint left on my palette is very little. Instead of taking more paint, I'm trying to fill the box using whatever is left. Mostly at this second painted area, you can see uneven patches gaps and visible brush marks. This usually happens when there isn't enough paint in the mix or when the paint becomes too thin, wine spreading. At this stage, the solution is very simple. Just take a little more paint, add to the palette, and mix it again to a smooth creamy consistency. And then reapply it until the paper. You will immediately notice the difference. The paint spits more evenly and gives you a clearer opaque clear. And that brings us to the end of this lesson. In the next lesson, we will continue exploring more properties of wash and learn how to use them confidently in our paintings. I will see you there. 5. Consistency and Tonal Value: In this lesson, we are going to explore two very important concepts in gauche painting, consistency, and total values. Understanding these two will give you much more control over your paintings and help you use Gauche confidently in different ways. Et's start with the paint consistency. Here I am beginning with a thick consistency of Bosch. You can see that paint is dense, rich and diopic. I'm applying the first brush strop directly onto the paper, both over a black line and over white area. So you can clearly see how Bosch behaves on different backgrounds. Now, without taking more paint, I dip just the tip of my brush into the water or mix it into the paint on my palette. Slightly loosen the paint, I apply another strokes on the paper. I repeat the same process, adding a little water each time, mixing well, and then applying strokes until I have six brush strokes on the paper, each one slightly more diluted than the previous one. Notice how the paint changes with each stroke. When the consistency is thick and creamy, wash stays opaque even over the black light. As the paint become looser, it slowly turns more transparent and start behaving more like watercolor. I repeat the same process using lighter shade. With a creamy consistency, the lighter shade is almost opaque. But as more water is added, the paint becomes increasingly transparad allowing the surface underneath to show through. This is one of the unique qualities of wash. I can behave like ac when thick and like watercolor when diluted. Learning to control this consistency is the key to mastering the medium. Now let's move on to the tonal values. Tonal values simply means how light or dark a color appears. Understanding tonal values is very important in paintings because it helps you create highlights, contrasts and dimensions in your artwork. Even with just one color, different tonal values can make a painting look more understanding and realistic. In wash, toning values are created by adding white to a color. This allows you to achieve lighter versions of the same shade while still keeping the paint opaque, unlike adding water, which makes the paint transparent. Here, I'm starting with a base color and gradually adding white to it. Just like before, I'm creating six strokes, each one lighter than the previous. You can clearly see how the tone changes step by step as more white adds. Repeat the same process with two colors first with purple and then with red, so you can see how different colours respond when white is mixed in. Its small addition of white creates a new tone, giving you a wide range of shades from just one color. This is how you can create highlights, softness and variations in wash by controlling transparency with water and tonal values with white. Once you understand these two concepts, wash become much more predictable, flexible, and enjoyable to work with. In the next lesson, we will start applying these ideas through simple techniques and paintings. I will see you there. 6. Gouache Technique -1: In this lesson, we are going to explore one of the most useful gouache technique, the layering. But before we begin layering, it's important to understand how gauche dries because this directly affects how your layers look. Gauche dries quite quickly and settles into a smooth, opaque match finish. One thing to remember is that wash often changes slightly as dries. Dark colours usually dry one step lighter, and lighted colours tend to dry one step darker. This completely normal and something you will naturally get used to it with practice. In this video, you can see two boxes. The top box shows the brush stroke that has old dried, and in the bottom box, I am applying the same color while it's still fresh. When you compare them, you can clearly see the difference between the wet and dry paint. So while painting, keep this in your mind. For dark colors, choose a slightly darker sheade than what you want in the finals. For the light colors, select a shade that is a little lighter. This more adjustment help you achieve the exact color you are aiming for once the paint dries. Work anyway. Now let's move on to layering. Layering in wash works beautifully because of its opaque nature. Once base layer is completely dry, you can paint another color on top of it without disturbing the layer at as long as you apply the paint gently. To show this clearly, I have divided the paper into four boxes, each with a different base condition. After the base dries, I will be layering both light and dark shades on top of each box so you can see how wash behaves in different situations. The first box, I have filled the area with a dark base color. In the