Hi Carson, I just read Du Iz Tak, to my 15th month year old, we did it twice, and it was a wonderful experience each time, the first time we read it she looked at me with such a puzzled look! The second time she was baby talking along.
I love that in this video shows mostly the palette:)
I love how you paint outside the lines! Which is something I do too :)
You have a truly magical touch! Thanks so much for pulling back the curtain and letting us peek at your process. I'm just getting started with gouache and painting in general so these are really helpful. One question - when you are mixing in white to increase opacity, are you using titanium white or zinc white?
Such a treat to see you work, especially as 100% fast paced digital illustrator, it's quite soothing to see how you've adapted to the temporality of your medium. Inspiring !
These days I mostly try to paint at the size the art will be printed at. I think that looks best. Though sometimes that doesn't work. I started out that way for Du Iz Tak, for example, but just couldn't get the detail I wanted in there at print size and ended up working a lot larger.
Hi Carson, so interesting to watch. My big takeaway is how much you sheered out the gouache. I have a love/hate relationship with it because it can go so flat. Have you tried other brands and found W&N to be your fave, or just stuck with it and not shopped around? I’m curious, as I would like to try it, but they’re all so expensive! Also, have you tried acrylic gouache? And if so, what did you think? Thanks, loved this video, have watched it twice, once with Patreon, and now once here! Ella xx
Thanks! I don't think I have tried other gouache brands. I started using Winsor and Newton in college, when I painted with oils, I think because it was the cheapest (or maybe the only?) brand in the campus store. I'm a creature of habit and it took me many years of painting with gouache in the same super limited palette that I'd used since my oil painting days before I even branched out and started using a few new colors (magenta! GREEN!). I have tried acrylic gouache. I love the idea that it would truly dry and not lift when you apply new layers. But for some reason it doesn't do it for me. I like acrylic on canvas but this felt too plasticky to me somehow.
Hi Carson, thanks for your reply! I was like that with paper for years, and just used to buy as cheap as possible. When I tried Fabriano hot press for the first time, I couldn’t believe the difference - curses!! How funny about the acrylic gouache, it doesn’t lift for me. I’ve only every tried the Turners, I wonder what brand you’ve tried? It doesn’t have the same watercolour quality when sheered out though (I’m beginning to doubt that’s a word!). I painted one of my books for the MA in Children’s Book Illustration I just finished in Acrylic, and I really liked the texture you get in the brush marks, I guess because of the plasticity. But it’s a poor substitute for oil paint, for sure! I did my last book in acrylic ink, (plus watercolour and a few other mixed media) which is my new fave, as you can paint over the top without lifting. Anyway… I’m rabbiting. Thanks for your answer! Xx
Thank you Carson. I really loved the painting tutorial and the slowness of it. But mostly I enjoyed your brief foray into the constant tension of children and art and busyness and slowness. I've been in a state of overwhelm recently. And so many of them are wonderful things. But it feels like too much sometimes and there is something truly magical about someone (especially someone who you perceive to be doing many similar things) say "me too."
(Our son's just started trialing an AAC and I think learning the software is turning my brain into mush. Cry face. See? Wonderful and completely overwhelming.)
Hi Carson -- I watched this whole video! Enjoyed it immensely and learned a lot. I used to do oil painting in high school but haven’t done much original artwork in color for a few decades, hence all the books I’ve made are illustrated in B/W, which I also enjoy. But something has been tugging at me to learn more about how to illustrate in color, and this video has intrigued me to look into trying gouache, and see how it goes! Thanks so much for sharing your process.
🙌
Hi Carson, I just read Du Iz Tak, to my 15th month year old, we did it twice, and it was a wonderful experience each time, the first time we read it she looked at me with such a puzzled look! The second time she was baby talking along.
I love that in this video shows mostly the palette:)
I love how you paint outside the lines! Which is something I do too :)
Thank you! ❤️
Thanks for making a club for the "radically inefficient." I feel my skills in this area are appreciated here. haha
Totally! 🙌
Carson! I LOVED watching this!
