Gouache Painting for Oil Painters

I have been an oil painter for 56 years. Oil painting has been part of my life since I was thirteen years old, and it continues to be the medium I love most.

But four years ago, a new love came into my creative life.

Its name was gouache, and learning to Paint with Gouache became my hobby.

I was first drawn to gouache because it felt wonderfully immediate. I could sit down with a small palette, a few brushes, and a sketchbook or painting surface and begin exploring. There was no need to prepare a large canvas or commit to a finished painting. I could simply follow an idea and see where it led me.

Before long, gouache became much more than another painting medium. It became an important part of my creative process.

As an oil painter, I am always thinking about composition, color, value, and the arrangement of shapes. Gouache gives me a place to explore those ideas freely before carrying them into a larger oil painting.

I can try a scene, move things around, simplify complicated areas, test different color relationships, and discover what first captured my attention. Sometimes a small gouache study becomes the beginning of a larger oil painting. Other times, it remains a complete little painting of its own.

Gouache has not replaced my small black-and-white sketches or notans. I still begin with a quick value study to work out the strongest shapes, light and dark patterns, and overall design. From there, a gouache study allows me to take the idea one step further by exploring color, atmosphere, and mood. Together, these small studies have strengthened the entire preparation process for my larger oil paintings.

Each step teaches me something.

Gouache has helped me remember to slow down and look more carefully. It encourages me to ask: What is most important in this scene? Where is the light? Which shapes can be simplified? What colors will best express the mood?

These are the same questions I ask when painting in oils, but gouache gives me a fresh and playful way to explore the answers.

Gouache will never replace oil painting for me. Oils are deeply woven into who I am as an artist.

But gouache has added something new to my creative life. It has given me another way to explore, experiment, learn, and record the places that inspire me.

It has also reminded me that after 56 years of painting, there are still new discoveries waiting at the easel.

Perhaps that is what I love most about it.

In the accompanying 16-minute demonstration, I will build a small forest scene in gouache, adding layers of trees, grasses, and wildflowers.

As I paint, I will share more about my love affair with this beautiful medium and show you how a simple scene can grow from a few large shapes into a colorful little landscape.

I hope you will watch, and perhaps begin your own love affair with gouache.

In my online course, Journey into Gouache, I will guide you through beautiful landscape subjects while helping you understand color, values, composition, layering, and the unique qualities of gouache. You can create your paintings in a sketchbook or work on individual surfaces—the choice is yours.

You will receive lifetime access to the course, and I will be there to help along the way. If you have questions or need a little guidance, you can reach out to me throughout your creative journey.

A Special High Touch Course created Just For You!!

One of the things I love most about gouache is that a painting does not have to be large to be meaningful.

With gouache paints, even my parked car can become a little traveling studio—two beach paintings on my steering-wheel table, the ocean through my windshield, and no solvents or fumes to worry about. WOW!! What an office!!!

Gouache is one of the easiest painting mediums to travel with. A small palette, a few brushes, water, and a sketchbook or painting surface are all I need.

There are no solvents to carry and no wet oil paintings to transport home. When I finish, the paint dries quickly, and everything fits neatly back into my bag.

That freedom has made gouache a wonderful companion for exploring new places and preserving creative memories. I can work from life, from photographs, or from a combination of both. I can paint in a sketchbook, on watercolor paper, or on a small prepared panel.

There are no strict rules about where the journey has to take place.

Grab My List Of Favorite Gouache Supplies

Join me in this time-lapse painting of a moody stormy seascape done in gouache inside my sketchbook. Deep blues, dramatic clouds, and rays of sunlight break through as the ocean surface dances with foam and tiny sparkles of light like diamonds.

This study took just under two hours to complete, condensed here into a 12-minute video.

If you enjoy ocean studies, moody skies, and the beauty of painterly exploration, you’ll love this one.