Painting Portrait with Gouache Tutorial - Blossoming | Lena Rivo

[@LenaRivo]

I get asked if I use my colors directly from the tubes all the time. This video demonstrates how I work with my gouache palette ( and I use acrylics and oil colors the same way). I never pick an approximate color, but mix the exact colors I want to see in my painting. You can't see here the water jar I was using to clean my brushes and the bowl with the paper towel peaces that served me as a sponge to dry my brush a bit after every washing (I don't want my paint to became soupy because of excess of the water on the mixing tray). If you have questions about my painting process, please leave them in the comments and I will try to answer them in my future videos. Thanks for watching! I hope you learn something new from this video. Links to the palette box and the paper I use in the description.

[@1969kbl]

Lena Rivo your paintings are so beautiful. I have looked for so long for an artist that uses gouache beautifully as if they were oils or acrylics. Your technique and style make my heart sing. Thank you so much for your generous sharing and for delighting us all with your gorgeous art.💖🕊

[@robertpotts7589]

most artists seem predictable in their application, i follow you because i cannot predict a single stroke. your brush work and your color mixing and application is so honest and still so stylized and free. love your use of saturation and reminds me of my dad's work. He was an artist who was paralyzed from the neck down, from polio. And my favorite part of his paintings was his use of saturation next to desaturated colors, but not muddied colors. Thankful for your videos. Reminds me of when i was a little boy, sitting on his lap, while he painted. I sure miss him.

[@LenaRivo]

Thank you for your kind words, Robert. I believe your father knew how to use the contrast of vivid and grayish colors to show the beauty of his subjects. Paradoxically, the right use of muted colors can make a painting look more colorful and alive than the use of only saturated colors…

[@robynguinn8941]

I just love your art. Thanks for sharing not only your process but your color mixing...I'm going to watch it slowed down to see what is happening on your palette, love the skin tones and quality of light.

[@radoyasya]

Оленька, вы молодец! Очень интересное видео

[@kenhruday203]

This is a great video as it gives good insights into how to colours are mixed and how the painting palette is managed. Having the photograph on the screen with the palette and the emerging picture is very educational. Thanks for sharing your talent and your beautiful pictures!

[@LenaRivo]

Thank you, Ken. I am really happy to hear that!

[@antoniasakogianni7877]

I just love the way you paint!!!Beautiful painting, so impressionistic!

[@LenaRivo]

Antonia Sakogianni Thank you, Antonia!

[@PaulitaWilson]

Thaaaaanks so much for posting this video! I had been dying to see how you mix your colors, and seeing the photo for reference the entire time was really useful to get insight on how you interpret the picture and abstract the shapes!! would love to see more videos with this setup!!!!!

[@LenaRivo]

LonelyAlien I am glad to hear that! Ok, I will be doing more of these! Thank you!

[@johntartaglia2672]

What a sweet little painting! Enjoy, so much watching your videos.

[@christophersolis3552]

Lena thank you I learned alot from the short demonstration. I enjoy your voice in the video in how you explain what you were doing. Again thank you very much and God bless !!

[@roxannekeomaka4754]

Beautiful, Rena. I save all your precious videos

[@facom40]

Congratulations Lena, it's very beautiful !

[@susanh9113]

Such a beautiful painting and fascinating to watch your method, thank you.

[@bluehathermit]

Yay a portrait, I love portraits! lovely work, it’s also nice when the palette looks as pretty as the painting in the end

[@LenaRivo]

jordon pantlitz 😁 thank you!

[@acornhousepear4483]

I love this! I used to draw similar to this but I couldn’t find the right media to fit, but I got and small bit of gouache and I loved it so I got some more and I’m so excited

[@zenandink3531]

I am really falling in love with Gouache-the way you use it-SO vibrant!!!🌺

[@jackiegarroutte8970]

Beautifully done!

[@Traskolet]

Fantastic! Well done and thanks for sharing.

[@monishikhasartstudio]

Love your paintings and your style of painting, thank you so much for sharing your process , it's very educational for someone like me 😀

[@HottagyaAl20]

Love it you did a wonderful job

[@SynnJynn]

I love your lines!