Hooray!
You have a truly magical touch! Thanks so much for pulling back the curtain and letting us peek at your process. I'm just getting started with gouache and painting in general so these are really helpful. One question - when you are mixing in white to increase opacity, are you using titanium white or zinc white?
Thanks! Permanent white.
Such a treat to see you work, especially as 100% fast paced digital illustrator, it's quite soothing to see how you've adapted to the temporality of your medium. Inspiring !
Thanks! I recently subscribed to your newsletter. Your work - written and visual - is great.
Thank you so much !
Carson, thanks for this wonderful painting demo. I learned a lot, loved the slow pace, and also the permission/reminder that moving slow is a-ok.
Thanks for this I hear what you say about talking and painting at the same time. It is hard. Appreciate it!
Hi Carson,
I saw this tutorial on Patreon but I will probably watch it again because I really enjoyed it.
when you are making illustrations for books, what size paper do you usually work on? Is it similar to the size in this tutorial, or larger?
These days I mostly try to paint at the size the art will be printed at. I think that looks best. Though sometimes that doesn't work. I started out that way for Du Iz Tak, for example, but just couldn't get the detail I wanted in there at print size and ended up working a lot larger.
Hi Carson, so interesting to watch. My big takeaway is how much you sheered out the gouache. I have a love/hate relationship with it because it can go so flat. Have you tried other brands and found W&N to be your fave, or just stuck with it and not shopped around? I’m curious, as I would like to try it, but they’re all so expensive! Also, have you tried acrylic gouache? And if so, what did you think? Thanks, loved this video, have watched it twice, once with Patreon, and now once here! Ella xx
Thanks! I don't think I have tried other gouache brands. I started using Winsor and Newton in college, when I painted with oils, I think because it was the cheapest (or maybe the only?) brand in the campus store. I'm a creature of habit and it took me many years of painting with gouache in the same super limited palette that I'd used since my oil painting days before I even branched out and started using a few new colors (magenta! GREEN!). I have tried acrylic gouache. I love the idea that it would truly dry and not lift when you apply new layers. But for some reason it doesn't do it for me. I like acrylic on canvas but this felt too plasticky to me somehow.
Hi Carson, thanks for your reply! I was like that with paper for years, and just used to buy as cheap as possible. When I tried Fabriano hot press for the first time, I couldn’t believe the difference - curses!! How funny about the acrylic gouache, it doesn’t lift for me. I’ve only every tried the Turners, I wonder what brand you’ve tried? It doesn’t have the same watercolour quality when sheered out though (I’m beginning to doubt that’s a word!). I painted one of my books for the MA in Children’s Book Illustration I just finished in Acrylic, and I really liked the texture you get in the brush marks, I guess because of the plasticity. But it’s a poor substitute for oil paint, for sure! I did my last book in acrylic ink, (plus watercolour and a few other mixed media) which is my new fave, as you can paint over the top without lifting. Anyway… I’m rabbiting. Thanks for your answer! Xx
Thank you Carson. I really loved the painting tutorial and the slowness of it. But mostly I enjoyed your brief foray into the constant tension of children and art and busyness and slowness. I've been in a state of overwhelm recently. And so many of them are wonderful things. But it feels like too much sometimes and there is something truly magical about someone (especially someone who you perceive to be doing many similar things) say "me too."
(Our son's just started trialing an AAC and I think learning the software is turning my brain into mush. Cry face. See? Wonderful and completely overwhelming.)
Hi Carson -- I watched this whole video! Enjoyed it immensely and learned a lot. I used to do oil painting in high school but haven’t done much original artwork in color for a few decades, hence all the books I’ve made are illustrated in B/W, which I also enjoy. But something has been tugging at me to learn more about how to illustrate in color, and this video has intrigued me to look into trying gouache, and see how it goes! Thanks so much for sharing your process.