- Hi, I'm Kath Macaulay, and today we're gonna talk about something that I don't use in my paints.

It's called gouache.

Gouache is opaque, white paint or opaque any paint that if you mix it with watercolors, you make them opaque and you're gonna have to clean them up in order to use 'em.

If you want that bright, fresh look of watercolor.

Some people love gouache, they paint exclusively with it.

The colors are opaque.

They're like what you used in grade school, only much, much much higher quality than what you got then.

And, and that's fine.

But if you're going out in the field and you want extreme portability, you don't wanna be carrying a bunch of extra stuff.

So I'll show you how it works.

Come along and have fun.

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- This is a section that's gonna be a little different.

It's a technique I don't like.

However, people wanna know what it is.

It's gouache.

It's G O U A C H E. Plural, gouaches.

It's a type of painting with watercolor, which is opaque and uses white.

The reason I'm bringing it up is most sets that you buy as a set, include the white.

So I'm gonna show you right where it is.

I think it would be kind of funny actually.

Oh, it has been used.

That's amazing.

But it's down here in this corner.

So people ask me, how do you use it?

I mean, it obviously looks like you paint it on and you get white, right?

Well, if you look at the example on the board you don't exactly get a bright white color.

A master of using it was John Singer Sargent.

So I'm going to show you a couple Sargents and tell you how he used it.

But because of technical problems it took me a long time to find out what he did to get away with it.

Okay, this is one photo and the goauche, remember, is white added to any color.

The color will turn pastel and opaque.

So now you can look at where it is.

The man's head, he's got dark hair.

The middle of the dark brown has been mixed with gouache.

It's a little blue added, that's a highlight.

It's sort of obvious on the shoulder.

That's a brush stroke.

It's obvious in the shirt front that's actually white.

It's not so obvious back here where he added a brush stroke mixed with green or light blue to make the grass lighter to show off his hair.

But it is obvious on the tree trunks.

So this is one way it's used.

Now, the other way that Sargent used it, which you could do is he brought this, he worked in the 1800s to 1925.

He brought tube paint and ha- and pan paint.

Pan paint is what I use.

These are called half pans.

He brought two paint, paint and pan paint for watercolor but he mixed his own gouache from scratch in the field.

Where he has used it here is very, very specific.

See the white pants?

See the little splash there?

Splashes here.

Extreme white.

Splash.

Extreme white.

As if it were something very different, like almost acrylic but they didn't have acrylics.

Here, here, there and there.

The, this one piece of water coming down Um, and it's back here.

These bright yellows, these are top dressed after he's finished the watercolor to get a better effect He took with him in the field what he needed to change any painting quickly.

And right there was what I had to find out about.

Because gouache doesn't mix with watercolor, eh, quickly.

You can't go back to the watercolor.

Once you've got the gouache and the brush, then you have to wash the brush and wash the paints in order to go back to regular, transparent watercolor.

Now that would take time.

Took a lot of reading, uh, in the days that Sargent lived people wrote real letters, you know, not emails.

They also kept them because they were valuable.

Go back and read 'em again.

And people kept somebody's letters, the whole stack of them.

Well, from one of the letters because many of 'em were published.

One of his friends said, "Sargent is doing it again".

Let's see if I can quickly set this up so you can see it.

Oh, you can see it well enough.

He's got five brushes in his hand.

Five brushes.

Okay, add two more.

He's got a brush for gouache, other brushes for watercolor.

Turn the hand and get what you want.

Then his gouache was set up separately, not part of his regular watercolors.

And he had another bucket of water for the gouache, not the water he used for watercolors.

Now if you wanna be portable, do you wanna bring all this stuff along?

Really?

I mean, I get everything in my little bag and yes, I have white paint available.

It's not in my regular set.

So I'm gonna show you what happens when we actually do this to a watercolor.

And I've brought a separate set.

This is it, for gouache.

It's got a separate brush.

I've got separate water.

I've gotta remember to keep it away from my regular water.

It doesn't go back in my bag.

So, and it, this is hard for me to do.

I can pick up this white paint (laughs) with this brush, in this set, mix it with anything and I'll just take out some paper um, the minute I mix it with something and this is so hard for me to do it.

