Kellylasserre:

Gouache Process

There have been a lot of very kind responses to my gouache paintings recently, as well as a few requests for tips, and so I've decided to do up a little process post.  I'm very flattered, and a little intimidated!  So, please bear with me as I expose all my clumsy painting techniques.  I should say that though I was taught the basics of gouache painting and dry-brushing, I took those and sorta ran off with my own methods, and they may not be the best way of working!  Like any artist, I'm always adjusting my process.  No doubt my next painting will be created completely differently, but at this point, this is what I do:

So here are my gouache tubes, disposable palettes, and palette knife (and juice!).  I don't know if many people use a palette knife when mixing gouache, but I like to so that I can preserve my brushes just a little more.  I also save all my palettes throughout each piece, and I've found that I can reuse the gouache pretty easily even on these disposable ones so long as you're patient enough to scrape and break up the dried bits with your knife and water.  I've never liked using porcelain or ceramic plates for my palettes, even though they are easier for reusing your dried gouache, only because I run out of space too quickly when I'm mixing and I can't save my colors.

Starting from the beginning!  I always try to preserve as much of the energy of my sketches as I can when I pencil out my piece so I'll usually blow them up and light-table them.  Our light table has become a hugely valuable tool when I paint.  It's homemade!  I hate to pencil directly onto the nice paper I'll be painting on, so I'll usually work over the pencils on the light table, like so:

If you think about it digitally, I typically treat this part like it's all about laying in the flats.  I'm going to have a relatively dark background, so I'll paint that in last so my lighter colors don't pick it up and get all blotchy from the retouching that would have been required in that case.

I can't ever leave that light table on and step away! Doesn't that look scary with that jar of water, and the table a little askew, and my laptop right there..........? 

No harm done!  My cat is dainty, and I'm lucky. 

So I've gotten most of my girl painted in and I've already started dry-brushing on parts.  Usually most of that detail work I'll save till the end, but in some cases it helps to do it before hand.  For instance, layering her dress over the dry-brushing I did on her arm (as you can see in the last photo) helps keep things crisp.

Starting on the background, I'm using this as an opportunity to smooth her shape out a bit and clean up any wayward brushstrokes.

It's almost there!  Now I get to dry brush!  The absolute best part.  Plus! I can abandon the light table now and just go to town adding details and cleaning things up.  This is where I go back to my palettes and reuse a lot of my gouache.  I've made the mistake of mixing too little at the beginning and only realizing it at this step and that is no fun!  Gouache can be finicky with color matching, so I try to avoid remixing a color from scratch at this point because of that.  Also, different colors may dry darker or lighter than when they're wet, which may depend on the brand you're buying.  I use Winsor & Newton and Daler Rowney (cheaper!).  Some colors work better per brand in my experience.  For instance, I hate Daler Rowney's yellow ocher.  It always dries in the tube on me and has a weird semigloss, whereas Winsor & Newton's is great.  Conversely, I've found Winsor & Newton's turquoise blue to be super oily, like, oil with some blue in it.

Anyway, heading towards the finish...

There she is!  All done.  I've added my line work for the little firework sparks, and dry-brushing the light and shadow has carried it home.  I hope this has been neat and informative.  If you want to talk more gouache techniques or what not with me, feel free to ask!  Thanks again for all the encouragement, guys!

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HOW DID I NOT KNOW PING WAS ON TUMBLR. FORGIVE ME, PING! I'm super late on the game, so everyone is following her by now, right? Because everyone loves beautiful things, right?

life is better with colors.

heads

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Big news indeed! Check out Jimmy Giegerich's excellent work, now in cartoon form! More episodes are on their way too!

Big news! My comic, Executioner and Friend, has been turned into a cartoon by the fine folks at Mondo Media! You should check it out, and if you dig it, like, share, and comment so that I can keep making more!

Also, like Executioner and Friend on Facebook if you feel like it!

AND if you want to read the original comic you can buy it on my store or on gumroad!

a diminutive apothecarian

I liked that NYT illustration so much when I first saw it earlier this week; I'm glad it showed up again in my Tumblr feed. Your art is really fantastic, and it encourages me to keep drawing! Best, Sam

Thank you so much!! Your kind words will encourage me to keep drawing too! (Let's all keep drawing!)

If you play today’s ultra-sweet Google Doodle Global Candy Cup, you can see my illustrations when you beat the game with the witch of your choice! I created the share images that you can post on Facebook or Twitter. You can also read about the personalities and quirks of each character here!

It was a lot of fun to work with their adorable character designs and to have a chance to flex my hand-lettering muscles. The game was designed by Sophie Diao, who also created all the assets, and animated by Nate Swinehart. Engineering by Ariel Lee, Maura Fitzgerald, Kris Hom, and Corrie Scalisi. Music and sound effects by Aivi & Surasshu. Thanks to my ADs Sophie Diao and Liat Ben-Rafael for including me in this super fun project!

Go play it! It’s pretty dang charming.

Here's a silly little gif of clefairy dancin' that moon dance that I made for the Nerd Challenge blog.

hot pot

A pin up girl and a Korean hot pot! Two wonderful things. Love that yook gae jang.

"Oscar, the Architect Finch", for Muse Magazine. A few illustrations from a recent series about an innovative Lady Gouldian finch living at Pandemonium Aviaries. Thanks to my AD John Sandford.