Gouache (Rhymes with squash. Seriously. I don’t know how that happened either…) is this super cool medium I’ve never played with before. Ever. At all. It’s basically opaque watercolors that dry flat and matte and lovely, and I thought, “Hey, I love watercolors. I think it’s time to push our horizons a bit, experiment and break out of the box, Claire.”

So me and my feet walked to my local art store after work and picked up a new and shiny set (with a new and shiny notebook, because artists always need new and shiny notebooks. This is just a fact of the universe).

Lo: my bounty. my Darth Vader Christmas ornament watches on.

It turns out, gouache is 100% different to use than watercolors, and I’m 100% still finding my sea legs with this paint! It’s interesting, and I’m intrigued and looking forward to playing more with it tomorrow. But it’s always humbling to try something new and have to learn it (more or less) from scratch. Definitely helps kick the ‘ol ego back into its rightful place. 🙂

The best part about painting, in my humble opinion, is the state of my dinner plates when I’m done. (I’m too much of a grump to pay good money for proper painters pallets when, really, anything flat and nonporous works just fine, damn it.)

 

 

 

(Okay, pardon the bad pun…)

My parents throw a leap year party every (you guessed it) 4 years. I’m happily putting together a little postcard they can send out to invite their friends to the soiree! What a fun project, right?

We talked about some design options while I was up at their place over Christmas, and decided a front/back postcard would suit their needs best. Front would be a cute little illustration, back would contain the invite information itself.

We decided to go ahead with an hourglass design, with a leaping frog, which lead to this color sketch:

The frog wasn’t all I was hoping for, though, so I moved on to what is now serving as my final rough draft:

Much better!

Left to do: clean up a few things and get out a ruler, then on to final inks and watercolors on watercolor paper (using one of my favorite tools, my lightbox). The back will be fully designed using some of the same motifs from the front, so look out for a future post with the finished project.

Any questions? Ask away! Or email me at claireelizabethwhitmore@gmail.com

I also have an active instagram account: seeclairedraw

 

Or happy whatever else! But for me, it is Christmas Eve, and that means having survived a weird foggy/rainy/icy/snowy drive from Madison to the Twin Cities to spend the holidays sitting around fireplaces and drinking tea with family. 🙂

I also lugged some of my art supplies with me. Because yes.

In the related art news, the Rapunzel piece is very nearly done! Or it might be done in actuality. It is in a nebulous place where I might futz a bit more, but all the big stuff is complete at least, and I’m happy with the general outcome.

A larger post to come later, but for now, Christmas Eve is quickly headed towards Christmas day, and it is past time for me to scoot off for the night.

Happy Holidays!