I make it opaque.

Make this totally different goo.

(laughs) This is not watercolor.

It is, it's different.

Now, I can't get the similar, this is Alizarin Crimson.

I can't get the similar color.

Just a minute.

We're gonna go back to what I keep in my box, in my bag.

This is my field set.

This is my brush.

Incidentally, when your paints are brand new this is kind of funny, when your paints are brand new, and you add water, they absorb the water, they swell.

Then when you close the lid, they ride high.

When you can't find them, because you have a clean box they're stuck to the lid and just twist and take 'em off then put 'em back where they belong.

You actually can also close the box with it stuck to the lid.

Go right back where it's supposed to go.

I don't have white in here, but I have a watercolor brush.

By the way, when you start playing with gouache, okay where am I gonna get water?

Not there, (laughs) can't get it there.

I'm trying to give you an idea of if you wanna do this in the field along with watercolor, how you gonna do it?

(cap pops open) I'm going to show you what Alizarin Crimson looks like by itself without gouache.

And it fins down like that.

This will stay opaque.

This is translucent.

There is a difference.

Then I have to remember to wash my brush with this water.

Yes, that was a separate brush.

How did he keep this stuff straight?

(laughs) I, I know he painted all the time and he used gouache.

But now I'm going to put this set away basically to protect it.

Uh, incidentally, as long as it, they're both here.

This is the set as it comes.

And my set.

I've thrown out two colors, thrown out the little water container here and put in some extra colors that I like.

That's the only difference.

Then I've also labeled the outside so that if I leave it behind, I finally did that once.

It'll get returned.

So now you can see the effect of the white paint on the pa, on on the, another color.

And I have to remember, this is the set I can goop up, which is hard for me to do.

Goop up.

(paintbrush rattling) It's, it's getting opaque.

Then there's that yellow.

Now it looks pretty normal.

I should be able to put it on a dark painting and lighten it.

Let me put that aside.

I have a couple over here.

This is one I set up just to do this this dark area in here.

I want a tree trunk in that.

So pick up some white paint, hmm, a color that might work that you might see.

Ew.

Ew.

Just transferred all that gunk on there.

(laughs) Do I have to get it off to get to this color?

I guess so.

As long as I remember that this is, this is gouache water.

Sounds funny, doesn't it?

Okay, now pick up, This is Purple Lake.

It's a nice lavender.

Might be a tad shocking, but let's see what happens.

Here comes a tree trunk.

This tree would probably have a single trunk.

Ooh, certainly didn't, wouldn't look like that.

Well, hmm, you see, this is something I don't have experience with and don't particularly care for anyway.

There are people who paint exclusively with gouache and it's like, remember tempura when you were a kid and it was opaque school colors and, um, it worked pretty well 'cause that's what you were used to.

Let's just change this and see if I can come up with a better combination.

Burnt sienna, (paintbrush rattling) turning it into cookie dough color.

Can I change this?

Yeah, but is it any better than it was before?

No.

So maybe I just wanna go with white to put a trunk in there.

Still got some white.

Why not obliterate that and just try this?

Ooh, but it didn't.

I'm gonna make it as thick as I can.

Just as thick as I can.

And I bet you're gonna see one of the problems with gouache.

That is not very light.

That's hard to see, in fact.

That's not very light at all.

Why not try putting a little, this is just to see putting a little bush back in here.

I'll add some color.

(paintbrush rattling) Put a bush back in here.

I bet you're gonna see what I found with gouache.

Okay, as it dries, it absorbs the color under it.

And there's very, very, very little color change.

Guess what?

You want that to go white?

You gotta wait for it to dry.

When it's dry, you can put on another coat and it's gonna absorb what's under it.

And when it's dry, you put on a third coat.

How much time do you have to do this?

This is why it's not in my paint set.

Multiple reasons.

A, Gunks up the watercolors.

But if you really like gouache paint with gouache because all by itself it's okay.

There it is.

And it is fairly opaque and for some uses that's super.

But in a watercolor, when it absorbs the color under it now this is on a dry painting this should be as good as it gets.

I mean, I can try to make that a whole lot thicker.

And now put it on again the the red was sort of okay (clears throat) but if you want something to go white and you thought you were gonna use this, really?