second box, I'm using a light base shape. In the third box, I'm applying the base layer in a loose or diluted consistency. In the fourth box, I'm using a thick, tight consistency for the base layer. After the base layers dry, I'll be layering both light and dark shades on top of each box so you can see how Gach behaves in different situations. In the first box where I used a dark base color, over these dark base, I'm laying both lighter and darker shades. You can see how the lighter colors stand out clearly while the darker layers still remain visible because of G's opacity. In the second box, I work with a lighter base color. Here, both darker and lighter layers behave differently. The darker shades appear bold and strong while the lighter shades blend more softly with the base. In the third box, the base is applied in a loose or diluted consistency. When I add both light and dark tones on top, you will notice that the colors interact more gently creating softer planter effects. In the fourth box, I'm using ethic tight consistency for the base layer because this layer is solid and opic. Both light and dark lays it cleanly on top, giving sharper and more defined stops. By comparing four boxes, you can clearly see how base color and paint consistency affect the layering wash and how light and dark shades behave differently in each case. Layering allows you to build depth contrast and details in your wash paintings. With patience and gentle brush work, it becomes one of the most enjoyable technique to use. Before moving on, here are a few important things to keep in mind while layering with wash. Always make sure the base layer is completely dry before adding another layer. If the paint is even slightly damp, the new layer can reactivate and cause unwanted smudging or lifting. Try to avoid using very loose or watery paint on top unless you are confident in catolic water. Too much water can disturb the layer underneath and make the colors mix and intensitive. Be gentle with your brush. Do not apply too much pressure while lair. Pressing hard can reactivate the base layer and leave rough marks on the surface. Also, avoid too many brush strokes in the same area. Wash dries quickly, and working on the spot can make the surface uneven corbaty. Instead, let the brush glide softly over the surface. Use light confidence ropes rather than scrubbing or going back and forth repeatedly. This helps the new layer sit cleanly on top of the base. Keep these simple points in mind will help you layer more confidently and achieve cleaner, more controlled result in your wash paintings. In the next lesson, we will continue exploring wash techniques and start applying them in simple paintings. I will see you there. 7. Gouache Technique -2: In this lesson, we are going to explore two very important gauche techniques, brush strokes and blanching. As we discussed earlier in the material lesson, you really don't need many brushes to get started with guh. In fact, just three basic brushes are enough for most painting a flat brush, hair outbush and a small teil brush. Let's begin by exploring brush strokes using each of these brushes. Flat brush, we will start with the flat brush. This brush is mainly used for flat brushes, blending and covering large areas quickly and smoothly. Because of its flat shape, it helps spread the paint evenly at its perfect background skies and smooth colour taxisions. You will notice that flat brush creates clean broad strokes and is especially helpful when blending two colors together. Round brush. Next comes the round brush, and this is the brush I personally use the most. The round brush is very vesatile. You can create lines of different thickness using the same brush. When you use the entire Brazil, you will get thick strokes and when you use just the tip of the brite, you can create very thin delicate blights. This makes the round Bish perfect for outlines, shapes and jar paintings where you need both control and flexibility. You can make leaf shapes, flower petals, and many other shapes just by adjusting the pressure and spread of the brazils. Detail brush. The third brush is the detailed brush. This brush is smaller and more focused, making it ideal for fine details, highlights, and finishing touches. Even though it's small, you can still create slightly thicker lines by using more of the bristle. But most of the time this brush is used when you want precision and control. With just three brushes, you can create a wide variety of strokes and textures in gouache. Now let's move on to the blending, which is one of the most commonly used techniques for creating smooth backgrounds and soft transition in cash pentik. I'm going to show you three simple ways to blend. In the first example, I'm blending a single color using white. I start applying violet at the top and paint outwards. At the bottom, I apply white and paint upward. Where two colors meet, I use gentle back and forth strokes with a flat brush. Then wipe my brush clean and continue blending the middle area softly. This help both colours merge smoothly into each other, creating a soft tonal transition. In the second example, I'm blending red and yellow. Red and yellow are closely related colors. When they mix, they naturally create orange. So I play red at the top and yellow at the bottom, and then I place orange in the meting. Using gentle back and forth strokes. I blend all three colors together. This method helps to create a smooth transition without muddying the