Testing Out Winsor & Newton Gouache! | Swatching + Sketchbook Painting

I finally got a chance to test out my Winsor & Newton Designer Gouache! I hope you enjoy listening to my reactions as I work through my first painting with them.
Instagram: @briannacasiniart
Twitter: @art_casini
Art Supplies used in this video:
Paint: Winsor & Newton Designer Gouache
Paper: Canson XL Mixed Media (98lb)
Brushes: Synthetic Artist Loft Brushes (Clear Handles), Creative Mark Micro Brushes (Purple Handles) and Himi Brushes (Teal Handles)

[@olwynnsay237]

I was taught at art school that gouache is designed for layering. You start of with thin layers then go thicker with each subsequent layer. I haven't used it much but have been playing around with it again recently. Lovely painting though. Colour doesn't have to be totally accurate, I was always told that tone and depth were more important to make things more realistic.

[@briannacasiniart]

Ohhh good to know! It's kinda like layering with oil paint then! It's such a fun medium to work with (and the cleanup is way easier than with oils lol) Thank you! I've never been able to color match to save my life 😅I'm still practicing how to get the right tones in my color paintings

[@tarah775]

Here's a tip: If you take a bamboo skewer and stick it inside the tube of white gouache (or any tube of paint) you can use it to help mix the binder and pigment back together. Learned that from @mindofwatercolor

[@briannacasiniart]

Thank you! I definitely need to try that! That'll help with my other gouache tubes 😁

[@SMazu-cl4uu]

You should replace bengal rose by quinacridone magenta because of lightfastness problem. Beautifull work (then if you think your two reds are too close, you can replace winsor red by a red-oranger version). I oftenly avoid pure red because i m thinking the color have no soul

[@ThatLazyStray]

I've recently just found this channel and i've been binging through all your video's. I'm terrible with gouache, i'm not sure if it's dry shift that i can never wrap my head around, or it's reactivating layers, or what it is. I'm a watercolour artist at heart and every time i fail with the medium i end up putting it down for ages, but these video's really inspire me to try again. I adore the almost dreamy colour palette here, really scratches something good in my brain.

[@briannacasiniart]

Thank you so much for watching! I'm definitely still learning with gouache, but I know some brands/colors shift more than others (I've mostly noticed it with reds/browns/deep blues). It can be really difficult to get good gradients because of that, so my backgrounds will sometimes look really streaky. I try to use less water to paint the more layers I put on so that the layers underneath don't reactivate and get all muddy. I've notice that this brand and holbein are pretty good for layering! I'm not sure if you feel the same way but I've always felt that watercolor and gouache are similar in nature but vastly different in practice! I could never understand how to work light to dark so I'm absolutely awful at watercolors, and it feels like there's so much planning with watercolor compared to gouache. I have so much respect for watercolor artists! Going dark to light with gouache just feels more natural for me lol Gouache is such a fun medium to work with! I really hope you try it again 😊

[@yenaarts]

if you want a ‘dirtier’ green, maybe look into Oxide of Chromium / Chrome Oxide which is also available from Winsor and Newton. do note that it’s quite an opaque and strong color (and also expensive) but I prefer it over sap green. I primarily paint in oils but I also have it in watercolors (and soon gouache) and I prefer it over sap green, the color itself is more muted and for landscapes it’s a good color to mix.

[@briannacasiniart]

Oh wow I just looked it up, Oxide of Chromium is definitely the type of green I would use! I use sap green a lot in my oil paintings but would love to use these two colors side by side to see which one I like more! I've been having such a hard time finding the "right" green for landscapes (in both oils and gouache) so thank you for the recommendation! I need to put this on my list of art supplies to buy 😁

[@loati94]

I just mix a bit of red or brown in my greens to make them earthier.

[@yenaarts]

@@loati94 yes that is what you can do, and everybody does. but you will either have a duller/greyish or darker green and depending on which green you are talking about, it being a cooler green like viridian or cobalt green, you will have to do a lot of mixing to get them to a warm/earthy green and it being a permanent green or phthalo green are way too intense for landscapes (in my opinion). And in my experience, trying to mix a oxide of chromium that is both intense but also dull is really hard, and going coming together with painting en plein air, oxide of chromium and/or sap green are very needed mixing colors for in the moment painting.

[@tharzanne]

I always just squeeze out any separated binder on a piece of paper towel! It fixes it right up

[@briannacasiniart]

That's a good idea!