Beach Babes - continued 2

The first time I decided to add color to this print, I used gouache - which has pros and cons.  

Beach Babes relief print with gouache added for color.

One of the pros of gouache is it's unstable quality - if you touch it with wet or gouache again, it is activated again....and again.....and again.  Of course, this is also one of the cons......because it reactivates, I find it is very easy to turn everything muddy and/or gray.  The image below is simply additional work on the image above....

Beach Babes #1 relief print with several layers of gouache paint.

As you can see, it is grayer and muddier, BUT has much more depth with the addition of a darker sky and shadows, shadows, shadows.......  I am not sure that I would enjoy gouache as my primary medium, but it is fun to experiment with and it cleans up easily.

I do wonder how those that work with gouache as their primary medium preserve their work; it must always have to be under glass or run the risk of changing with humidity and moisture in the air.....or a stray blast of water (or tomato juice like in the insurance commercial....)  I have now included this image on a card, but deliberately make it into a giclee print so that it can not be reactivated by moisture, humidity, water, etc. wet elements.

The gouache paint I use comes in tube form, which means it starts wet - I do not have to mix it with water or a gouache medium to start painting.  This is a nice pro.  If it completely dried out, it can easily be activated by adding a little water, which makes it nicely suited for painting on-site. 

I have seen several variations of painter-made, portable gouache boxes designed just for mobility.  In most cases, a small tin box, such as a Sucrets or Altoids box, is lined with white polymer clay.  In six or eight places, the artist has pressed in the eraser end of a pencil, to create a depression for holding paint.  Once the box is headed in the oven (as specified by the clay manufacturer to harden the polymer,) the palette is travel-ready.  Some artists line the top half of the box with additional white polymer prior to baking, keeping it as smooth as possible, and use this area for mixing.

Each depression, when dried and cooled, is ready for a squeeze of gouache paint from the tube.  It's easy to toss one of these portable boxes and a filled water-brush into a pocket or even a small purse for spontaneous gouache painting.....a small tablet of watercolor paper is helpful if the artist is headed to an area that may be paper-free.

I know you are now thinking, "....watercolor paint does the same things and comes pre-boxed......"  Right?  Here's an additional "pro" of gouache paints - they are very opaque, unlike most watercolor sets.   Most of the time, they will even cover black India ink - although this intense dark sometimes takes two coats, depending on the paper being used.  With gouache, you can do a quick pencil, or even ink sketch, and paint right over it without the pencil or ink showing through....gouache allows the finished product to look much more spontaneous than it may be.......if that matters to the artist or viewer.......