[@coopergurl90]

Thank you for showing us more of our process :)

[@raphraph1873]

cool work with edges

[@kanamichelle7404]

Beautiful and mesmerizing!

[@francescobiancardi9922]

Thanks for your suggestions.

[@leonieritzmann5362]

Great painting! also I really enjoyed seeing how you mix your colors it was very educational 😊💕

[@LenaRivo]

Leonie Ritzmann I am glad to hear that, Leonie! Thank you!

[@ELP979]

Спасибо Леночка за красивое видео !

[@mmiller5616]

So gorgeous! You are a master at creating light!

[@zuonikki8955]

Thanks Lena, it's beautiful! I always consider gouache is not fit for portraits given it's not good at laying.. While your work seems effortless. It 's very inspiring. It seems putting all those colors together without making it muddy really needs practice. I wonder how you make it.. The face looks so smooth and nutual. (:-)

[@raceface_m2579]

You have inspired me to buy my first set of gouache. I have tried watercolor and found that it's great for sketches and such for me, but would like a more opaque way to paint and add layers to. And after seeing your work, it lets me know that I don't have to get extremely close to what I'm painting and that it's ok to pick up only the details you want to show. Thank you!

[@LenaRivo]

raceface_m I am so glad to hear this! Thank you! Yes, paintings can be very eloquent even without a very detailed work. I call my details - suggestions. This is all we need - to make a suggestion of something that is present in the composition. The viewer will figure out what it is because we perceive the reality mostly though peripheral vision so even and unfinished piece in which the large shapes are placed correctly can be easily understood by a viewer.

[@laurah9621]

So so beautiful. I'm in awe. Thank you for sharing this.

[@TheSketchAdventure]

OMG I'm really happy I found your channel. I'm quickly becoming obsessed with gouache and will learn a TON from you!!

[@lesliepaulusfineart]

What is the brush type and size you are using in this video? I love your work so much! Thank you

[@Adamski77i]

wonderful job

[@Dawnasy]

I just found you! Thank you for demos in gouache as well as oils.....I like your airtight palette idea too! So helpful. Ive only been painting a year or so...mostly watercolor...gouache.....you are one of my faves. I am just venturing into portrait still need to learn composition a bit more.....just getting down how mediums work is a lot;) I love painting and am so inspired by this. Thank you so much!

[@LenaRivo]

Dawn Symonds thank you! With patience you will achieve anything you want ;) it takes time and a lot of practice to understand how every medium works. It is like learning a foreign language - if you learn something new every day you will eventually start speaking it :)

[@AKContreras1]

beautiful!

[@Gigiridgway]

Beautiful ❤️🥰

[@lyudmylakasyanova1015]

Волшебно! Глаз не оторвать!

[@yoon5083]

당신은 멋진 재능을 가졌군요. 아름다운당신입니다.! 그리고 당신의 훌륭한 작품을 좋아합니다.👍👏

[@chrissycanvasart]

Wow great video, really enjoyed it 💝🇬🇧✌️🎨

[@robbiej2070]

Thanks again - Cheers

[@lenitaashton7780]

Amazing. ..😍😍

[@TheTrapichin]

Eres genial! ! ! !

[@KMayflower]

I just tried to paint a portrait in gouache last night with zero results so I'm getting my lunch and then "Lunch with Lena"!!!

[@LenaRivo]

Katie Mayflower 😆 Katie, painting portraits with gouache is really hard! Probably because facial features have to be subtle and gouache dries instantly leaving instead very decisive brushstrokes. It takes so so much patience to soften the edges and keep trying to achieve the desirable effect. I have a couple of unfinished portraits in my sketchbook. After fighting on them for 3-4 hours each I just gave up 😩 (it never happens with oil). I am surprised I managed to finish this one. There were a couple of moments when I thought: all right, that’s enough, I quite! :)

[@KMayflower]

I loved it! Very pretty and soft and I did learn a lot from this.Thank you!Katie

[@LenaRivo]

Exactly! Sometimes when you are doing something right in the first stages of painting it may seem totally wrong because of lack of fine details and highlights. So it’s very important not to give up and keep working doing your best. Often times just a couple of final brushstrokes may complete the painting and make it work.

