09-03-2015, 02:23 AM
Hey thanks for the comment. I see what you mean I think about designing forms more. The ear area kind turned into a blob of paint due to time constraints. I can see you must be thinking about that a lot with studying Leyendecker. Hes really the perfect example of designed brush work. Something else I've noticed after going and looking at his original is you're ignoring a lot of the soft edges he uses. He has a flare for using hard edges in unexpected places while not breaking the form. Dont over look his subtlety though. Gouache is great for getting nice hard edges very easily as well. After you get all your tiles of value layed in you can go back using a wet brush with no paint and blend out edges strategically. Watch your water to paint ratio though. If you go in too watery at first it will just leave a stain which doesnt reactivate after it dries. Using enough paint to make thicker opaque strokes will allow for easy blending afterwards. Try playing with using too little water and see the variety of strokes you can make. Plus using dry brush as well as washes is one of the most fun aspects of using gouache in my opinion.