Plein Air Essentials: Gouache Basics
What you'll learn
- Learn the best set of materials and gear for painting outdoors with gouache
- Learn the best technique for using gouache outdoors
- Learn the best approach for "capturing the moment" with gouache outdoors
- Learn the best way to adjust your outdoor gouache studies in the studio
Requirements
- There really aren't any requirements for this course other than a love of the outdoors and painting.
- As a suggestion, you might be familiar with plein air painting and also with painting in general.
Description
Looking for a cool medium for plein air painting that is lightweight and convenient to work with? Consider gouache! It's a water-based medium, so clean-up is a breeze. Unlike watercolor, which is transparent, gouache is opaque making corrections easy. And unlike acrylic, which becomes unworkable once it dries, gouache can be re-wet and re-worked.
In this course, you'll learn many of the basics for painting with gouache outdoors, en plein air. Topics I cover include:
Why gouache is a great medium for painting outdoors rather than other media like oil or pastel
How gouache is different from other water-based media like acrylic and watercolor
The gear and materials needed for a successful plein air outing, including PDF versions of supply lists and instructions on how to make your own outdoor easel for gouache
Three different ways to start a gouache sketch for a productive and enjoyable session in your favorite location
My complete process, from start to finish, on how I make gouache sketches on-location
When and how to adjust your gouache sketches back in the studio
By the end of this course, you will be able to go out and sketch with gouache in confidence -- and return to the studio to adjust!
Who this course is for:
- Anyone from beginning to advanced painters will learn much from this course.
Instructor
- 4.3 Instructor Rating
- 184 Reviews
- 751 Students
- 5 Courses
Michael paints primarily outdoors in oil, pastel or gouache, choosing locations from the American Southwest, Downeast Maine and the Canadian Maritimes. He has been invited repeatedly to national plein air events and most recently was on the distinguished faculty of the annual Plein Air Convention & Expo in Denver, Colorado.
Michael was awarded Master Pastellist status by Pastel Artists Canada in 2008, and he is a Signature Member of the American Impressionist Society and Plein Air Painters of New Mexico. His paintings have appeared in many magazines and are in both corporate and private collections. He was featured in The Artist’s Magazine in September 2013.
Michael is a nationally-known teacher, giving workshops across the U.S. A frequent writer for The Artist’s Magazine, Pastel Journal, Watercolor Artist and PleinAir Magazine, he is the author of several books, including Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering Plein Air.