I'm Danny Sabra, a visual artist and educator from Omaha, Nebraska. I love to paint with acrylic, oil paint, gouache and watercolor in the studio as well as en plein air. I also love to go urban sketching and I often do sketches in pen and ink. I love painting landscapes, portraits and anything that interests me. I'm a self taught artist and I look to share my artistic journey and experiences with you as I continue to grow and learn. I feature painting and drawing tips as well as vlog my thoughts on creativity and painting adventures. So subscribe and come along on the journey! Instagram: @dannysabra Facebook: facebook.com/dannysabramusic/
I'm new to painting and bought some gouache and boy does it explain why doing 2 16x20 paintings was a nightmare 😂 mixing a color, running out, needing to remix to find the same shade and consistency- whew it was a pain 😂 I now understand why all the gouache pauntings are so teeny
@@brandifink1204 I will say for illustrators who paint in gouache large they often mix fairly large quantities of paint. You can see that here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0I7DnrfskI0.htmlsi=Mlil0VahtLAqn7Zv I think there’s a way you can do that plein air but it’s not without challenges! I find 8x10’s to not be a problem assuming I use large enough brushes but I haven’t painted outdoors at the 16x20 size. I’d like to push things larger though so maybe I’ll try it!
Amazing artwork and techniques but, and no offense, your breathing is a bit distracting 😭. Maybe next time you can mute the original audio and do a voice over? All the best!
Thanks for the feedback. Yeah I can see that for sure. I just got a new lav mic and this was one of the first times using it. Still trying to figure out the best distance etc. I’ll try to improve that going forward. Thank you also for your kind words. 🙏
I used to frequently paint in A3 in gouache. I think the fact that gouache is mostly used in smaller paintings is just because it’s fairly portable & so often used for Plein air & studies. Whereas other mediums maybe don’t travel as well or dry as fast & so often they’re used in studio for larger pieces. One limiting factor may be that it does crack when used thickly, so large pieces painted thickly on a flexible surface like paper would crack, but you could get around that by painting on board & not as thick.
@@katiefair3404 good points. I do find that generally plein air oil painters tend to paint dramatically larger than gouache painters however. 11x14 is not uncommon but I’ve never seen a gouache painter paint that large in real life or online (but that is smaller than A3! Good for you!!) Typically I see 5x7 or smaller. As for the thickness, I personally don’t tend to paint with lots of impasto but I have gotten around it by using acrylic paste as part of an underpainting binder when I’ve wanted to experiment. You can paint gouache over that. Part of me thinks that in the plein air community gouache is sometimes treated as a “sketching” medium for “studies” while oil is considered more of a “finished” art material for sellable art work. But I think that’s an unnecessary distinction. And I’m glad to see plein air painters using gouache more and in larger sizes!
If you use a side of a credit card or scraper or a silicone paint brush, you can get straight lines for the wires, edges of buildings etc. . Thanks for the palette mixing prep video. You are giving me ideas. I just found out about mahl sticks, lol!
Do you cut into the canvas with the scraper/card? Or do you load it with paint? I’ve tried many times with a palette knife but it’s tricky! A lot of times it’s wobbly and gives me irregular lines.
@@DannySabraArt I load the edge of the card or larger silicone brush (the big flipper). Really helps with a fine line and control. With the mahl stick, even better control keeping a straight line that is even in width. You can touch it to the canvas and connect it as you go or actually practice drawing the line until it runs out of paint.
Yeah. It’s super hard for me. I do the same thing when I have free time. I think it’s easy to feel like “if I have time it won’t be as hard to get it done” so we let off the gas. When in reality it’s the opposite!
Please support Blick Art. When I visit their stores, I am greated with engaged workers, who really want to make sure I get the right stuff. Even if I take a long time. It might be cheaper on Amazon, but I am happy to pay extra and help those people keeping their jobs. ... And you know what: It is just awesome to talk art supplies with other people who know.
I agree! They tend to be pricier than other retailers but they also tend to have more stuff and higher quality supplies. And you’re right often the staff is great
That’s a fantastic palette. I’ve been using it most of the year. You get weak greens and purples but especially in the winter and early spring it’s great for landscapes. Have you ever tried Indian red? It’s an earth red but it has some nice saturation
Ah! 'Don't paint the spots, paint the negative space between the spots!' After all the times in the giraffe house over here, why didn't I think of that?
Thank you Trish! I’ve been experimenting with Canson’s “Mi Tientes” board. It’s archival colored paper on archival board. I think it’s intended use is for matting, but since it’s archival surface I’ve been experimenting with it. It holds the gouache nicely, has a subtle texture and best of all I can cut to custom sizes and easily frame. A 12x18” board is a little under $5 at my local art shop and it’s been lasting me a while so far! I think it’s superior to mixed media paper if you don’t mind cutting it to size (can be done with a utility knife) They have a ton of colors and it’s been a time saver in not having to tone it myself. I want to play around with some other colors as well. Highly recommend. I might make a video on it one of these days
@DannySabraArt That’s so cool!! Might be a good thing for me to try before my en plein air trip to Lake O’Hara. It could be safer for my paintings when backpacking.
