Art book first impressions: Get up and Gouache. Also first ever gouache!

I just received this new book late last week. I was a little disappointed initially because it doesn't look like the level of the exercises builds very high? I was hoping to see some step by step breakdowns of the more exciting, storybook art pieces in the back such as "Lost". The only more complex piece with a breakdown is "Magical Mountains". However I probably just have hubris and the exercises will probably be very challenging. We will see.

I jumped right in and did the first project with my Turner Design Gouache. This was my first ever try with Gouache! This exercise turned out to be a great way to test the paints because there were lots of colours to mix. Main takeaway: Wow! Gouache is such a bright and rich medium! I can't believe this colour of red! However, I realized I screwed up when purchasing my basic set. I didn't purchase a dark blue or dark green. Those are now ordered and on the way.

I will update this review after I do a few more projects. I hope to try the second one this weekend.

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Work from "101 Watercolor techniques" - Exercise 005

This exercise was a bit of a struggle for a beginner. Believe it or not the result below is the third attempt. The point of the exercise was to get a result of depth on the paper using only analogous colours and without using color gradation. I am sure I learned something from it. What I think I struggled with among other things was "water control" - keeping the water within the small leaf areas from running. Learning: As I went along I had a little bit more freedom with the strokes. I started to notice how the exercise author was using negative space and tried to replicate it. \

Simple apple painting

Not sure if this is more successful than my first fruit painting but I certainly thought about it more. I tried to use lifting to get the white spots on the skin (which I think worked ok) and for the reflections around the edge (which didn't really work). I also tried adding white after for the waxy white part of the skin. I know it's not recommended I just wanted to see what it would look like.

Work from "101 Watercolor techniques"

Today I did two projects from the "101 Watercolor techniques" book. Both turned out quite well with some caveats. Number 3 - Cool monochromes The exercise is about mixing Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine to get variations in color. I struggled to get enough reddish brown to display so I had to do a second wash in places to get a nice final result. That was a bit of a cop out but I figured by struggling I had learned a bit of the lesson anyway. Number 4 - Warm monochromes This one is about letting two warm colors mix on the paper. In retrospect I should have done more of that with number 3 as well. This exercise also mostly worked except I didn't get the veins painted until the yellow paint was getting to dry. As a result they look a bit added on - as they are.

Crashing water

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