My project for course: Introduction to Gouache: A Chromatic Journey to Japan

I wanted to refamiliarize myself with gouache after decades of painting almost exclusively in transparent watercolor. Because Lil Sire's work really appealed to me, I decided to take her course. I must say that it's been an eye-opening experience. As a painter of impressionist landscapes and cityscapes for thirty years, designing an illustration wasn't really in my artistic vocabulary, and I was surprised how enjoyable the process proved to be.

I spent a few happy hours on Pinterest searching for inspiration and possible references, and then printed out several images of the elements I wanted to use. The cat, Lucia or Loesje, is my own adorable feline! I decided to have her befriend some birds, a peaceful encounter which is symbolized by olive branches.

I don't have a lightbox and am comfortable drawing freehand, so that's what I did. Next, I painted the most crucial and challenging elements first (very good advice from Lil), then proceeded with the birds, leaves, and branches. The part that gave me the most trouble was choosing the color for the middle background (green).

Looking back over my in-progress shots, I wonder if it would have been better if I'd left the background white (stage 3) and just added the details. Something to consider in a future project... Nevertheless I'm happy with the result, as this is something I've never tried before and didn't know I could do. The process brought me a lot of joy, so I will definitely continue exploring illustration in gouache.

As a final note, I'm not on social media anymore and at this stage I'm not really interested in selling/promoting my gouache experiments. I do sell my watercolor work both online and off, and I have my own website as well as an Etsy shop, but for the time being I want to explore gouache and illustration without the pressure of producing for the market.