For the flowers I used gouache. I haven’t worked with gouache much. I need to play with it more. Gouache is an opaque watercolor paint. Transparent watercolor allows you to see the “white” of the paper through the paint. Gouache paint can be applied in solid colors. This allows artists to paint in layers from dark to light.
The flowers of the Prickly Pear look waxy and are translucent. So gouache was not the right medium for them. Lesson learned. I was hoping to capture the vivid colors. I will try again. Won’t that be fun! Here is a terrific video showing different cacti flowers. If you watch to the end, it gives the names of each.
These are so bright and cheerful. They brought a smile to my face.
So nice to hear Chandra! Thank you 🙂
Sheila, thanks for the gouache lesson. Didn’t even know I was curious about gouache. But: turns out I am! You also turned my early morning attention to the gift of wider wonder—so much I don’t know; so exciting to think I’ll never run out of things to learn!
All that from Day 26’s Prickly Pear post : )
Haha! Exciting yes! So much to learn and not enough time. 🙂 So glad you enjoyed the post, Dotty 🙂 Have fun today!
charming piece Sheila. I have never used gouache either and don’t think I would like the opaque quality.
I thought it would be great, for painting the flowers over the pad. I planned it that way. I did not leave white under the blooms. The colors are not as vivid as I thought they would be. And that might be the brand I am using. I’m going to have to research that. Thanks for visiting Val. 🙂 Happy creating to you 🙂