Good morning everyone. This is my latest little gouache painting for our Beginner Gouache group on Mewe. And I painted these fishes swimming among the coral for our March theme – Aquatic Life. If you want to see the other gouache of a lily pond that I did for the theme, see here . To be honest, I try to paint at least two each month for this group. Because it’s a great group and well worth supporting – the work we produce is really rather good. Also, I find that joining in like this is helpful for my development as an artist. For example, I think that the themes are quite inspiring (this month’s challenge is ‘Garden’). In addition, I am still quite a beginner with this medium and I do benefit from the practice of a new skill.
Fishes Swimming among the Coral
Actually, I did rather enjoy painting the faces of the fish, much to my surprise. And, I did somehow manage to put a little bit of character into them! But, we are, happily, allowed some artistic license in this group!
I was quite pleased with this effort, 11 by 8 inches in my sketchbook. However, I was disappointed that I didn’t work out how to add more vibrant flashes of green on the fish. Perhaps I need a better quality of paints, or more variety of colours. Or, maybe just more practice! I do find gouache more tricky to work with than acrylic. But I just love the chalky quality and the colours.
Fishes in a Tropical Sea
Finally, here’s another sketchbook page of collage fishes swimming in a watercolour sea, with some imagined coral! Well, I created this last year in deep Lockdown, hoping to cheer myself up. And, it still makes me smile! If you want to read more about this post, see here .
Loved the colour of the water Margaret, fine work indeed, for sure,
FBC
Thank you so much, Francisco. I really did enjoy painting the sea that intense blue.
I can tell Margaret, it is quite lovely indeed!
I love those fish. You did give them a sly humorous expression, I think, they look like they have plans! And I think gouache comes naturally to you. I love how you handle the colors.
Thank you so much, Claudia. I didn’t realise they looked like they were ‘on a mission’ till afterwards!
Agree w/the others, Margaret, great colors, and love those expressions! 😊 I like tinkering w/gouache too; seems to get a bit of flash like you mentioned on a small 5×7 I did few months ago I ended up letting it sit, then went back to it one day and it (flash of color) worked much better! Just needed to dry more completely maybe? I use water soluble gouache vs acrylic gouache.
Thank you so much, Felipe. I use water soluble gouache like you, and, I think you may be right – perhaps I should have let it dry completely before adding big colour changes. Oh well, next time I can experiment a bit more.
I just love your style, those colors, wow!😍🐟
Love the bold colours
Thank you, Vivienne. Most of my work features strong colour, I love it!