Thursday 3 July 2008

Gouache and Ink resist - Self critique

As promised yeserday, i'm showing you my attempts at the Gouache and ink resist technique.

This week, we had a discussion in our yahoo group New Inspirations, about how in our group we are able to show each other our mistakes, whereas on a blog we feel pressurised to show only our best pieces of work.

So with this self critique, i've decided to show you 'warts and all'.

When i came to do this technique, i found that i had every colour under the sun in gouache, except white. typical, as this is the best colour to use.

So instead i experimented with Poster Paint. The type that children use, because it's washable.

So here is my very first attempt. All are ATC size


I started first with a simple image. I chose the moon gazing hare, as it's something i've been meaning to have a play with for some time.

Some of the ink appeared very washed out in places, so went over with some more ink when it had all dried.

With the first attempt, you can see exactly where you should have put the gouache (poster paint), so is worthwhile doing a mock up one first.

The black marks on the right hand side of the hare, have been caused by the paint cracking when using the heat gun to dry it. This i feel gives it a more 'printmaking' kinda feel to it.

In Ange's tutorial, she advises watercolour paint, but i prefer using acrylics, and use them in a watercolour kinda way.

Not bad, but not what i was looking for. I want to see just how much detail i can get into one of these pictures.

Next i did an Egyptian Lady, to see if i could put a bit more detail in.


As you can see, once again the ink is a bit wishy washy, but decided to do an experiment with it.



I gave it coating of red artists drawing ink, over the entire black ink, and it picked up the highlights quite well.


This is after i used acrylic paint and brusho ink to colour in the lady. Notice the boxers broken nose. This shows how careful you have to be when applying the gouache (poster paint).
But i like the effect it has given. To me it reminds me of the sphinx, made out of sandstone, and eroded away over time.

So next i decided to try something with even more detail. This time i tried my hand at painting a horse. The very first time, methinks that i have attempted to do a horse, but as Ange was the technique adviser and has a love of horses, this persuaded me to have a go.



Not bad for a first attempt, but feel this is definitely not a subject to choose for this kind of technique. It is slightly impossible to get the feel of the muscular power of the horse. Well it was for me.

So for the last experiment, i decided to back to the Moon gazing hare, as this is what i wanted to attempt in the first place, but this time, much more detail.

Through the other experiments, i found that applying the gouache paint with small brushstrokes, and not attempting to make it smooth, this also made more printerly marks.

So using this idea, and the heatgun to crack it, it should make more detail appear. I feel that i have achieved what i wanted with this picture. I have also left it in black and white, as felt that colour was not needed.




14 comments:

Ange J Lee said...

Oh wow wow wow!!!! this is all fantastic work and love that you've critiqued! Brave girl!Thanks for thinking of me with the horse image - you've mastered it so well for a subject you think is not suited to the technique. That final image of Moon Gazer (a image I love) is perfect and don't colour it in EVER - it's brilliant in black and white!
I've taken some of your findings on board and will be tweaking the tutorial to incorporate them.
Cheers for taking the time to participate in the project as I know you're a busy busy gal!
luv n hugz
Ange xxx

MARGARET FIELD said...

Thank YOU for the tutorial, dear friend.

I can honestly say i had the time of my life, and later i will be attempting this on a large scale. should be even more fun lol

Jan said...

Have left a message on your Flickr site but thought I'd duplicate it here! This is fantastic! The hare looks like a woodcut. I love the way you have persevered and shown it 'warts and all' Brilliant!

Sherry said...

Fantastic Margaret, love the hare and the horse, but your Egyptian lady is my favourite (broken nose an' all!) Thanks for sharing all info on your experiments too.

Maureen said...

Love all the pics but the Horse is my favourite (despite my love of Bunny type things) - a great post to read!

Jacky said...

I love the effect of this technique (really quite taken with the black and white versions too!!!)

Thanks so much for sharing. I would love to have a go at this (but think I would need classes).

You are a clever bunny!!!

Totsymae said...

That's pretty cool, Margaret. You inspire me to try new avenues of creativity. Thanks for sharing!

Tosh

Anonymous said...

Never done this before so hope you get this message, as agnes said wow wow wow !!! have cleared the dining room table, got the inks out, not sure what i am doing, but, you have inspired me, so going to give it a go, everyone has got to start somewhere!
Keep up the good work.
liz

Sian said...

Wow! These are fantastic. I think the horse is my favourite but I love them all.

PS. There's something on my blog for you...

John Dyhouse said...

Great stuff Margaret, gotta try this out for myself JOhn

Viola said...

Wow, just gorgeous!!!!

Anonymous said...

Great Review! Well written and quite descriptive as well.. If any item or topic comes out then you should be the one releasing it to the public and make it known! The way you describe it is very intriguing and feels like candy to my ears, if that really makes any sense :) but you catch my drift.. In one of my classes, we were given a paper with instructions of how to build a swan made of aluminum foil and we had to explain to our group verbally how to construct the swan.. It was difficult! But, manageable and we came second in place, but it was tasky :) Nevertheless if you post anything else up I will most definitely check it out! Great review!

Okidata Inkjet Cartridges said...

Wow... this is wonderful, and very helpful in seeing how you make such wonderful art. I adore your coloring always have. Great tutorial...

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Saving this to my reading list (you gotta love the new Safari feature on iOS 5!). Great post.... P.S. Happy Friday, everyone :)