Today, I finished up my gouache flower painting by adding a blue background.
I am really so happy with the results and plan to give this to a friend, as a gift.
I had a bit of blue paint left over, so I added some sandy-colors and painted a cradled wood panel in a lovely blue-beachy background for a future project.
It looked like the perfect place for a mermaid!
I haven’t painted any mermaids since I switched over to gouache on wood panels, so I decided to give it a try.
Even though gouache is a type of watercolor, it is very different from painting with traditional block watercolors.
Because of this, I wasn’t at all sure that I would like the results of my painting.
Not wanting to take a chance on messing up my beautiful background, I placed a piece of tracing paper over the panel and sketched out my mermaid on the paper.
Once I was satisfied with my sketch, I transferred it to my panel using the Speedball brand, Mona Lisa graphite paper.
Note: This graphite is a little pricey but does not leave smudges all over my fingers and panel, which makes it well worth the money. Also, with the right eraser, it is erasable.
Once she was transferred, I started adding color.
I did repaint her a few times to get the skin and hair colors that I wanted, but she is just lovely!
