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, 

Falling in Love with gouache

Actually Gouache was one of my first mediums on my art journey. I bought a set of Reeves Gouache paints, tried them once or twice and put them away. I tried them again, also a long time ago, did not like them and - put them away.

In April 2024 I rediscovered them and mixed them with my watercolor inks (I do not know if anyone else ever tried that?). It worked. I am having a blast painting with Gouache. I don't know how long this joy will last, but at the moment I am deeply enjoying this medium. 

And yes, my focus has changed a bit - from creating AI images (which I still do) to actually sitting down and painting with a brush.
 

Experimenting with watercolor inks and gouache

I love to do strange things with art mediums. In case you are following my blog you will know that just now I am deep into watercolor inks. I had neglected them somewhat and now I love painting with them. Another art medium I have been neglecting is Gouache. Yesterday I asked myself "Why not combine Gouache and watercolor inks?" So I went for my very old set of gouache paints from Reeves bought ages ago, took a tube of brilliant red and put a tiny blob of it on my palette. Then I went for the Ecoline warm grey watercolor ink bottle and dropped a tiny drop on the palette as well. It seemed to work. 

Mixing colors from different mediums was one thing - using a waterbrush to paint with gouache was another thing, I did a google search and most of the information I got there was against doing that. Well, I had to try myself. And it worked for me as well! Of course I very carefully cleaned the waterbrush afterwards.

And here is the painting:

Create a Coloring Page with ColorBliss

You can create a coloring page with almost every AI Art generator - in one of my last blog posts I described the process and the necessary steps in detail.

Some days ago I discovered a website which makes creating coloring pages very easy: It's name is colorbliss.art. There is a free plan which allows you to create 3 coloring pages for free. Once you've done that you can get another three credits if you share the website on social media.

This is one of the coloring pages I created. You can download the file by clicking on the image. It comes as a png file. I then open Open office Writer and paste the image into the document and then export it as pdf.

Important information: ColorBliss just changed the pricing. You have nine free coloring pages, then you have to pay!