colors. Using a metal color is very effective way to blend two colors plainly. In the third example, I'm blending two contrasting colors blue and orange. When contrasting colors are mixed directly, they can tap turn muddy. To avoid this, I place white in the middle between two colors. White act as a buffer, giving both colors a space to blend softly without spoiling each other. I start by applying blue on one side and orange on the other. In the center, I add white. Using a flat brush, I begin blending with gentle back and forth strokes, allowing the colors to slowly merge into the white instead of mixing directly each other. It's important to keep the brush clean and well wipe on cloth or tissue while blending. If you notice the color starting to soil or become dull, clean your brush again and return to blending gently. If at any point, the transition feels uneven, you can always add a little more white or even touches in small amount of original color to balance the plaint. Blending is a flexible process. Adjusting as you go is completely normal. Continue using soft control strokes rather than pressing hard. Let the paint move gradually and allow the transition to build slowly. This method helps you achieve a smooth blend between contrasting colors while keeping the colors fresh and clean. Act. Blending in guh works best when the paint is at the right consistency and work gently without brushing. With patients, these blending techniques will start feel natural and very satisfying. In the next lesson, we will continue exploring more wash techniques and start applying them in simple paintings. I'll see there. 8. Gouache Technique -3: In this chapter, we will explore some essential gouache techniques that will help you paint more confidently and expressive. These techniques are simple but incredibly powerful once you start combining them. Let's begin. Wet on wet technique. First, we have the wet on wet technique. This is done by applying paint onto a surface that is already wet because the paint and surface are both wet, the colors spread softly and blend naturally into each other. This technique is great for creating soft background, smooth transitions, skies and atmospheric heat. The key here is to work gently and let the paint move on its own. Don't our work coat. Next is dry on dry. Here we apply paint onto a completely dry surface using a brush with very little washer. The strokes remain visible and texture. I slightly tilt the brush and use gentle slanted strokes to create cloud like textures. This technique is perfect for cloud textures, highlights and rough surface where you want the brush marks to show. Now, let's try something fun, paint splashing. You can do this using a regular brush or even a toothbrush. Load the brush with slightly loose paint and tap or flick frick it gently. This technique works beautifully for stars, dust, abstract textures, foliage effects, or expressive backouts. Always control the amount of water so the splashes don't spread too much. Let's shade a circle here. We will be using the blending and layering to create a nice shaded effect for this circuit. I start by applying red as the base color, filling the entire circle evenly before adding any shade. I lightly mark the direction from which the light is coming. This helps me to stay clear about where the highlights and shadows should fall. Next, I add brown on the opposite side of the light source. This area represents the shadow and help create depth. I blend the brown gently into the red so the transition feels soft and arhable not harsh. This tape gives the circle a three dimensional appearance instead of looking flat. Now, let's add a light sharing for the area where the light falls directly for that. I took a lighter tone of the red and applied and blended properly. M once the base layer is completely dry, I move on to the highlights. Using the dry on dry method, I take a small amount of white paint in a thick tight consistency. I apply it carefully on the side facing the light where the light hits the surface most sharply. I use minimal strokes to create a subtle texture and natural looking layer. Adding highlights only after the base layer has fully dried helps prevent the colors from mixing unintentionally and keeps the white crisp and clean. This simple exercise is very important. It helps you to understand light direction, shadows, highlights, and form. Which are essential skills for painting objects realistically. Once you grasp this concept, you will find it much easier to paint fruits, objects, and even landscape with a sense of depth and realism. Now, let's paint grass with a round brush and a detailed brush. First, I am painting grass using a round brush. I use only the tip of the brush, slightly rolling it to keep the point sharp. With light pressure, I create simple upward and downward strokes. The lines are slightly thicker and softer. This makes this brush great for basic grass sheep, loose strokes, and filling larger areas quickly. Now I will paint another glass using detail brush. This brush gives much finer and sharper lines. With cube controlled upward strokes and gentle pressure, I create thin, delicate grass strands. Because of its size and precision, the detail brush is perfect for adding realism, fine textures and subtle variations. By painting grass separately with these two brushes, you can clearly see the difference. The round brush creates broader software strokes, while the detail brush produce finer, more precise