More Gouache Exercises

     Even at my second attempt at gouache, it still feels intimidating to me. As I lay down my first strokes, I'm unsure of what the outcome would be. I feel the face is a little bit off in the final image. Even though I had a tight drawing, painting in gouache covers your initial line work and I was forced just to wing it as I go on. There are methods and techniques to counter this, but I want to learn a different method and not be dependent on my initial drawing. Just the same I enjoyed doing this and I think it turned out okay. 
     For this exercise, I attempted to do a Game of Thrones character. Image referenced from a Google search.

10" x 7.5" Shinhan Pass on watercolor paper

     It took me about 3 hours total in 1 hour intervals. For my first serious attempt and info gouache, kindly see  my previous post.
    

101 Watercolor Portrait Challenge - Portrait 001

     I think doing watercolor portraits is a good exercise in understanding watercolor. My friends Amado and Rica, who are  both good in doing watercolor portraits inspired me to follow suit. So, I'm setting myself a goal of doing a hundred portraits this year. This is my first one.

Color and value study

What to Sketch?

     Before I started out  with the habit of sketching, I always asked myself what should I sketch? The lack of experience and confidence limited the things or subjects I was willing to sketch for fear that if I didn't like the outcome, I would just be discouraged, yet I knew I had to start somewhere.

     Suggestion: I realized that if you are new to sketching, you can use things that interest you as your subjects. But if these prove to be challenging, you can begin with simpler objects first like a mug, spoon, or a vase.  

     Listed below are some of the things that I started with as my subjects in honing my skills in sketching. I also added other things I am interested to sketch in the future.

• Things at your work table
• Your shoes
• Your pet
• Food: breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack
• The view at your window
• Your hand
• Your Bag
• Your seatmate at school or the office
• Plants inside your house
• The kitchen sink still with the dirty dishes
• Groceries
• That junk food you brought at the convenience store.
• A tree
• That post at the street corner
• Most people take a selfie using their mobile phones, why not make a sketch of yourself?
• Pinterest images(just be careful that you don't end up spending your time pinning instead of sketching. It is easy to get distracted  with all the images.)

    

     The more you sketch the more you'll get better (true story!), the more you will enjoy sketching, and the more you will gain confidence.

     At that stage you'll never run out of ideas what to sketch.