You really think you're gonna get to to use this?

There's another trunk, there's another one.

They look a little white now, but as they absorb the color under them, you're not gonna see those lines anymore.

That little bush.

That's not a satisfactory change in my book.

The alternatives are actually very, very easy.

Yeah, see, I'm not used to putting gouache in water.

It's, it's a non-habit.

I'm going to pull out another one and now do it wet and have you see what happens when you try it in the field.

And we'll just lay this aside, could look at it later.

And I guess I can put and I'll just leave that paint set out for now.

(paper dragging on table) I actually like this little sketch a lot but I'm going to darken that side.

Mm.

Okay, I was gonna darken it with watercolor but I'm sitting here with gouache.

Do you see the awkwardness of going back and forth?

I can get three pads of paper and one paint set in my bag and everything I need, but I can't comfortably get two paint sets.

And I'd hate to grab the wrong one.

I do not have, I haven't touched these brushes.

I do have a clean brush.

(cap pops open) Okay - But I'm gonna move them from this set.

I'll leave this one here, put that one over there.

(pen landing in tray) What I wanna do is darken that with watercolor so you can see what happens when you try to work the two together.

Um, not out of this set.

The tip off was there's white on the burnt sienna and I wanna use burnt sienna.

This is switching back to watercolor.

Are you really gonna carry this in the field?

Now you could step things up when you got home that'd be easy.

And I gotta think now can I do this?

Can I add another color and not hit gouache (paintbrush stroking) When I'm out painting, I wanna, I'm out there for my pleasure.

I don't wanna have to be befuddled by the equipment by itself.

Really.

I'm gonna come up fairly close to that.

Fairly close.

So I'm using Ultra Marine Blue.

Every time I go here I'm thinking, is this contaminated?

And I hate to say that's just exactly how I think about it.

Is it contaminated?

No, it's not.

Now I must use this water.

I don't care if I leave this brush permanently.

(paintbrush clatters) There.

Put this water back (cap pops open) next to the bag so I know it's okay.

I didn't get that all the way down.

These work, by the way, they're film canisters and you can still get them anyplace film is developed, okay, going to gouache Uh, to get 'em, call a place that develops film like a drugstore and ask where their wet lab is.

Usually there's one in your town.

This is where they send all the film.

And then you just call that place up and ask if they have empty film canisters.

They're great for flight, uh make, fly fishing flies, jewelry and wonderful for water.

Okay, I'm back now where I can handle contamination.

(laughs) Bad attitude, but believe me, it's real.

(laughs) (laughing) I go out to sketch, I don't want anything in my way.

Nothing like this.

Okay, here comes some.

I'll make it really thick.

Just just thick as I can get it.

Now if you buy this stuff in a tube, it will be thicker.

There it is.

I want some white lines in here.

Hm, that's so hard to do.

And, it's going to eventually work.

But there are other ways that are faster.

So much faster.

Really.

At the expense of this rather nice little sketch.

Here's one way.

Leaving the white, the first place, that's your best way.

Okay, now I'm gonna come back over that with some watercolor.

Meanwhile, here's another way.

If this still works, the scrape (scraping) remember that was slightly colored before.

The scrape will get you back there and the lift will get you back there to a lighter color.

Come in here and see if I can get a lift out right here.

See that lift?

That's, that's as good as the gouache.

And that's immediate.

This is drying to the color of what's behind it.

This lift is a bit lighter.

That was done with damp water in the brush.

Not a whole lot of water.

Now if I wanted to do a lift, this is dry.

This is a lift, on dry paint.

Put it on.

You can make it go faster by scrubbing on it but, leave it long enough to loosen up the particles of paint.

When it loosens up the particles of paint, then you blot it or use your brush.

Now I'm gonna try to speed it up a little bit by moving it.

And your probably, your quickest, most efficient blotter is a piece of Kleenex.

But I just want you to see that I can get it light without going to gouache.

And I didn't tell you why this roll of paper towels is here.

It's here because it needs to be here.

There.

See that?

That's pretty effective.

The scrape is pretty effective on wet paint.

This can be done on wet or dry and then leave the white.

You've got, oh, and I forgot to do that up there.

