Veronica Colvin

Contemporary Realist Painter

Sketching in Gouache

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Hello world – it’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog!

Life has been busy, and I’ve neglected my website and blog. However, I’ve been painting, drawing, and sketching a great deal over the past 12 months, along with other projects happening behind the scenes. For now, I thought I’d at least update the site with a Gouache Sketch Gallery.

The Gallery includes sketches done from life while out and about, or in the studio from a life model or still life set-ups. Many more were done over the past year, but I’ve chosen to share only those that feel finished – for a sketch!

These sketches were completed in approximately one to three hours. Some were done in small sketch books (12 x 12 cm), while others were done on A5 or A4 watercolour paper.

Painted in gouache and enhanced with watercolour pencils for added texture and definition. Occasionally, a fude fountain pen – using brown or grey ink – was used for preliminary sketches or additional detail (I really dislike black ink for sketching, but that’s a rant for another day).

As time goes by, I will continue to add to this gallery. And I promise, it will not be another year between updates!

Below are some images from the Gallery. The rest can be seen here.

Pushing My Boundaries

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I decided to dedicate these last couple of months to sketching in public and museums, and exploring new art materials (or old materials that I own and haven’t touched in years).

It was good to step away from portrait / oil painting for a period of time. Getting out of my comfort zone, exploring new mediums and pushing my boundaries has forced me to think differently about my artwork and how I want to progress.

It has also been great to keep a “colour” sketchbook during these last couple of months. A journal that I do not share, and hence, allowing myself a space to explore concepts, colour and mark making and to make mistakes. Some of the pages are rubbish – and it’s fabulous!

Years ago I used to paint in gouache. It’s an opaque medium, and one has to be very careful with how much water is used in order to control the hue and value shift it does when dry. Challenging and a little bit stressful at times, but it felt good to push myself to try something new(ish).

The gouache still life paintings below are from one-day monthly sketch sessions done at my studio. I do these sessions with another artist, and between catching-up and laughing, we do manage to get some painting done!

Portrait Life Drawing

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During the last couple of months, I’ve had a number of models pose for me at my studio and I’ve created a range of tonal / value portrait sketches from the sessions. Each portrait sketch is a result of a one day model sitting – drawn from life.

Most of these sketches were created with raw umber or chrome black, rubbed into a polyester canvas. It works and looks similar to charcoal sketches. I quite enjoy working this way when time is limited, as I’m able to get a lot done in a one day session – specially when the drawing and value / tonal range is more important to get correct, rather than a quick splash of paint and colour.

I also use raw umber or chrome black paint to sketch the original drawing – as it easily rubs off with a kneaded eraser. Once I’m happy with the drawing, I then proceed to tonally construct the portrait with the oil paint.

You can see larger versions of these drawing in my Digital / Traditional Drawings Gallery.

Left to right:

  • Carl – Chrome Black oil sketch
  • Olivia – Raw Umber oil sketch
  • Shane – Charcoal sketch
  • Benedicta – Raw Umber oil sketch

Shane – Charcoal Tonal Study

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Shane is a local life model in Sydney. He’s also an artist and filmmaker. I recently had him in the studio posing for myself and another painter. On the day I did a small colour study of him. As I took a reference shot of his pose, and really liked his spectacles and how they reflected the light, I decided to do a quick charcoal tonal study. Below is the result.

The paper I used is Canson “C” a grain – which has a slightly grained texture that allows one to quickly achieve subtle effects of depth as well as shading between shadow and light. I do like the texture the paper provides, though in photography it does come across as slightly more grainy than it is.