My Latest Gouache Artworks

Gouache is my next favorite medium after watercolor for sketching and painting. It can be as fluid as watercolor or thick and textured like acrylic, depending on the water-to-paint ratio. I often turn to gouache to bring vibrancy to my watercolor pieces or to cover up any mistakes. Recently, after watching The Boy and The Heron, the latest film by Hayao Miyazaki, I felt inspired to revisit gouache. My first experience with gouache involved painting landscapes inspired by Studio Ghibli’s beautiful background art, which I discussed in detail in the blog post below.

Painting Studio Ghibli Backgrounds and Dreamy Landscapes with Gouache

Here are four gouache landscapes I painted last week, each inspired by photos from my personal reference library. These were all done as practice pieces in my watercolor journal, the one I got from a local artisan and consisting of Baohong artist grade papers. I painted these landscapes on the smoother side of the cotton papers.

Photos below are my paintings of my aglaonema plant which recently bloomed for the first time since I got the plant as gift during the pandemic, pictured here along with my yellow Majohn A1 fountain pen.

I’ve always loved The Lord of the Rings as both a book series and a set of movies. The Hobbit’s house has such a charming design that I’ve painted it multiple times in acrylic, gouache, and watercolor. Here’s a recent painting of a hobbit house, shown alongside a bag I painted in acrylic to resemble a cozy Hobbit’s home (front and back). I’ve also featured this bag in my Artist Portfolio. This particular hobbit house was inspired by a DeviantArt piece I found on Pinterest years ago, though I no longer remember the original artist. I added my own touch by making the vegetation more lush and surrounding the doorway with bougainvillea—a common vine in the Philippines and a personal favorite. While I’m not sure if bougainvillea would grow in New Zealand or Middle Earth, it adds a bit of my own world to the scene!

Here’s an autumn scene in China that I absolutely loved painting because of the warm colors. This one is my favorite among the four pieces I completed last week. 😊 Around this time last year, I was actually in Shanghai to present one of my research projects. I loved the crisp autumn weather and the city’s cleanliness. I hope to visit again someday soon!

Hope you liked them and may these pieces inspire you to sketch also.

Cheers,

Grass