Faces… in Gouache, Watercolour, Inkpen…

I began this painting with a brown watersoluble “Neocolor” crayon, applied with a flourish (and without much of a plan) onto A4 cotton watercolour paper. Then added watercolour and gouache. I used a tiny bit of coloured pencil here and there. The paper texture was a little rougher than I usually like to use for a “face”, however, in general I was pleased with how this turned out.

As always I love to draw “faces”. These days I tend to draw them from memory and imagination. However, the many years of drawing from observation have given me a reasonable amount of confidence to do this.

I’m aware of the distortions that may appear in my “faces” – in part due to not drawing from a model, but if I can get the expression and feel that I want, I think that the “faces”work – for want of a better word! There’s more about my continual love of drawing faces in this post, here.

Tiny painting of a woman’s face
Painted with gouache on cotton watercolour paper. I really enjoy painting miniatures. This is approx: 6cm x 10.5cm which I affixed to a heavy weight, cotton paper. Before placing it in the frame I carefully applied an acrylic “isolation” coat, and later two thin coats of satin varnish. I like the look of a slight sheen on the painting, and varnish also allows for framing without glass. Yay!
This is in a homemade sketchbook. I stapled together some thin, (though strong) bamboo paper – it has pleasant honey colour, and handles gouache quite well.
Sketchbooks
This is a couple of my homemade sketchbooks: A5 and A6 sizes, and my long armed stapler etc…I used bamboo paper for them. I printed some of my art on the covers.

I’ve recently bought some inexpensive sketchbooks with 150gsm (mostly recycled) paper – they take water quite well. I fill up sketchbooks quickly, so I don’t always like to buy the costly cotton paper ones. It’s also economical to make some of my own, and fun!

In general I work on 100% cotton paper.

Painting of a woman’s face
Gouache and watercolour on a sketchbook page. The skin is a bit pale and shadows need fixing, but I left it as is, cos kinda like the expression, and thought I’d muck it up!

Over the past couple of months, I’ve returned to the more familiar (and comfortable) territory of using: inkpen, watercolour, pencil… Also, I’m practicing painting with gouache. The use of white paint continues to be a challenge (as I found upon my revisit to painting with acrylics) but I’m improving! However, as in watercolour painting, I still like to leave some white of the paper for highlights – at least sometimes. 

A painting of a woman’s face
Drawn rapidly with pencil in a sketchbook, then brushed a rush of watercolour over it.
Painting of a woman sitting.
First I did a quick drawing with a brown pen, then I added layers of gouache paint. It’s on an A5 sheet of paper.
Woman’s face
I drizzled a face shape with my watersoluble graphite crayon and then built it up from there with gouache, watercolour and little coloured pencil.
A painting of a woman’s face
A swish of pencil and watercolour in one of my sketchbooks.

Though I’ll use acrylics again – my preference is definitely for watercolours; and gouache gives me the option to paint in styles reminiscent of acrylics/oils without the awful clean up and sticky messes. Also watersoluble crayons, pencils, ink pens…are a joy to use. And a little bit of iPad drawing is still on my “go to” list. As I’ve said before, I’m so thankful† for my art opportunities.

Woman’s face and a still life painting
Sketchbook pages…did the still life in inkpen and watercolour first…then the woman and Scripture on the other page… both pages almost read as one scene, which I like.

I’ll share a post soon of still lifes and landscapes, I’ve drawn and painted these past couple of months.

Thank you for visiting!

2 thoughts on “Faces… in Gouache, Watercolour, Inkpen…

  1. I recognized your style of painting right away! Love the fluidity if your lines. Your joy of painting is noticeable in the way that some of your lines appear to be dancing, especially in the last sketch. Wonderful!

    Liked by 1 person

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