Painter's block

This gouache painting is the last in a row of paintings which I did last week. I finished one painting and on the next day I prepared the paper for the next one. The day after that I began to paint, finished the painting, scanned and uploaded it.

Just now I got something like a painter's block and I really do not know why. I got the paper, got the gouache paints. But somehow doing other things seemed to have been more important. I am still in love with gouache, but maybe now painting with it needs a bit more planning, a bit of timeblocking? The first step could be to schedule time to jot down some painting ideas. This could include going through my digital AI images and selecting those which could work as reference images. Or go through my book "The Complete Color Harmony" and look for some color combinations. Or... okay, now that I am writing about it I have the feeling that the first steps are made to overcome painter's block!
 

What a difference a style makes

When I visited California in 2016 our group - of course - went to the Grand Canyon. I even dared to particpate in a Helicopter ride which showed us the gorgeous landscape from above. 

Now, that AI gives us the opportunity to create amazing images I wanted to recreate the Grand Canyon.

Here I used Openart AI with the prompt: 

Grand canyon, watercolor and ink, illustration

As you can see, this image would fit perfectly as an illustration in a children's book about the Grand Canyon!

However it is quite unspectacular, even a bit boring. 

So I changed the style of the image.

This time I used Mage Space and the following prompt:

"grand canyon in winter in the style of art deco"

The result is quite different! 

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

The Brandenburg Gate is one of the most known places in Berlin. The image on the left was created with Nightcafe Studio. I added "moonlit" in the prompt in order to create a bit of a dreamy atmosphere.

Other than that it looks quite realistic, a bit too realistic I thought. So I decided to play with the image a bit.

I used it as a starter image and added in the prompt:

"... in the style of Van Gogh". 

You can see the result of this addition on the right: The building itself was not changed much, but the foreground and the sky have a definite Van Gogh touch.

Enjoying color mixing with Gouache

For this painting I used:
Brilliant Red (Reeves), Ultramarine (Reeves), Blue Lake (Reeves), Golden yellow (Lascaux) and White (Lucas Nerchau).

 I tried to mix a darker red with adding Ultramarine to the Brilliant Red; I also mixed Blue Lake with a bit of Ultramarine in order to reduce its greenish hue. I did not do test swatches as I consider all these paintings to be test or practice paintings. I allow myself potential failures - after all every painting I do will teach me something. 

I also noticed that I enjoy every painting I do and that I am looking forward to every new one I will do. I do not know how long this joy will last - but just now I am very happy with it.
 

Using a gouache painting as starter image

Some days ago I did an abstract painting with gouache:

Now I wanted to have an AI version of it, telling the AI to create an image of an "abstract painting in cubist style".

Then I thought why not having the AI Generator create something very different from the starter image? So I told it to create an image with "mushrooms in a forest".

And it did! I must admit I had to play with the weight of the image a bit till I got the result above. 

Gouache and Colored pencils

As you can see I am still down the "Gouache" rabbit hole. This time I used "Golden Yellow" from Lascaux. The smallest size it comes in is 85 ml, and it is not cheap. However: I bought this bottle almost 10 years ago, and it still works fine. It is very creamy, and: it can be rewetted without losing quality. I also used "Indigo" from Schmincke (Akademie Gouache), and I noticed that there is a significant difference when you try to rewet it. So I think I will rather buy Lascaux Gouache when I need to restock my Gouache paints.

Another thing I learnt is that you can successfully apply colored pencils on gouache. Here I used a deep blue,