How to Combine Watercolor and Gouache in Miniature Painting?

In this article we are going to introduce you watercolor and gouache in miniature painting art and explain how to combine and implement these two colors in our work.

Step 1: Familiarity With Miniature Art

To familiarize with miniature painting art and to understand a preface of this art please refers tothis article.

Also to learn how to design and create cloud and tree in miniature painting please refer to this article.

For more information and access to the instructional videos of the miniature art, refer to our website with more than four hours video tutorials totally free.

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Step 2: Watercolor in Miniature

We enter color discussion in this article. Many colors are used in miniature like watercolor, gouache and acrylic. But we start from watercolor. But before start painting with watercolor, we should explain some points. If you want to work with acrylic color you can use Maquette pasteboard and if you want to work with watercolor or gouache use fabriano 220 grams pasteboard. This pasteboard have two sided, one side has nap and the other side is very smooth. The soft part of the pasteboard is suitable for painting. But before painting with watercolor I teach you to stick the pasteboard. First stick the upper side of the pasteboard. (Figure 1)

Then stick this part. (Figure 2)

The last part you want to stick, when you put a little stick on the board, pull your hand on the pasteboard to filtrate it. After work by watercolor, the pasteboard is less swelling. (Figure 3)

Draw a table on the pasteboard then first start by little rooms, then bigger ones. (Figure 4)

For the color container, it is better if the board is egg form. It is much better for some parts allocated much surface of color. First pour water on the palette and then pour color on it. (Figure 5)

In watercolor, form of the color should be watery and the color density should not be too high. In watercolor painting, I instruct you painting monotonous, the surface you paint after drying should be monotonous without stain and the hair-brushes line should not be appear in the work. Take care that we will slope slightly to board. From top, the hair-brush is full of color. The point which color collected there, continue toward down and pull it down. (Figure 6)

Don’t pull the hair-brush on the pasteboard. But pull the color toward down. Try not to go outside the frame. When you arrived at the end of the pasteboard, don't lift the color till your color didn't excess. If excesses color, wash the hair-brush and dry it. Then put it calmly on the pasteboard and take your color in this way. (Figure 7)

This technique is the same for gouache. The only difference between watercolor and gouache is in density of color. I paint another part. You can work with each color that you want. (Figure 8)

In order to paint the surface that you want, use a hair-brush with suitable size. For this part you can’t use small hair-brush and also you can't use very big one. I repeat again. For making the work better, the slope of the board is so important. In monotonous painting, if the watercolor dried, you can't return and paint it again. (Figure 9)

The other point, till your color hasn't dried totally don't hold the board straight. Let the color come down and will be dried and then hold it straight.

Step 3: Work With Gouache in Miniature

Our color is dried completely, and then you can see it’s monotonous. (Figure 10)

But I perform this color by the same technique by gouache. The important point about gouache is when you buy it, be careful the word poster wasn't written on it. Because these kind of gouaches, use for graphic works. (Figure 11)

On the surface of the gouache, there is a kind of oil that you need to shake it to combine and mix it and then work with it. We use these two green and yellow by gouache that you see colored and sight differences of these colors and compare it with each other. Painting is not different but the main differences between gouache and watercolor is the amount of density and watery. (Figure 12)

Since this table has a more little surface, I use a small hair-brush. There is no difference in performance. (Figure 13)

Attempt to run out the color. Let the color will be semi-wet then hold the board straight. Well, if you look at carefully, you will see that our color is dried totally and the only difference between watercolor and gouache is the coverage of the surface of pasteboard. (Figure 14)

Because of watercolor coverage on the pasteboard, we call it clear color or spiritual color but gouache is a bodily color. You can compare spiritual with bodily color. The texture of pasteboard is clear in watercolor that is the color is so clear, but in gouache it covered the pasteboard totally. (Figure 15)

In the step, we instruct the combination of gouache and watercolor and the combined painting and mix these colors. Next step we do it on a tableau.

Step 4: The Combination of Watercolor and Gouache

As we said before we have mixed color here. If you look at this tableau, you see special color variety, in this part. (Figure 16)

We have green – mustard-violet-white that set besides each other and combined to each other and form this part. The first, try to use bright colors since when your hair- brush becomes dirty, it doesn't dirt your bright color. For small parts of the tableau, that you don’t need more colors, you can use plain palette. (Figure 17)

The next color is green and after that, violet by combination of blue and maroon. You can watch mustard in this part. After that you’ll see green then violet. Take care that colors on the surface of the pasteboard, when dried will show one to two degrees darker or brighter than palette colors. The first color can see in this mountain is the white color. I paint the white color. Then you see mustard. (Figure 18)

You can see the combination of colors which faded in each other. After mustard again we have white then mustard. At last stage we have green. Take care our color is wet. For this part we use violet. (Figure 19)

Wait to dry. Ok now it is totally dried and you can compare it with tableau. Till it will become the same as what you see, you need to do Construction. (Figure 20)

But Before doing Construction this part to be like the main tableau, I instruct you Construction and pardaz separately, then put it down on the tableau.