Will it work with gouache?

I don't know.

I've got a gouache brush in my hand.

I don't know.

I've never done this.

Ah, fairly well.

Can fairly well rinse the brush and I can pick up a color.

Let's see, this, this is compatible.

There's wax up here.

There's another way to keep your white.

So you've got multiple ways to keep lights without carrying this in the field.

Now, if you're a studio painter, that's different.

'Cause then that, you know you've got everything and all the time in the world.

But if you're working quickly in the field and you wanna move on, taking all this stuff along just isn't the best way to go.

This is still not dry.

Still have to wait for it to dry to put on another label, layer.

And notice it's not very white.

And then what do you do when you wanna clean things up?

That's why all this stuff is here.

Bar of soap.

If this were your regular equipment separate container of water and it has to be pretty much free of gouache.

Borrow soap.

This looks like it.

Well, you can't tell if it's white.

And rinse it again and do it again.

And then the bar of soap, you carry that along too.

I'm looking at another bag of equipment just to use something that doesn't work very well in the field anyway.

(laughing) You should be getting the idea.

I know that Sargent had it work, but he carried all of this equipment.

He was not into straight portability.

I'm into being able to taking my bag, hiking, biking, boating, downhill skiing to a concert, to a bad lecture.

And I use it in coach on an airplane.

The water's a small enough supply of water that they let that on.

(clears throat) And you can do this in coach on an airplane.

You can do it with as much space as required for dinner, but if you start carrying along a bunch of extra stuff you totally negate the idea of portability.

I'm, I'm two paint sets, really?

Now how can I have my stuff up close where you're not gonna see me because I'm in my personal space when I've got two paint sets?

Mm.

It, it just ruins the whole thing.

If you want to be able to sketch and go though, this is in the paint set, so I had to explain it.

But if you really wanna sketch and go, you don't wanna be burdened with a whole bunch of stuff because at that point you're back to old fashioned painting like you might just as well bring an easel and a table and plan to have all kinds of people visit you.

That's not where I am.

We really want to just have a good time painting.

So I hope you understand.

I mean, this still isn't dry.

That lift is working right now.

These are nowhere near white.

I put that one on a long time ago.

Well, last week when I planned to do this actually and I put a couple layers on so it would show up.

And that's as good as it is at two layers.

This is gonna wind up being the color basically of what's behind it.

And as for these tree trunks, they're a little bit lighter.

But you know, there's another way I coulda got 'em a little bit lighter.

It's a lift or a scrape On an existing color.

Why not just put another branch in here?

Wet it and I'm gonna scrape that one.

Now that's a, that's a dry painting.

this is my usual paint card.

May not be ready yet.

It's gotta loosen the paint.

It's, it's a, it's almost ready, not quite.

No, it didn't clean it off.

If it were, if it had longer to loosen up the particles it would, however, wait a minute, do not give up.

Squish it out.

Can I lift it at a piece of trunk in there?

Not totally satisfactorily, but as satisfactorily as that.

It is a tad lighter.

Oh, forgot to blot it.

It's a big tad lighter, but you get the idea.

So that's, that's gouache.

Sorry, I have a bad attitude about it, but you just can't bring all this stuff if you wanna be portable.

Okay, what are we gonna be doing next?

We're going to be doing journaling.

Journaling is fun.

Journaling will go with you anywhere you wanna go.

It's, it's the combination of the illustration with words and suddenly you double the meaning.

And people want to read the words and they're relevant.

Actually, it usually happens as you're somewhere and something caught your eye and you leave enough room to write a note about it (upbeat techno music) on the paper and then it just has tremendous impact.

That combination will bring anything back to you and it'll be very interesting to anybody who sees it.

Come along and enjoy with us.

And happy sketching.

Want to learn more about the wonderful world of pocket sketching?

Then visit my website at pocketsketching.com.

We have so much there for you to explore including free tips and training videos the pocket sketching supplies, photo galleries and how to access additional training.

All this and more is available at pocketsketching.com.

Learn enough to play for a lifetime.

- [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided by Sedona Hypnosis LLC, Healing your Past, Creating Your Future; Muriel Walsh Estate Sales, Representing People is Our Business; and by viewers like you.

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