lines. Using both help you build natural looking grass with depth and variations. Now, let's paint a pine tree using a round brush. I begin from the top of the tree using tip of my brush to make small short strokes. These strokes paint slightly outward and downward, forming a narrow top of the pie. As I move downward, I gradually increase the width of the strokes. I allow the branches to spread out more, making the tree wider towards the bottom. This natural wide wing helps create the classic triangular shape of the pipe. To depth and realism, I introduce a darker tone in some areas, especially close to the center of the tree and in overlapping scis. These darker shades suggest shadows and make the branches feel layered at full. Now, let's see painting a tree with the same brush but in a different way. I press the brush firmly against the palette to make the bristle slightly stiff. Then using gentle tapping and dragging strokes, I apply the paint to the pepper. These strokes help creating the needle like texture of pie trees. The same technique can also be used to adapt to the trees, forest shrubs, and distant foliage, making your landscape feel fuller and more layered. Now, let's create a small flying clouds using the dry on try technique. I start with the dry surface and make a small amount of paint in a thick dry consistency. Using a round brush, and that is slight slanted angle. I gently drag the brush across the paper with light broken strokes. I avoid pressing hard, allowing the texture of the paper to show through. These soft, uneven strokes help creating the light airy feel of clouds floating in the sky. I move the brush lightly in one direction, lifting it off it. Instead of overworking the area, this keeps the clouds looking soft and natural rather than heavy or flat. And finally, I would like to show you one of the brush that I'm using a brush with thick rough brails because of its natural texture, this brush creates broken uneven strokes without much effort. This makes it easy, especially useful when painting large areas of grass, tree tops, and foliage, where you want an organic and natural lo without focusing on tiny details. With just a few light tapping or dragging strokes, you can quickly suggest depth and variations. I avoid pressing too hard and let the brush texture do the work for me. This helps prevent the painting from looking stiff or over work. This brush is great for adding final touches, building layers in landscape, and creating sense of movement and fullness in trees and glasses. It's an efficient tool for achieving expressive natural texture in gouache. And with that, we have covered the basic coach techniques you need to get started. But don't wait, try on tries, flashing, shading, blending, and explosive niche work. I hope this chapter help you feel more confident and comfortable with the coach. In the next lesson, we will start doing some simple exercise to apply these techniques and bring everything together. Let's see there. 9. Exercise - 1: In this chapter, we will be doing two simple exercises using all the basics and techniques we have learned so far. One important thing to remember that wash can be worked both ways from light to dark and from dark to light. That means you can start with a light background and build darker deters on top or begin with a darker base and lighter elements later. For this first exercise, we will work from a lighter shade to darker shades. I'm choosing a bright green as my base color, but you are free to choose any color you like, blue, brown, purple, black. Anything works. The idea here is to create painting using multiple tones of a single color. We create these tones by adding white to the original color. I start applying plain background wash using my flat brush. The paint is mixed to a smooth creamy consistency, and I use gentle back and forth movement to blend and fill the entire box evenly. Once the base layer is dry, I take a slightly darker tone of the same color and begin adding the second layer. Using a round brush, I paint symbol vertical lines to represent trees. These are the distant trees, so they are lighter, softer and less detailed. I also add a few small branches on both sides, changing their size and direction to keep them looking natural. Next time, I want to third layer by taking another step darker tone. I repeat the same process, vertical strokes for trees and few branches. But this time the shapes are slightly sharper and more defined. These trees feel closer to us, so they appear darker and clearer. This contrast between lighter and dark tones help create depth and distance. Distant elements look lighter and softer while closer elements appear darker and more detail. And finally, we move on to the last layer. For this, I take one more step, darker shade for the same color. This layer present the trees that are closer to us, so they appear darker, boller and more defined. Just like before, I repeat the same process, adding vertical strokes for the tree trunks and extending small branches on either sides. This time, you can make the strokes slightly thicker and more confident to emphasize that these trees are in the foreground. Gradually increasing the darkness with each layer, we create a clear sense of depth and perspective. The lighter trees recend into the background while the darker ones come forward. This final layer brings the whole exercise together and complete our light to dark, study using Cow. And that's it, we have completed our first symbol exercise. In this painting, we practice creating thrones using a single colour and white, working from light to dark, using layering to build depth, using brushtrops to suggest trees and branches. I have used only a out brush for this exercise, but you can take it further by adding tiny details with a detailed brush to make it more realistic if you like. This exercise is all about understanding how Bosch behaves simple, calm, and effective. Now let's move on to the second exercise on the next laset. 