My Goodness My Gouache!

Top - View from Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, Oakland

Bottom - Bellevue-Staten, Lake Merritt, Oakland

After seeing some gouache landscape studies in Jason Merck's portfolio last semester, I realized that perhaps my initial evaluation of the medium - that it was the Devil's vividly colored excrement - deserved to be reconsidered.

So I bought an airtight watercolor palette, a new Moleskine and set off - and holy smoke, was I wrong! It's a bit fiddly, but not nearly as much as painting in oils (not to mention lugging around that bloody easel). Once the colors are squeezed out on the palette, the whole kit is about as heavy as my camera! I think I'm in love.

The paint does lose its buttery consistency once it dries (which it manages to do after a week or two in the palette), but gently reconstituting it with an eyedropper of water seems to make it sufficiently usable again - not the same, but usable. Anyway, here are my first two efforts - definitely more to come once the semester ends.

Back to the drawing board

I haven't posted anything of the more scribbly nature in a while, and because nobody would ever visit a blog with a crap name like Painterly Doodads, I have to correct this sharpish-like.

"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gaggle of angry chihuahuas stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds". - Herodotus

Ok, ok, so it's still sort of painted - baby steps, James, baby steps. 

Here's a couple heads I collected while I was waiting in Peets for the Volvo mechanic to calculate how much he'd need for the downpayment on his next yacht. 

The good, the bad, the ugly - Quick Studies megapost!

NY resolution numero uno - post more.

In the spirit of good habits, here's a selection of the 60 or so paintings I completed last semester in a bid to liberate myself from the shackles of pedantic painting. Time range was between 25 minutes and a couple hours. Not all are winners, but each was a lesson well learned.