Gouache Tutorial Video: How to Paint a Mountain

My latest gouache tutorial is now available on my Youtube channel. In this video, I’m painting a mountain scene using a limited palette of four Holbein Acryla Gouache colors: Pale Lilac, Burnt Sienna, Misty Blue and Ash Blue (plus Titanium White). This palette gives me lots of opportunity for value exploration and color harmony.

I’m falling ever deeper in love with Acryla Gouache. They’re wonderful to work with - velvety, opaque, rich, matte, layerable, vibrant colors. They dry quickly once applied but can stay workable for days or even weeks on the Masterson’s Sta-wet palette, so there is no waste! Combined with some colored pencil and Panpastel, I think I’ve found my favorite illustration media. I’ve recently been working with Panpastel and I’m so excited about exploring it more in future videos.

I show my palette while I’m mixing colors and explaining the whole process from beginning to end. Check it out and please subscribe if you’d like to see more!

Painting a snowy mountain scene using four colors of Holbein Acryla Gouache: Pale Lilac, Burnt Sienna, Ash Blue, Misty Blue, plus Titanium White. Amazing photo by eberhard grossgasteiger from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/landscape-photography-of-snowy-mountain-1366919/ Please subscribe to my channel to see more painting and drawing demos!

Sloth and Toucanet Illustrations

Illustrations

(L) Sloth, ink pen and watercolor. (R) Toucanet, oil on paper.

Illustrations of a sloth in watercolor, and a toucanet painted in oils, from photos taken at the zoo. The sloth was sketched in pencil then drawn with ink Micron pens and colored with watercolors. The toucanet was an amazingly cute little guy with a huge personality to match his beak. It was done on Moleskine sketchbook paper that was primed with several layers of Golden GAC-100 acrylic polymer and painted with quick-drying oils.

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Mexican Sunflowers and a Free Downloadable Botanical Illustration print

This summer we grew Mexican Sunflowers for the first time. I love their beautiful vibrant colors that are unlike any other flowers I’ve seen!

The colors are especially beautiful when light passes through the petals.

They have soft velvety stems that always look like they’re rimmed in light.

I was also excited to learn that the nectar of the Mexican sunflower is a favorite food of the Monarch butterfly.

We try to make our garden a haven for Monarchs by growing lots of milkweed for them to lay their eggs upon and butterfly bushes to provide nectar. The Mexican sunflowers are a great additional food source for the butterflies and tons of other pollinators.

The seed packet said they would grow to be around five feet tall but ours are over ten feet!

I read that Mexican sunflowers reseed easily so I’m hoping to have lots next summer. Maybe you’ll be inspired to grow them too if you have some extra space to create a nurturing environment for Monarch butterflies and other pollinators. If you already grow them, leave me a comment and let me know about your experience!

I tried to capture the gorgeous colors in watercolor in my sketchbook and decided to make the painting into a pdf that you can download and print. Print it on letter size card stock to use it as a greeting card or you can print it on good quality paper to display it in a frame. The size is 5 x 7” when the excess is trimmed away and folded.

Download your free print with my thanks for subscribing to my newsletter by entering your email address in the box below!