Simple Still Life with Gouache 

Very cool! I'm always here for encouragement and to answer questions as you go. If you're very early on I'd suggest you focus on drafting and drawing from life. Don't worry about making great paintings or drawings yet. Just focus on making a lot of them. The more you do- especially from life- the better they will be in time. Also- everything is a still life. Don't waste time setting stuff up. Draw every single thing you see in front of you.

@@JaredCullum thankyou so much, I hope I can get better like you!

Thank you for watching! :)

That means a lot to me. Thank you for saying that. :)

Piefje P thank you for watching! I’m glad :)

Elf Lords Journeys I love that flat brush haha it started out as an exercise in using a bigger brush but it really stuck :)

Awesome! I never used to do still lifes because I thought they were boring and pointless but I've come to totally fall in love with them. The whole world of colors and composition is all there and you can do them relatively quick and have fun. :) I'm glad you did it!

You’ll probably find that for most of my videos. I don’t have a great personality for RU-vid. This is about as intense as I get happy or angry. :) judging by the comments I get- it’s certainly not for everyone.

Thank you! :) that's very encouraging.

Thank you :) I appreciate you watching.

That's an awesome exercise! I would love to try that some time. Well said- Photo is only because with two kids and regular work it's just too hard to set up still lifes to record. I have a recording station at my drafting table and it just saves me time. I also like to keep an eye out anytime I'm arranging food or any thing on a counter for a light or surface material difference I can snap a photo of and I keep a backlog of those for when I want to just do an exercise in painting. :)

@@JaredCullum That makes senes. Actually I've been taking more photos lately with the intent of painting them. Sometimes when I go to paint from life I can get sucked into the paradigm of looking for a "good" scene till I run out of daylight or my schedule runs against something else I have to do. If using photos makes it easier to do then I say do it!

Thank you! :) Always nice to see a comment from you.

didier Leprince thank you :)

I use a 3/4 or 1 inch flat for most everything and a round 8 to finish. Thank you!

Yes it’s possible- I don’t prefer to paint big with gouache. It is not very stable but with some practice and a lot of paint you could paint larger with it. I find it works best small and fast but that’s just how I have always used it.

I suppose you could call it the "underpainting" - I find gouache works best when it's layered on thin gouache- like it has something to stick on to as long as you limit the amount of water in subsequent layers. Thanks for watching!

@@JaredCullum Wow! I'm learning th😊 I always wonder why artists paint a totally different color as their first layer. Thank you so much

Hmmm- good question. I don’t know. Typically when it looks washed out one has used too much white in the mixed- which is possible. Maybe I did. Haha it felt right at the time - but I always see ways to improve in hindsight

@@JaredCullum Maybe the paint is thinned down a lil bit too much so it blends all the layers underneath which would push some white paint up?

@@NguyenLe-xh9zh Perhaps. haha Gives me something to try to improve on in the future. :)

@@JaredCullum I think you do a lot better with still life. With landscape painting, maybe the above problem making your painting lack contrast somehow? Looking forward to your future videos.

I will try- I'm sorry. I'm not very good at youtube posting. It's hard enough to edit videos. I will look into it.

Jenna Caruthers I may be! I’m looking into some options for when I’m traveling with the book this summer. :)

Rūta Navickaitė hi! Well unfortunately most of the knowledge comes from practice. Yes- you’re correct though. And be careful of white. White cools and neutralizes color. Try to mix all you can without it. When you add white to warm colors be sure to add yellow ochre as well to keep the color character warm. Focus on value. Make a small blank and white study first to find your simple shapes of value. That is the most important thing. Getting those value shapes correct- the color is not as important so just try to make the dark shapes dark and the light shapes light comparing area to area. I hope that helps. If you had more time I’d be happy to email and give tips but it sounds like you are up against the deadline.

@@JaredCullum thank you so much for the tips:) I actually got into that art school. I`m very happy about that! Your tips were very helpful and I really want to than you for them. lookin forward of learning to draw with different paint too. is it a big difference between acrylic and gouache? thanks again, you`re awesome;)

@@OneLazyRacoon Yes!! I'm so excited for you!! I'm cheering you on. :) Well- I'm always here if you have questions or you can email me for side questions. The biggest difference is that acrylic does not erase. Gouache can rewet and be pulled off. Acrylic hardens and is permenant. It is a strength and weakness for both. With acrylic you can just keep layering and correcting. With gouache you risk the painting falling apart for the paint being so loosely held together.

M graham

@@JaredCullum thanks so much 👍

Trek Salzer around an hour. The full length version is on patreon and it’s about 45 minutes.