Winter in Gouache! - January 2022 Moodboard & Mixed Media Kit

by Crystal Johnson January 13, 2022

Hey, all! Today I’m bringing you a little winter painting I made using the January Mixed Media Kit from the Tres Jolie Kit Club! I was super excited when I saw this kit – there’s gouache in it! If you don’t know what gouache is, the simplest way I can think to describe it is an opaque, flat, matte, watercolor. It acts like watercolors (traditionally, there are acrylic gouaches on the market, but this set isn’t one of them!), but it isn’t translucent like watercolors, and it has a flat, matte finish.

This final version on the watercolor panel from the kit was my second painting! I grabbed a sheet of watercolor paper from my stash and (tried) to work out what I wanted to do first! (Truth be told, I like my first set of trees better! I show it in the video.) Check out my video to see how things came along!

Video:

I was inspired by this month’s wonderful, winter moodboard! I love winter—not the cold so much, but the beauty of ice and snow; it’s just so -- clean!

I have a few images here for you to check out the layers and shading.

The colors I used from the Art Alchemy Gouache set for my little painting are: Titanium White, Black, Deep Green, Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine, Prussian Blue, & Burnt Umber

For some reason, the trees on this final painting really gave me fits! I just couldn’t get the front tree to come out “right”! I didn’t have near as much trouble on my practice painting with my trees, but eventually I did get the front tree to be – not a total disaster! LOL! A great tool for evergreen trees? A fan brush!

I really love how my could came out here—even if I did have to move it! When I added my first cloud to this painting, it was much lower on the horizon, but fortunately gouache is relatively easy to rework!

I’m almost as happy as my happy little critter here with how they came out! (I was going for a fox! What do you think?) I didn’t try to add extensive detailing, but just tried to give some shading to the shape to give the impression they were facing forward with their tail wrapped around the front.

The key to all of this was to be patient and work s-l-o-w-l-y! I took my time and made sure bottom layers were 100% dry before doing the next layer! Even though gouache is water-soluble, it is possibly to add layers if you allow ample dry time and don’t add excessive water on the following layer(s).

Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie. I hope you enjoyed this project and it gave you an idea of what you can do with the gouache paint set—and how gouache acts--in this month’s kit!