[@KMayflower]

I agree, I have to make it through 'the uglies" that half to three quarter way through and then it just suddenly comes together. Thanks again Lena!

[@carolsimmons9650]

Wow!! Girl, you have some mad color-mixing skills! I found watching you mix your colors so mesmerizing that I had to watch this three times! Lol What kind of palette are you using to store your gouache in? The paints look so fresh. Do you prep them somehow or squeeze them out just before you start painting?

[@LenaRivo]

Carol Simmons thanks, Carol 😁 You will find the link to this palette in the description. I store my gouache in it all the time. I never clean it and only squeeze in new paint when I need it. The lid has a soft plastic layer inside which makes this box almost air tight. But I still open it once a week and slightly spray the paint over with water (with 2% of hydrogen peroxide just in case some of the colors have organic ingredients). I never let it dry and if I forgot to spray it for a couple of weeks and some of the colors gained the dry crust I just make sure to wet them better then others, close the lid and the next day all the colors are ready to go.

[@LenaRivo]

By the way, you can’t see it in the video but I spray the paint with water all the time during painting. Maybe once in ten minutes. When I am painting outside I do it even more often. Gouache dries really fast.

[@ruilin260]

Wow! Lena I really like your painting, you have present the Gouache in it’s best way. I have a question about the leftover painting on your mixing tray, will you reuse it after this painting or just clean it away. I have struggle with this problem, since there is always lots of leftover, but I don’t really need the mixed colour for next painting. Thank you very much in advance!

[@LenaRivo]

Thank you, Rui :) I just clean that paint away after the painting session. If some squeezed white paint is left on the palette I store it away in a small plastic container with a lid.

[@ruilin260]

Thanks a lot for your advice

[@cforester]

Lena, you do a beautiful job with any subject or medium. If you do another gouache video would you please show when you are using the water container as well? Do you wet the brush then lift some of the water out with a swipe on a sponge? Getting the right consistency of water to paint is difficult. I can see you are applying thicker paint than I am. I am an oil painter. Am I seeing you use similar technique to using a mediums in oils, or no medium for impasto effects? After seeing your work, I decided to give gouache a try. You inspired me to purchase plastic gouache palette. I have not yet purchased your color palette as of yet. I am still studying the medium with a introductory set from MGraham. I have also purchased James Gurney's videos on gouache, casein, and both mediums done in portrait work. Casein seems to be a firmer less liftable medium, which may be a blessing for me. Thank you for sharing your great talent.

[@LenaRivo]

C Forester Hi, thank you! Yes, getting the right consistency of paint is the most important part of painting with gouache and the most tricky too. I use paper towels to dry my brush a bit after every wash. I will make a video with all my equipment in the frame to demonstrate the whole process as I get messages with the question about the consistency of my paint every day.

[@cforester]

You are the best, thank you. I will be waiting for your next video with excited anticipation. I watched a British travel show of Portugal recently. Your color palette comes directly from your surroundings. Lucky you to live in such a beautiful atmosphere. Have you tried casein? I'm am still on the fence about purchasing one complete palette of the three types of opaque watercolor, gouache, casein, and acryla gouache. Have you tried casein or acryla gouache? I know you paint in acrylics, do you ever mix a diluted acrylic matte medium with your gouache for stability? I tried a small study adding the medium to the regular gouache giving the versatility of both casein and acryla gouache. Today I picked up a single tube of white acryla gouache for another test with regular gouache to mix with regular gouache. Again, thanks for all the information and your quick response.