@trishnewbery161 Definitely worth a try for sure! I’ve really been favoring boards for their ease of framing options if you might sell one. It frustrates me how most watercolor blocks are cut to European sizes and are difficult to frame without custom mattes and frame sizes. I’ve been painting in standard photo sizes and can get frames easily. It’s also pleasant to paint on something more firm and substantial and in a way it feels more “legit” to have something solid than a wavy piece of paper at the end. But I still use WC paper for sure. I’ve just been preferring it lately for those reasons.
After years I still haven’t really settled on one palette lol. I definitely gravitate towards using certain pigments though. I use acrylics and have found that chroma is often lost due to the properties of the binder, so the compromise is to only use pure single-pigment paints and if the color is still lacking then a transparent glaze will do the trick 99% of the time. With acrylics you can also just separate the pigment from the binder by using a lot of water and the result is much purer color
That’s a really interesting insight Brandon. I think I’ve noticed that too with some of my more transparent colors for sure. I recently intentionally was playing around with glazing and I was surprised at the Intensity of color that it gave me. Almost too much for the passage I was working on! Sometimes I water down gouache for transparent passages but it’s almost always on a white background. And with regards to settling on a palette I haven’t either. I think it’s too much fun to fiddle with variety and experiment. But sometimes I know that possibly holds me back as when I started I used the same palette for a couple years and was able to really dial that in. So there’s benefits to consistency too. Follow the muse!
Thanks Michael! This is a Mi Tientes Board from Canson cut to 4x6 dimension. It’s their toned archival paper that they glue to archival matte board. I find it’s a really nice surface to paint on and I enjoy that I can custom cut it to size and the boards are easily frameable. This color is called “tobacco” but they have a lot of different colors and I’d like to try some other ones. Highly recommend!
It’s pretty economical as well. A 12”x18” board is about $5 so you can make a lot of smaller boards with it easily. It’ll be a while before I run out. I’m going to try painting with acrylic in the next couple of days so that’ll be interesting to see how it goes.
Beautiful painting, There was a moment where I thought your were going to leave it as a negative space painting (I liked that too) Also, on the topic of palettes that don’t go very dark, I’ve found that blue gives a bit of an illusion of a darker value, especially if it’s surrounded by warm colors and vice versa.
Thanks CD! I thought about it! I kinda want to try some negative painting possibly with just white on this toned surface. And I think you’re right about blue! I’d like to experiment with more blues and really dial in various color palettes
@@steamyb2 that’s a great palette! I’ve been playing around with rotating out a primary over the past couple years. There’s a pthalo blue by Utrecht in their gouche line that is a PERFECT sky blue. But it’s tonal value is much higher than ultramarine so it’s always interesting to experiment with that one. I’ve also been using black on occasion to give me more of that tonal value depth that I lose sometimes. I’ll probably talk about that in one of my next videos.
If you apply an isolation coat first you can. But the gouache layer must be sealed first before applying any varnish otherwise the painting will be ruined. The only exception to this is if you want to use wax medium as a varnish but this is not removable. One of the main purposes of varnishing is to be able to remove and reapply the varnish in the future to clean and restore the paintings color after time. So only in that one instance if in fact you don’t want to be able to remove the varnish, than wax medium is the only varnish I know of that can be applied without an isolation coat or sealant. Some spray varnishes may also work but likewise be unremovable. If on the other hand you do seal the surface and apply and isolation coat you may use any type of varnish you wish and the painting will remain intact and you may remove and reapply varnish in the future for cleaning and restoration. Hope that helps!
Hey I'm having trouble finding gear to paint on the go... could you please share some recommendations? Easels, pallets, and other equipment you might use? Thank you! I've been binge watching you videos!
Absolutely. I know I need to make a video on this soon that might explain it better than I can here. Are you thinking gouache or oil or watercolor or all of the above?
