Rowyn Answers: 4: Gouache

Question:  

What is gouache? 



Answer: 

The technical definition is apparently "A method of painting with opaque watercolors mixed with a preparation of gum."  I find this definition unhelpful and lacking, so lets add to that.  

Gouache is a word which has too many vowels. 
Gouache is like working with watercolors but being able to go back in and work with a piece hours later, like oils.  The colors are vibrant, which reminds me of acrylics.  
The paint is expensive, but a little tube can last a very long time if one is using them more like watercolors. 

So, it isn't automatically transparent and can be used without thinning it out.  An artist can choose the opaqueness of the paint pretty easily.  Sometimes the colors lighten when they dry and then can be layered or not in stages.  This can be a much thicker paint than other types of paint.  

Gouache is what artist Alex Ross often used for his famous superhero portraits. 

I'm not as good with gouache as Alex Ross.  
My dancing girls are done in gouache: 

To compare, here are a couple things done in watercolor:

 Watercolor pencils:

I have no idea if I answered your question adequately. 

Winter is Coming

And I don't have a dragon.

So, something I've been neglecting in my “I have time to get better, and I'm getting there...” is that Winter is coming. I live in an area where when Winter hits, it HITS HARD.

This is a problem for a few reasons.

One:

Winter = cold and cold = pain for me. I have a harder time drawing and painting when it's cold, and those are the things currently keeping me sort of okay. I also avoid going outside when it's cold, so the fact that I just started wanting to actually DO things with my friends is ...Well it's bad timing, really.

Two:

I certainly get my own milder style of seasonal depression. It never gets as bad as some people have it. Still, I already have this anxious, crippling, whatever-the-fuck funk cloud constantly above my head. What the Hell is this going to turn into? Or will I not even notice?

Three:

As sad as it is, I typically have a somebody around in the Winter. This is either a boyfriend or a good friend that I can cuddle up to for warmth and talk to when things are down in order to pretend it is not a season of never ending frozen night.

Well, I've got some friends for that, both new and old. This is good because I'm currently single (the longest I've been so in a long time) and my traditional cuddle buddy is on the other side of the country.  

I've even rekindled a friendship or two out of my realizing what I really wanted and missed in my life. 

My weeding out of some of the awful influences made a nice gap for the people I was too shy about to come back.

...So it's unfortunate that I'm still a loon.

I'm lonely and I want physical affection as well as time spent with people I care about... but I'm still just as freaked out about people touching me or breathing on me as I am about eating most foods, regardless of who or what is involved.

There are very few circumstances where I'll suck it up or even relax enough to forget. I'll still panic before and after, but these calm moments of not giving a shit are precious to me these days.

And then my self esteem comes in to fuck up my day.

I wonder why anyone would want to spend time with me until I convince myself that no one really does, despite the HUGE AMOUNT OF EVIDENCE to the contrary. 

 ...Even you, Sign-Pointing-Guy.  You are so not into this. 

So I picture myself as this burden, and I either shut up, afraid to say anything, or I over-share, afraid that I'll be misunderstood.

Normally, my best buddy would be getting all this crap. To a certain extent, she still does, but she is busy being an adult type person and I don't want to bother her with my insane-child shit.

...See? See, it's that logic again. The fuck.

Instead, I've been not so silently putting it on an old companion who I've dragged rather forcibly back into my life, fully aware that I'm about fifty cards short of a deck.

I find him comforting and supportive, and I know I can be the same for him.  He reminds me of who I was years ago, and also who I was in the time when he barely even knew me anymore.  

...And then I just feel guilty that he should have to put up with me at all.

Below is my depiction of the whole thing. Feel free to click on it to enlarge it in order to read my lunatic rantings.

...Right.

The man is not so much of a pushover that he couldn't just ignore me and walk the fuck away if he wanted to. None of my friends are. These are all people who actually *gasp* care about me.

Why would they?

It doesn't matter.

I should just be thankful and move on.

Mind you, in my case with him specifically, we have basically abandoned each other before on some level, though even then, it was with good intentions.  As odd as it sounds, we were trying to avoid hurting each other.  We just did it... wrong. 

Still, I now know that one phone call would have fixed it. 

I chose to assume he wanted nothing to do with me, just as he chose to assume I wouldn't miss him.  

We are the same kind of stupid.  You would think this would mean we'd each give each other the benefit of a doubt as friends.  

...

We don't. 

But, it's nice when we are just relaxed and together.  We have a history and we know each other pretty well, but we also were apart long enough that there are still things to learn.  I have other friends who would fall into this category, and they wouldn't necessarily have the added complication of my physical attraction, but on some level, I suppose I'm just thankful that I'm still capable of having said attraction to someone.  Even if it doesn't amount to anything, it's comforting to have. 

 

No expectations, just honesty and friendship, knowing we care about each other.  That's pretty freaking cool, and something I've been needing.  Being someone I've had a relationship with in the past, we also avoid that nagging "I wonder" feeling on many levels.  We already know to a certain extent, even if it didn't last very long.  There are still "what ifs" but not enough that it would hurt anything.  

