Tutorial: Gouache and India Ink

I like painting with Gouache. It's opaque, but behaves alot like watercolor. There are some interesting things you can do with it, too.

One of my favorite ways to make art involves Gouache and India Ink. Some kinds of ink work better than others. I love using Higgins Waterproof Black India.

The first thing you do is paint your design leaving the paper white where you want the ink to stick. You really need to paint the Gouache on quite thick. If your paint isn't thick enough then the ink will go through and you'll end up with a black canvas.

For this one I painted 3 fir trees on a winter night. Notice I basically just blocked in color on large areas. It's hard to see, but I used white Gouache where I wanted snow. I also painted the sky violet and dark blue, which I didn't get a photo of.



Let the Gouache air dry completely. Then, with a very soft brush you will quickly paint a layer of ink over the top of your piece. I usually pour on some ink and then quickly pull the ink lightly over the entire painting. Some of the Gouache will bleed through. Resist the urge to keep playing in it. Just quickly cover the painting and then set it down and wait for it to dry. Don't use heaters or blowers, just watch it until the ink loses it's shine and is dry.



Turn on your tap and adjust the water until it is about room temperature. You should have a small steady stream, about the diameter of a thin pencil. Hold your painting under the water and let the water wash off the ink. You can lightly use your finger to remove more ink in certain areas, if you wish. Move your painting around until you've washed off as much ink as you want. This leaves some very interesting marks on your paper. Let it dry.



Now you can go back and repaint. Strengthen the areas that were washed away, or covered over. Have some fun with it.



When you repaint over Gouache your new strokes somehow mingle with the paint underneath. They blend together and mellow out a bit. You may have to keep adding more and more layers if you are trying for a strong highlight or pure color. My kitty is just so interested in everything I do. My daughter had to snap a photo of him supervising my work.



And there you go. An interesting piece that was pretty easy to do.

Island Dancing

"With the embarrassing seatbelt-extension episode on the plane forgotten, Ella had a great time learning the hula."

I had a great time with this illo. I kind of liked the colors that happened. I inked this first, then painted with gouache. When dry, I held it under a stream of warm water and let it wash off the extra paint. I had some happy accidents when the paint washed off in patches in the sky making clouds.

Memories

Fall always brings a lot of pleasant memories to my mind. When Illustration Friday used "Memories" as their prompt I decided to do a fallen leaf. Fall is like metaphor for my station in life. The weather is less heated, maybe a little slower, some things falling (like certain body parts) and a bit drier. I really love fall.

This piece was inked first and then painted with gouache. Then the paint was washed off to leave the stained paper. Really easy and fast technique.

Ella Distracted

While on a family walk, Ella saw the most fascinating things.


This week for Illustration Friday the word is "Detach", and for Watercolor Wednesday the word is "Triplet". I combined the two so that I could post for both.

Can you imagine? Triplet elephants? Just imagine how big you'd get while pregnant. ha ha ha. I almost had a disaster with this. I used a different kind of paper and when I went to wash off the gouache the paper started to disintegrate! I didn't panic, just layed it out on a table as flat as I could until it dried. Oh well, you learn by doing, right?

This was outlined in India ink and then gouache. When the gouache is dry you wash it off! (I know, it's hard to see all that expensive gouache going down the drain.)

Illustration Friday

The word for Illustration Friday this week is Sail.
I thought the gouache and ink wash-off technique would be pretty fun to use.

Poof!

While playing Hide and Seek with her friends, Ella ducked behind a street lamp and **POOF**
....she disappeared!

Spooky Enough For You?

Done with gouache first, painted very heavy. I left the paper white where I wanted it to end up black. When the gouache was dry I quickly painted india ink over the entire project. That's the scary part. When you can't stand to wait any longer you wash off the ink under running water. I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt at using this technique.