Sarah Burns Studio X Craftamo
Gouache Subscription Box 7

Part 1: Unboxing, Materials & Color Mixing

Supplies

Materials in Box #7:

• Paper
• 2 brushes
• #14 Round
• #⅜" Angle
• 2 colors
• Prussian Blue,
• Yellow Ochre
  

Part 2: Warm-Up

This month we have two goals: to learn how to use gouache in a “watercolor way” and to stay loose and expressive. And secondly, we will do at least one painting with only two colors.

Part 3: Demo 1

Reference #1

For the first painting demo we will be using my cover painting as reference, with some loose inspiration from this image (feel free to use either to guide you):

My Final Painting from Demo 1

Part 4: Demo 2

For demo 2 we will be using this image as inspiration:

Remember to use lots of water and let it flow! This is the perfect time to experiment with how much water you can use to create those spontaneous bleeds. I am sure each of us will have very different results which is exciting!

My Final Painting from Demo 2

I hope you enjoy this demo! See you next month!

What’s coming in Box #8

For Box 8 we are painting one of my favorite subjects - sand dunes!

Supplies included in Box 8:

• Paper
• 2 brushes
• #4 Round
• #⅜" Dagger
• 3 Colors: 
• Burnt Sienna,
• Naples Yellow,
• Primary White
  

Brush Care 

Never leave your brushes in water for too long. After rinsing, dry the hairs as best you can with a towel then let them dry on a flat surface. Leaving them in water for too long can cause the wood of the handle to swell, which can crack the handle coating. If that happens, the brush is still usable, just not as pretty! 

I usually clean mine with brush soap every few uses. You can find brush soap on the Craftamo website or any art store.

Community

Don’t forget to join my Discord chat server! You can share images of your sketches/painting and enjoy a sense of community. Or if you’d like to share your work with me on Instagram, use the hashtag #sarahburnstutor so I can find you.

Additional helpful resources:

Brand new to gouache? As you discover questions about gouache, I hope to answer as many as I can. For now, you can start with this blog post which goes very in-depth about what gouache is.

If you want even more instruction, I often post free tutorials on YouTube. Otherwise my Patreon is a great resource to learn even more. 

Additional suggested materials:

I use lots of different gouaches, papers, sketchbooks, and palettes for different purposes. You don’t need anything extra right now, except maybe paper as you will probably run out of that first. 

Craftamo sells extra paper (same as what is in the boxes) and it’s very affordable. 

Otherwise, I have lots of recommendations. I keep an updated list of all my favorite art supplies here.

How I use my different brushes: video

This video shows all the brush types you will receive over the course of the 12 month subscription. At the end of the video I show how to care for your brushes.