This is all pretty damn cool.  

...Until I over-think it. 

...

Shit.

Binders Full of Women and My History With Squirrels

Just to get this image out of the way here...

Whew.
Believe me, I could make a giant book of the problems women face today and how frustrating it is that so few people really understand A. the impact these things have on women and B. how little this shit should even still be coming up in 2012.  Holy crap people.  Women can do more than pop out babies and make you a sandwich.  Jesus tits.

But, I won't.  Not yet.  Instead, I'll leave you with that illustration.



Okay, so, onto the real post.

I talk a lot about art school and the impact that had on me, but I was only there for a year.  Sure, I've got some unfinished business and I have been (as always) in need of some closure, but really it just represents a life I could still have... if I wasn't a stubborn ass.  I could reconnect with the people I knew so briefly instead of assuming they've forgotten about me, and I could get something published.  These would fix most of the problems.


Instead, I'll tell you a little tale of the school from which I actually graduated.  I did get a BA in Art, as well as one in Psychology.  Oh, poor me.  Woe is me.  I wound up with two freaking degrees, and one might actually be useful.  Oh no.  Whatever shall I do?  I'm absolutely aware that I am, in fact, an asshat.

Anyway, the squirrels.

As anyone who has lived on campus in an area with squirrels will tell you, after a while, these buggers get fearless.  Also, they get huge.

Free food and drunken kids who like fuzzy creatures makes for a very cushy, and somewhat privileged life.  The squirrels get ballsy.  Like... full of balls.  No, I won't draw that.

I'm walking to the dining hall this one fine afternoon, and I happen upon a squirrel.

Adorable as he is, I think nothing of it and continue walking forward, assuming the little guy will move.

...He didn't.

Instead, little bitch just stared me down.

 I found this a bit unnerving, but I continued forward.  I realized that he was big enough to block my way.  I questioned if he had rabies or something.  He didn't move.

In fact, he stood his goddamn ground.

Kaaaaay...  Well, fuck.  I'm not going to take shit from a rodent, right?  I'm hungry, and he's in my way.  I'm at least twice this randomly ridiculously large creature's size.  I could totally take him.

Or not.

Eventually, after what seemed like far too long of a stand off, I faltered.  

It felt like I got mugged by this squirrel.  In my head, this was how it went down:

And so I was spared: 

 

In reality, I'm such a pansy (and had no food on me, since I was going TO the cafeteria, not from it...) I just very quietly and slowly walked around to the other side of the building.  Like a wuss.  Like a giant, pansy wuss who can't take on a freaking squirrel.  

Completely unrelated because I don't know how to make this into it's whole own post: 

Girls in Cups!

My next mini, self assigned sketchbook project will be drawings of girls in cups. I will attempt to sketch various races, weights, hair styles and clothing. ...Also, I will use various cups/glasses. If you have a particular object or type of cup you would like me to draw, say so!
     So far, I've got:
    •    A goblet!
    •    Margarita glass
    •    Champagne flute

    •    and a classic martini glass
    •    A tea pot
    •    A Japanese tea set
    •    A burlesque girl in a cocktail glass.   
    •    A curvy girl coming out of a toaster
    •    A wine glass
    •    One lady looking really miffed about being in a sandwich.
    •    Someone asked for an ogre in a cup.  We'll see if this becomes a female ogre or an ogre with a pretty girlfriend. 
    •    As for one person saying "2 girls, 1 cup", I may just have to do two girls laughing inside a dish of chocolate mousse.

-Fairy in a shotglass.  

• •  1950s swimmers with flower covered swim caps taking a dip in something fizzy, like a mimosa or something.
    

    

    
    
    
  • a ninja in a coffee cup. ...So you may wind up a ninja.   In fact... The coffee cup can be a plastic mug shaped like a pirate's head.
    

    
    

    
    
  • ...and if I do a mermaid at some point, it may have to be next to sushi looking horrified.
    

    
    

    
    

• "I have an image in my head of a girl pouting inside an upside-down water glass with a huge piece of chocolate next to her and a string tied to a stick stuck under the edge of the glass.... like she'd been trapped there."
  EDIT: This is not at all what was suggested... but here:
  

  

  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  -Ice cream
  

  

  
  
• viking lady in a ornate viking challis, to which I asked "Should the viking lady be in opera-style full gear or as little as possible?"
• "Jack: "i want you to draw me in a German Boot beer glass. and i want to be pretty...maybe some sexy lingerie." and Z will be outside of the glass, with her hands on her hips, looking pissed because you are wearing her underwear.
  

    •    Female versions of historical presidents in cups of soup?  I think I'll do the girl-presidents lounging in soup (complete with spoon) as though it's a hot tub.

I figure, I'll do a bazillion sketches... and any I really like, I'll do in water color.
        I'll sketch things and see what happens.   
This is going to get very silly very quickly!