I've recently bought gouache paints but didn't have enough time to explore and really understand them. Rosalie's explanation was perfect to understand the basic properties of gouache and plan the painting considering the media differences. It was also a very helpful tip for me to think the painting through before I actually start painting - I definitely need to use this approach more often to make my painting practice more deliberate.

While looking for animal ideas for this class, I accidentally discovered mexican alligator lizard and fell in love with it (it's gorgeous: it looks like a mini-dragon with green to blue scale color - check out photos on the internet ;) ). For the plant I wanted something that would be within the green-blue color palette to harmonize with the lizard and I chose the mexican morning glory. Here is my process:

(The colors might be a bit off as the photos were taken under different lighting situation.)

I then played around with the background colors in Photoshop and the sand-yellow seemed to go with the painting the best. Even though I liked having it on the white as it reminds me of old encyclopedia books, I decided to give it a try. I'm still not sure I like the background as this yellow seems to have made the plant less vibrant, but I learned something from it - and this was the point :) At least I can say that with the background the overall painting looks to me more like a finished painting rather than a sketch.