10. Exercise - 2 : For this exercise, we are doing exact opposite of the previous one. Here, we will work from dark to light, starting with the dark background and gradually adding lighter foreground details. I'm using black as the background color, but you are free to choose any dark shade you like. First, take black paint onto a palette and mix it well until it reaches a smooth, creamy consistency. Using a flat brush, start filling the entire back down. Flat brushes make this process easy at stress way, allowing the paint to spread evenly across the paper. Use gentle back and forth strokes to cover the surface smooth. Once the background is complete, let's move on to the next line. For the foreground, I have chosen gray, and I'll be working with different tones of the same color. You can choose any color you prefer blue, brown, purple, and even red. You create different tones, simply add white to your base color. This is very simple exercise designed to help you understand some key properties of coche. Now, I start with the darkest green tone, mix it well on the palette until it's creamy. Load your brush with pink, then lightly removes the excess, don't overload the brush. To paint a leaf shape, gently touch the tip of the brush to the paper, apply some pressure and pull back. This motion actually creates the leaf shape. Continue adding these leaves across the surface. Because of the background is very dark, you will notice that this dark green up is slightly muted. You can also see how gauche dries a little lighter, especially in darker shapes. Once this layer is done, I move to slightly lighter green tone and repeat the same leaf making process. I keep the strokes smooth and clatched allowing the brush to move naturally. There is no need to rush. Enjoy the rhythm of the strokes and let the shape flow. As you add lighter tones, you will notice how beautifully gosh responds to a darker black. This is one of the reasons many artists love this medium because quasi is opaque and highly pigmented. Even lighter colours can stand out clearly over darker layers when mixed in rye consistency. With each new layer, the painting stony builds depth and interest, the darker green stay subtle and recede into the background. While the light greens start to come forward. This layering process helps to create a sense of richness without needing complex detail. Gah is very forgiving. If something doesn't feel right, you can adjust the tone, soften the edges, or layer over it, once it twice. This flexibility makes the Gauche wonderful medium for beginners and experienced driest. At this stage, focus more on enjoying the process rather than perfection. Avid layer you at help you understand Gauche a little better, and that confidence grows naturally with practice. Next, I switch to even lighter yellow green sheade and again, paint the same leaf shapes. At this stage, you will really notice how the lighter tones stand out clearly against a black background. I have intentionally let some of the leaves extend beyond the edges of the composition. This helps create movement and visual interest, making the painting feel more natural and less waxtry. So I'm stopping here. But if you like, you can continue by adding more highlights, lighter tones or even subtle paint splashes using white. Through this exercise, we have worked from dark light, lighter shades over a dark background experienced the opacity of wash, observed how light colors pop up on a dark surfaces noticed how dark colours try lighter and light colours slightly dark practiced simple leaf shaped washropes. That's it for the exercise. I hope this helped you explore wash more confidently and understand its unique properties and basics as a medium. You are doing great. Keep painting, keep experimenting, and enjoy the process. 11. Conclusion: Thank you so much for spending your time with me and choosing this class. I truly appreciate you being here and exploring wash with me. In this class, we have covered all the essential foundations of Gosh, from understanding the materials, properties and consistency to working with tonal values, layering bridge tookes, blending and practicing both light to dark dark light painting approaches. You also tried symbol exercise that help you understand how Wh behaves, how to control it, and how to use it confidently on paper. My goal was to make Guoch feel less confusing and more enjoyable, and I hope you now feel comfortable and excited to work with this media. If you'd like to go further, I have more gouache painting classes on my graphite, including 15 days of sketchbook practice to help you stay consistent. As well as several single painting classes where we apply these techniques in calm step by step by. Feel free to explore them, and don't forget to follow me for future class updates and your creative content. Once again, thank you for painting along with me, and I'm so happy to be part of your creative journey. Happy painting until we meet on the next class.