Painting a Lake Scene in Gouache

This semester one of the courses I’m in is a gouache painting course (for the second time, as it is difficult to find such a course).  Gouache is opaque watercolor.  It has a very interesting (to me, anyway) history going back centuries.  It handles very differently relative to better known transparent watercolor.  In class we are regularly reminded we are not doing watercolor.  Later I tried recreate the evening sky scene from yesterday’s walk around a nearby lake.  These gorgeous colors and lights and shadows are everyday occurrences around here.  As many already have commented, the trees still hold their green leaves, with some yellow edges in places.  It is a different kind of fall season but no less spectacular with everyday light shows.  The gouache allows for applications of lighter colors on top of dark backgrounds.  

Illustration: “Evening sky”, approximately 9″ x 6″ gouache on watercolor paper by Black Elephant Blog author (2018)