[@LenaRivo]

C Forester yes, Portugal is really beautiful! I love living and painting here. I am not sure what you mean by casein. I know it is an archival quality natural glue that has been used for centuries to prime canvases for oil painting. But I haven’t heard about it in a form of paint. I haven’t tried acryla gouache as I am happy with how my acrylics behave on paper. I also didn’t try to add acrylic medium to gouache. Why? I love the fact that gouache doesn’t dry like acrylics and can be reactivated any time. I use it’s quality of gouache all the time as being primarily an oil painter I am used to checking my edges in the final stages of painting and soften them when I want to. This is something that can’t be done with acrylics - I have to decide which edges to make soft before the paint has dried 😉

[@cforester]

I appreciate your reply and skill levels that produce exceptionally colorful artwork. My learning curve for an opaque water media paint has created challenges with each. My addition of a small touch of matte medium was used with white to correct a light highlight. In my recent portrait studies using plain gouache medium there were correct color strokes which were great. When there were corrections to be made, rewetting caused those good areas to blend more than I wished. Richeson/Shiva casein is a milk based gouache can be used semi-transparently, but it has great opacity when you need it. The milk-based binder seals each layer ENOUGH (re-workable to an extent) so that the paint won’t reactivate with later application. I did a study with the Holbein Acryla gouache this weekend. I did not care for the application at all. All of these studies are being done to help my decisions in purchasing a full color palette. I would say your helpful information and my own studies have me placing an order for regular gouache today. Thanks again Lena, you are a terrific source of information and inspiration. Charlene

[@LenaRivo]

C Forester I am glad, Charlene, you have made the decision. Gouache is wonderful! I didn’t know about milk based gouache. Thank you! I had wanted to try acryla gouache for a long time but after trying my acrylics on paper I decided that I didn’t need acryla. Regular acrylic paint doesn’t have that matte finish of gouache, but I cover my sketchbook acrylic paintings with a matte acrylic varnish and they start looking exactly like my gouache paintings present in the sketchbook ;)

[@dabama2864]

Love guache do vad

[@сергейдоценко-к5х]

Лена, вопрос в том, рисовал ли ты сама себя?

[@garringtonillustration9695]

Hi Lena, what is it you use to mix your colours on? Is it plastic or glass? Thanks in advance.

[@LenaRivo]

Hi! The plastic tray I use is the inner part of this palette box amzn.to/2Iy1Zqn You can see it in the photo.

[@julianapegas2043]

Thank you for this demo! I'm in love with this painting

[@LenaRivo]

Juliana Pegas thank you, Juliana! I used a damp brush to soften the edges. This is one of the characteristics of gouache that I love. Something that can't be done with acrylics.

[@julianapegas2043]

Thank youuuu! I've tried blending gouache with a damp brush before, but it didn't really work! Took away too much paint and the remaining paint looked more like a stain. Watching your videos (and videos from other artists as well), I believe I've been aplying the paint too thin to start with, treating it too similarly to watercolors. Now back to study! I'm having a little trouble with gouache but I feel I'm going to fall in love with it, in time

[@LenaRivo]

Juliana Pegas :) probably you are right. Gouache mixes very well with a damp brush but you have to have a good amount of pigment on the paper to blend the colors. Experiment and you will find the right consistency of gouache ;)

[@rashidhussain8630]

wao

[@UConceptPublishing]

can that air tight pallet box be used with acrylics?

[@LenaRivo]

Janet Garcia I bought one for my acrylics, but haven't tried it yet. With acrylics the problem is if you let them dry you will need to change all the paint in the box, but for someone who paints often and in small sizes this palette might be a good solution.

[@UConceptPublishing]

Lena Rivo i had used acrylics for many years now. Thats why i was wondering how tight they were. It would be great if the box was completely sealed!. Post your findings when you try it! If it works I'll get one for sure! Thanks

[@LenaRivo]

Janet Garcia the box is pretty tight. The lid has a soft plastic on the inner side and the brackets help too. I store my gouache in that box all the time spaying it only once a week and it never dries out.

[@UConceptPublishing]

Lena Rivo i will have to test it and see how long they stay wet. Thanks

[@hamerray]

You really didn't say whether or not you use gouache out of the tube or do you use them dry.

[@LenaRivo]

Raymond Gregory Honestly, I have never seen gouache in pens ( even though I have heard about it). I use gouache out of the tubes and I never let my colors dry. I store them in an airtight palette box and they are always ready for use.

[@hamerray]

Lena Rivo I never said anything about gouache in pens.

[@muskndusk]

Strange how the eyes just magically appear without being painted. Over editing, maybe?