Twice a week we get more videos in Mary Ann Moss’ OMG! gouache class. She presents us with so many ideas and techniques it’s hard to know which one to try first.

Ya just gotta dive in!

Who knew there are yellow and red striped peppers?  I guess we all do now. This little guy went through so many layers… ugly, ugly, ugly and then…  Boom!    Done!

 
But too much blank space… one of the ideas was to use gouache when lettering. But what if I ruined it?   …and after all that work!

Sometimes you just have to go for it.

 
Btw… remind me what a pain it is to paint background around an object! I used matte acrylic craft paint from Jo-Ann. Cloudless. Yum!

I now have a small selection to use instead of wasting my good gouache on backgrounds.

 
Next I was inspired by a favorite batik pattern… ooops! The full tortoise in the lower right is the correct pattern. I forgot the second line on the shell for all the others. And yes, I painted the entire page first with acrylic before I even thought about gouache.

 
I thought I was brilliant but in fact I was too smart for my own good. I wanted to keep the paint nice and juicy so I kept a slightly dampened sponge in my palette and tucked the whole thing in a zip-top bag. It must have been way too humid because my M. Graham Sap Green seemed to be growing MOLD!  A “science experiment ” as Roz Stendahl says. Ugh!  Just a small square of sponge now and no more plastic bag! It must have been the honey M. Graham uses to keep the paint soft and moist.

Today was hot enough for me to pull out my mother’s old silk chinese paddle fan. As I cooled myself I admired the hand-painted bird and flowers. Could I do that someday?

Why wait!

 
I’m off to re-watch the videos to see what I might want to try next… I’ll just be here playing.  Have a great day!