gouache painting of the kitty

The Fire Remains 2022

Three species of tigers are extinct. Yet six more remain with five in the wild.

12.26.2022

Eli McMullen - Slowing the Night, 2024 - Acrylic and gouache on panel

Laurel Bustamante — Flowers from Mars 2073  (gouache & acrylic on wood panel, 2016)

Portola Camp , After Sunset    -    Francis Di Fronzo , 2023.

American, b.1969 -

Oil over acrylic and gouache on panel, 13 x 15 in.

Suzanne Kiggins (American,contemporary)

Up Above The Silos, 2023

Acrylic and gouache on wood panel

Fred Tomaselli (American, b. 1956), Red Bird, 2007. Photo collage, acrylic, gouache, leaves and resin on wood panel, 24 x 24 in.

Linn Meyers - Untitled, 2020, acrylic, ink and gouache on panel

"Noble d'Apchier"

A little watercolor painting of Chloe,with the Zorn palette! I found out about this palette a while ago and I really wanted to try it out! (More on that below )

Chloe's hair is something I adore, it's gotta be one of my absolute favourite character designs ever,I love how swirly and fluffy it is,very fun to draw. I've drawn her normally before,I wanted to do one with her vampire eyes and fangs too. I decided to try to draw a white fuzzy rim around the foreground against the plain background,for a change,like in some of the VnC panels.

The Zorn palette,or Apelles Palette was a colour scheme used by Anders Zorn in the late Victorian/Early Edwardian era. It ,or something similar,might have been used by artists of old civilizations too, because it avoids the use of blue and green entirely: which would eliminate the need for rare pigments . It's essentially a colour mixing challenge,to draw the entire paintings with 4 pigments,2 basic colours: Ochre yellow, Vermillion,and Black and white,which can be mixed into different shades. It can be an excellent exercise and means for portrait painting

Modern artists use red instead of vermillion,but the essence is the same. So that's what I did too. I considered using vermillion,but I realised that it would introduce a lot of yellow tint, making the picture very warm. Which is usually something I prefer honestly,but not what I was going for here. Also,I need to consider the fact that I'm a watercolour artist,which is very different from the original intended palette. Zorn used oil paints,but other artists use it fine for gouache and acrylic too, however,that too is different from watercolor, because instead of mixing with white, I'll be diluting with water,which changes the composition of the palette considerably. So I went with these supplies: ochre yellow and red watercolor pencils (for me, basically watercolor pigments,I don't use them to draw,I grind and dissolve them in water),white and black watercolor tubes,and white ink. In addition: lineart with sepia,grey and black brush pens,which are well within the bounds of the palette

To be honest,I ended up not using the white paint tube at all,water makes more sense to me. I didn't use anything else though,and stuck with the original materials.And the results:

Does it work? Hell yeah. It's not perfect,but I'm happy with how she turned out

Was it restricting? That's kind of the point,to paint with some limitations

Was it hard? Honestly? No. Not at all. It's definitely very different from what I'm used to,I use a lot of colours both as is and mixed,but this was surprisingly easy. Perhaps because of my subject,which didn't have much colour to begin with

Do I recommend it? If you want a small challenge,or to experiment or practice colour mixing,definitely

Will I do it again ? Absolutely. I feel like I haven't utilised much of the potential of this palette. I ended up using mainly red and black, hardly any yellow at all. So I'd like to do something more colourful with this palette, perhaps a sunny painting of a gingerhead girl with flowers,and for this I'll probably use vermillion,not red

Anyways, that's all! If you read all this,thank you for your time!!

Too Pretty, Hernan Bas, 2004

Oil, gouache, acrylic, graphite and paper collage on panel 31 x 24 in. (78.8 x 61 cm)

“Sill” Acrylic and acrylic gouache on BFK Rives mounted on wood panel 15.75″ x 19.75″

My small solo show “Still” is currently on view at Nucleus Portland and online at the gallery’s website!

The show runs till October 17th, so I hope you’ll check it out if you’re in the area.

Eli McMullen - Internal Compass, 2024 - Acrylic and gouache on panel

Laurel Bustamante — Flowers from Mars 2074 (gouache & acrylic on wood panel, 2016)