Normally, I only use watercolor, but I was curious to try out gouache. So I ordered a set of 60 Arteza gouache tubes when it was on sale, looked up your amazing class and got to work.

First, I made the color wheel to see how the paints work. It's such a shift in mindset to use white paint instead of water to lighten the colors, but I absolutely loved the colors I was able to make.

Gouache Eye - image 1 - student project

Then I got impatient and wanted to do an actual painting :) I made a photo of my own eye (yep, I totally should have used better lighting, fixed my make-up and removed the wrinkles and dark circles under my eyes, but.. impatient).

I was a bit overwhelmed by all the colors in the Arteza set, so I decided to use only a small selection of colors: white, lemon yellow, scarlet red, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue and black. Mixing all the colors was so much fun! I constantly had to remind myself that I was using gouache instead of watercolor paints, so especially for the skin I had trouble making the lighter parts opaque. But overall, I think the end result is really nice for a first time :)

Thank you for the wonderful class!

Gouache Eye - image 2 - student project

Gouache Eye - image 3 - student project

Ellen Van Ham

Watercolor artist, stationery designer

17

57