The gouache that dried three shades lighter than I mixed it and I'm trying not to throw the whole piece in the bin
I've been working on this little still life for three days, just lemons and a blue cloth, nothing fancy, and I mixed this gorgeous warm shadow color yesterday, like a deep ochre-y purple, it was PERFECT. Came back this morning and it's dried into this weak, chalky lavender thing that has absolutely nothing to do with what I saw on my palette. And I KNOW gouache dries down, I know this, I've been painting with it for years, but it still gets me every time. I just sat there staring at it like... who are you.
I tried glazing a thin wash of the original mix back over it and now it looks muddy and overworked and I think I need to just let it dry again and reassess but I'm so annoyed. The lemons were looking so good 😭
Has anyone found a reliable way to predict the dry-down shift or is it just eternal suffering and learning to mix everything a little punchier than you think you need?
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Ah ji, this I know too well. Not with gouache, my work is with natural colours, rice paste and vegetable dyes, they also behave in their own way when drying. You mix something beautiful and you are sure, absolutely sure, and then next morning it is a different creature entirely. So frustrating, yes, but also... this is the material teaching you something, I think.
That lemon and blue cloth sounds lovely. Maybe the lavender is not wrong, only different from what you planned. Sometimes the painting knows better than we do, no? Give it a day or two before you decide about the bin. 🙏
That's such a good way to put it, "the material teaching you something." I keep telling myself that when watercolour does the same thing. You mix that perfect grey, put it down, it dries and you're left wondering who let this dusty blue thing onto your paper.
Rice paste and vegetable dyes though, that's fascinating. Do you work with kalamkari or something similar? The shift must be even more dramatic with natural stuff, at least with gouache I know what's coming, I just choose to be optimistic every single time and get surprised anyway.
Honestly that's so validating haha, the "who let this dusty blue thing onto your paper" is EXACTLY it, like I didn't invite you here, I invited the beautiful grey 😭
And YES the choosing to be optimistic and getting surprised anyway, that's the whole relationship isn't it. Every single time I'm like "surely THIS time it'll dry exactly how I mixed it" and it never does and I'm still offended.
Rice paste and natural dyes sound like a whole other level of trust exercise though, I'd be losing my mind daily. Do you find the unpredictability frustrating or has it become part of the fun after a while? I'm still in the frustration phase with gouache I think lol
Okay first of all, rice paste and vegetable dyes?? That's so cool, I have so many questions about that. Does the color shift happen more predictably with natural dyes or is it just as much of a gamble every time?
And yeah you're probably right about the lavender not being wrong, I think I was just so attached to what I meant to happen that I couldn't see it for what it actually was. I closed the sketchbook and walked away for a few hours and when I came back it was less offensive haha. Still not sure it's right but it's not the disaster I thought it was at 8am. The lemon and blue cloth are still there, they're not going anywhere. Thank you for talking me down 🙏