Sometimes our sketches just don't get it for us. I was at a family birthday party, where I normally sketch, and these little guys just didn't work. They were too pale and wimpy, Aidan didn't look anything like Aidan, and these sure weren't the best Finn drawing I ever did. The dog was actually the thing I was happiest with, on this page, and it was still just pale on that tan paper.
HOWEVER. I normally make my own journals and I just haven't had time--this is the last one I have on hand, and I hated to waste a page! I didn't want to erase them, either...so days later, I was sitting in the parking lot at the library, waiting while my husband ran in. The snow cliffs, pushed off the parking lot by the snowplow, were impressive, so I tured to that page and sketched them in, in ink.
Later, back home, I added some gouache, and decided to just let the paint outline the earlier sketches. It's a weird page, but I like it! It captures something of the progression of our days, as well as of our journal pages.
I used a white Gellyroll pen to add the text at lower right that balances the snow at the top...
Gouache (opaque watercolor) is a terrific journaling tool, particularly on toned paper. Like white colored pencil, it really makes things pop. That's what I used on this little journal, one of the rare ones I haven't made myself. (It came from Moon Moth Press on Etsy, and I enjoyed using it, very much. This one had the interesting green Bugra paper, and some lovely smooth 90 lb. Arches hot press watercolor paper, which was a pleasure to work on. Check them out!)
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| Gouache worked rally well in the field, painting my favorite crumbling barn. |
Several of our correspondents use gouache--you'll see a lot of it on Roz Stendahl's pages, for instance. You can find her blog entries, always a wealth of information, on the subject of gouache, HERE.
I made my own little traveling set by filling an old Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolor set with gouache from tubes. Let it set up a few days, and I was ready to go!