@allisonperry1734 right now as seen in this video, I’m actually using a traditional painters palette and taping my boards to it. That way it’s all handheld and I’m fully portable to stand or sit or move or walk without the use of a tripod. The next step you could do and what I might design in my own palette someday would be the use of a tripod Mount on the bottom if you can’t stand holding a palette. The next step up from that would be a vertical palette. I use the Daytripper from Prolific Painter but there are many other models out there. It’s a larger set up and requires a tripod. Lately I don’t like using it because of all the gear but it’s great for large paintings or long sessions. The pallets by NuWave look really promising but I haven’t tried them yet due to the price! You can also make your own like James gurney. Check out his “gurney sketch easel” Facebook group or RU-vid videos. I might make one like that someday as well. Another thing I’ve been doing for gouache lately is a cut out board of chip board with velcro attached and I apply pieces to my sketchbook and it sits on there plus a small water cup and rag. I use this in my zoo sketching video. I use the Portable Painter Micro Palette, also with Velcro. Very easy but not a lot of mixing space. They have a larger palette but I don’t think it would fit on a hand held board so that’s why I’ve gone with simply a hand held painters palette and adhere my painting surface to it. The only drawback is losing the ability to paint with the surface vertically but you do get the benefit of some watercolor techniques and I don’t miss vertical painting that much. But you have to decide for yourself. As for paints I often paint with only three tubes plus white. I try to stick to 2-3 brushes. I really like Princeton velvet touch brushes. But other brushes by them are really good. If you get a large flat, a small/medium flat and a tiny round for details you can really do a lot with that. I have been painting on illustration board or toned matte board as seen in this video. I can cut it to whatever size I want and it frames easily. I also really like painting on cotton paper used for watercolor. It just depends on what size you want. If you get watercolor paper you can get a block and then cut out the paper when you’re done. I adhere the blocks or boards to my easel with painters tape on the backside. Never had one fall off. I draw with a normal pencil and sometimes a fountain pen. A collapsible cup for water is nice and my secret weapon is a “travelers vest” similar to a fishing vest but it has lots and lots of pockets. I can keep all my sketch stuff in there. Others like using backpacks or Fanny packs. Whatever is your style! Hope that helps!
@DannySabraArt It does help, it's useful to know what you're doing. I learn from watching other people a lot but I'm the only person that I know who paints. Thank goodness for videos such as yours. It's very generous of you to list all of that out for me. I really appreciate it. Looking forward to more videos!
Thank you! I’ve been enjoying just using these three for most of my gouache sketches and I like them. The two flats are by Princeton and I need to check what the small round is. Either it’s Princeton or Winsor and Newton brand.
@@DannySabraArt thanks for sharing...i too am fan of Princeton...especially velvetouch and catalyst also aspen series..your long flats are superb. I stopped gouache few months..was trying acrylics.. but now im back with more interest in gouache
@@DannySabraArt Experiments in Art is so much fun...never a waste as it teaches us something anyway...who knows maybe that road leads to your own style
It's a city train in Europe. Like subway sort of. We'll the same for any public transportation I think might be challenging... thank you fir the tips of course.
Great to see ya back in full painting action Danny Nice little Art piece 🎨 it looks Incredible it really turned out groovy nice brother I dig it 🤟🏡🖌🖼🎉🌞
Thank you! I’m always experimenting with underpainting and drawing tones. Alizarin is nice because of its transparency too. I haven’t used it in a while, so I might need to bust it out again! Lately I’ve been doing my drawing with pencil instead of the brush.
Yes there are other ways to do it. If for Instance you want to transfer a photo, print out or even from an original drawing you could do the same procedure on the back of the photo or drawing. You can also coat the back with charcoal instead of paint. This is how the old masters used to transfer their drawings. The drawback to this method is that it can ruin the original drawing or at least damage it, but if all you care about is the transfer and the finished painting than you can skip the tracing step. Hope this helps
It's a very interesting video! I heard some people say that they have difficulty to get correct tone on white paper, because it so bright. So the advice was indeed to tone the paper (doesn't matter which color, just make it not white)
I’ve heard that too. I also know that the impressionists were some of the first to paint on white surfaces because they liked how it made the colors pop more. I think it’s all about trying different techniques and finding what works best for you and for each individual painting
@@DannySabraArt indeed! I was wondering how artists choose color for the underpainting and your videos were very helpful in understanding how it works!
I use those paints but I never use water for painting. I use it only for cleaning the brushes. I do have gamblin solvent free fluid. Also have it in gel. I use these in painting if I want more flow. W&N also has medium for the water mixable oils. Perhaps you have already figured this out. I didn’t notice when you posted this. Have fun.
Thanks Susan! Yep I do have some of their water mixable mediums as well! I know using water during the painting process is hotly debated as is using any solvents for traditional oil painting. I know there are many perspectives on the issue. I’ve been trying out all kinds of methods over the past year and still trying to figure out what works best for me. I like the simplicity of WMO though!
Unfortunately you cannot do so in a way that is archival or will last. The reason is that since oil paint is oil based it will repel the gouache which is water based. You can in theory paint oil on top of water based paints. This is most commonly done with oil on top of acrylic (most store bought gesso is also acrylic based) there are of course people who argue or speculate that that is not as archival or time tested as oil on top of oil based primers which is a more historical way to prime a painting surface. Of course I think it’s safe to say most painters do paint oil over an acrylic ground. If you tried to paint oil over gouache most likely the gouache would reactivate. Another pint you might consider if you want a matte underpainting would be the use of casein, which is a milk based paint. It’s similar to gouache in its look and feel but has a stronger emulsion and once dry won’t reactivate. Some painters do use it for an underpainting before going over it with oil paint. But the easy way to remember is oil can go over water based paints but not the other way around. Like how oil will float on top of water.
Thank you so much! I used to only do short videos but I like sprinkling in the longer ones because I realized it’s what I found most useful when I started out myself and hopefully for those who are interested they can maybe find a tidbit here or there that’s helpful to them.
