Your favorite flowers - Differences between the Gouache and Watercolor

This post was inspired basically with the intention of trying some materials that had been saved for a while, these were the Gouache, I bought the Gouache in 2016 for my drawing course since I was going to start working with the watercolor technique, it happens that I did not get anywhere Economic and good brand watercolors, meanwhile I found these Gouache where in the store they told me they were practically equal to Watercolors, the box had 12 colors, in tubes and also two brushes, it was a good price and I practically had what I needed, so I ended up buying them.

When I go to the course I take the Gouache and some old Watercolors that I had in my house that I did not use since I was in elementary school, the teacher sees the Gouache and says "We are not going to work with these because they are not Watercolors, work with the others" ... really at the time I did not understand what was the difference between both materials, regardless of whether the teacher explained the differences, I saw the same thing, they used almost the same and they worked the same way ... It was my first mistake, I realized that are not the same when these days I wanted to try the Gouache, since 2016 that I had bought them I had not used them until these days, that to make the test I wanted to make a small and basic drawing without much detail, I decided to paint some flowers.

I had always had the doubt of why they said that Gouache and Watercolors were not the same, and no matter how many times I asked different artists or artists I still did not understand it at all, in order to find a clear difference I had to go to practice, use both materials, experience and from there draw my own conclusions. Before going with the differences, I will show you step by step how I was doing this little drawing, which I must admit that I feel very proud of myself because this little drawing I can do in less than a day, which I do not do very often but good "Practice makes a master".

The materials that we use for this drawing are the following:

• Gouache Royal & Langnickel
• Modigliani Cardboard
  (Measures: 26.5x16 cm)
• Brushes (No. 10 and 5)
• Palette to mix
• Scotch tape
• 4H pencil and eraser
• Clipboard
• A glass and piece of cloth
• Water

I started by placing the cardboard over the clipboard, sticking it with the adhesive tape, so we avoid the cardboard moving or bending in the process, the detail of these techniques that are watered down is that if you make a mistake there is no way to correct it, then I started I made the sketch of the flowers on the cardboard with the 4H pencil, the flowers I had taken from an image I found on Pinterest, I just changed the colors a bit and gave it my personal touch.

When I was preparing the Gouache, when I was new I had to uncover them, when I took the blue color, the paint did not want to leave and there was something that blocked the painting, it turned out that there was dry paint in the hole, so I started scraping a little , I did not expect the paint to fly away or explode like a volcano staining everything in its path, in that it fell a bit on the cardboard, take a little water to dilute the color a bit, as I said it is difficult to correct the error in these techniques but it is easy to cover them.

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With a light blue mixed with a lot of water, and apply this color to the background of the flowers using the brushes, I did not want the background to be completely white. Then prepare three different shades of green mixing colors like yellow, dark and light green, brown, white and beige, one very light, one light, very dark and a touch of black for the details of shadows, I started applying the very clear and that before starting with the dark shades and finding the details we should have a base color on the area where we are going to work.

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After having covered the blue spot and giving shades and light in the leaves, go to prepare three shades of orange for the petals of the flower to mix the following colors such as orange, white, blue, black and brown , the three tonalities were equal between one very clear as a base, another clear and a very dark one.

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You have to take into account that to apply the color, you should apply a little where the area is darker and followed by that with that little scatter, how to fade, if it is too dark the mixture can always use water to dilute a little . As a final step, the signature.

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Now we go to see...

Differences between the Gouache and Watercolor

To begin with, the watercolors I use are these, they are not of any specific brand and I bought them a long time ago in a bookstore, practically the one used by children. I noticed that the watercolor is totally lighter and provides a high degree of luminosity, that is, to reach a very clear tonality you do not need to mix the colors with the white, with touches of water you can get to the clear tone.

As for example this other work that I am doing but with Watercolors, this sky and part of the mountains have that degree or effect of luminosity thanks to small able water. It looks light and fresh, achieving that touch of light input that the sky has.

On the other hand, the Gouache, are more pasty, could be compared with the oil since it can offer a similar aesthetic result. To reach the degrees of brightness or light tones it is necessary to mix the colors with white.

For example, when you apply the base layer on the petals of the flowers you could see a pink hue but it was actually orange mixed with white, and to get to that tonality I had to mix the white several times because with the water it was not diluted the color, between so much mixture can lose the color or the tonality wished for that reason it is necessary to be attentive. To dilute the colors could not do it simply with water as it is in the case of Watercolor.

In summary, I can say that the main difference between the Gouache and the Watercolor is that the Watercolor is more transparent while the Gouache is more solid, with this I do not mean that the Gouache are bad, but that they are another technique in this world of art, which can be confused with watercolor ... maybe, but as I could observe it is not equal to watercolor, it has its own way of working it. I suggest that if you are going to work with Gouache, be with ideas or references that lack luminosity, that there are more shadows or the colors are of very great contrast, because if you use them otherwise it can be a little difficulty.

Those who read me welcome my words and we can know more in the next post. Thank you so much!

Photos of my authorship with a Hyundai E551lite
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