Experimentation and new materials

Looking at my instagram feed, I can’t think of any other word other than experimentation for my posts from August 2020 up to November 2020. I was lost on what to do next. The previous months had “themes” that I could write about. This one, I played with my other art materials – gouache, color pencils, markers, gold foil, and a bit of watercolor. For the first post on this series – I’ll write about gouache.

I brought out my Himi Miya gouache again for experiments. I had a bunch of old watercolor paper in stock and thought I could use these for practice. They were a bit dried out but was revived with water and a lot of patience! This was also the time that I had no motivation to scan most of my works, so I relied on my phone photos for a while.

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All of the artworks that needed to be scanned that time

I also attempted to do gouachetober using the back of old watercolor papers

More gouache and old watercolor paper works

Got tired of doing gouachetober on day 3, so I did ink on day 4. This is a representation of “I’m tired of fighting for our profession, but we must fight because who will defend us?” face that we were experiencing that time.

Since I made a portrait, I had to make 2 more for a set of 3 for my instagram page. Pencils and gouache flowers for these.

My entry for a Paperaicashop’s DTIYS contest

Look at that gold â™Ĩ

I also remember feeling resentment and bitterness during this time. I dedicated my time on our group’s website layout, blog posts, listings, accounting, and even promotions. It was my usual phase of being tired over initiating conversations with people and following up on on each other’s tasks. I didn’t want any of that anymore. So after this, I stopped initiating. Below is my contribution to our monthly sticker collaboration of sorts.

Places you want to be

The last photo are more gouache experiments that are coffee themed. It looks cute! Would love to turn this into sticker sheets some day. â™Ĩ

 

Return to Gouache

After drawing 50 portraits, I liked the change of pace from watercolors. So I switched to gouache this time. I remembered that I have a Himi Miya Gouache somewhere and looked for it. They said gouache is better when the paint is still wet since its easier to blend. The Himi Miya can stay wet as long as you check every other month and spray water on it. I did not do that (oops):

The state of my Himi

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This is fine, though! You can still revive dried up gouache. I poured water on all pans and mixed it with a chopsticks to try to re-wet and revive it. It worked! I also bought a new watercolor pad to try out – Daler Rowney Aquafine pad from Art Caravan PH.

Hydrangeas = Rainy season! â™Ĩ

Details

Since I was still hang over from doing portraits, I thought I could do portraits in gouache as well. As you could see in the first photo, I got bad sizing paper from my pad. Its a good thing that I can cover this up with gouache!

Anemone Girl in Inprnt

Hydrangea Girl in Inprnt

Himi Miya Gouache

A few days after PaperCon, I bought the recently popular on Social Media gouache that looks reasonably priced for the amount you get – Himi Miya Gouache.

I got the pink cover! Bought this from Craft Central.

It’s reasonably priced! You’d get 24 colors in 30ml refillable jelly cases.

Below are some of my first artworks using this. I was still in my watercolor mode when I was making these. Its kinda hard to transition from one medium to another. I hope I could practice using this again!

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https://www.instagram.com/p/B4rjGSxnLjK/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4wICu8H_bv/

Everything Old

Whew! With so many things happening in real life, I finally had time to sit down and blog. Since I’m still waiting for our photos during my first workshop with the January Makers PH team, I’ll do this post first lol.

A month ago, I found my old Reeves gouache paints. Thinking that it was a waste to throw them out, I decided to use them with my expired paper for practice. Here are some of the artworks that I did:

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Sunflower & Peonies.

I tested my old materials by painting a sunflower first. The Reeves gouache is still usable, but it stinks! I like the brightness of the colors though. The next paintings were of course peonies. Knowing that all of the materials that I used were old, I could practice all I want without any worries of wasting my art materials HAHA.

First and second attempt. â™Ĩ

I posted something about this on Instagram:

When you don’t like your first attempt, it’s always okay to start again. 😁 It doesn’t have to be perfect everytime.

Some hydrangea studies.

Because sometimes its okay to paint with “careless, free, loose” strokes. ❤ The important thing is you enjoy what you’re doing. 😊

With hydrangeas, I was exploring on making looser strokes that would still look presentable. Wet on wet, layering, and my usual style. The third photo was a good study for my latest sticker.

Overall, I’m satisfied with experimenting on old art materials. It shows that you really don’t need high end stuff to make great work. There’s also no guilt of wasting expensive paper for practice haha. With this, let me end the post with their ages:

  1. Paper: Canson 200 gsm watercolor paper cut into smaller pieces. Age: 6 years.
  2. Reeves Gouache. Age: 15 years.
  3. Brush: Faber Castel freebie from the watercolor pencil set. Age: 12 years.