NMA – Gouache Painting & Sketching (Summer Bootcamp 2025)

Assignment 1: Explore the gouache techniques introduced in the session and practice paint mixing. Create a value scale with 5 swatches, trying to make them clean and opaque using paint with a creamy consistency. Then create a transparency scale with 5 swatches of different opacity, controlling the water to paint ratio in the process.

Assignment 2: Create 3-5 small monochromatic gouache studies (postcard size or smaller) using still life objects in your home. Try to pick out subjects with simple forms, such as fruits, veggies, basic household items, etc. Have a mix of geometric and organic objects, and group objects of different values together to practice value control.

Assignment 1: Create a color wheel and practice mixing with a double primary palette. The first ring on the outside should have swatches of the primary colors and their mixtures of secondary colors. For the second ring in the middle, add black and white to the swatches in the first ring to create warm and cool grays. For the third ring in the center, mix the complementary colors to create earth tones.

Assignment 2 : Create 2-3 small landscape studies no larger than 4X6” using a double primary palette. Before getting started, make a few composition and value sketches for each painting to study the value structure and shapes. Simplify complex objects into flat shapes and group them. Prioritize shapes and avoid rendering objects in detail for this assignment. While mixing the colors, make swatches on the side to test them out, Experiment with brushes of different sizes and shapes.

Create a gouache sketch on location, preferably en plein air. This can be an urban or natural environment. It can also be somewhere you are familiar with, like your balcony, backyard, or neighborhood street. Remember that you don’t need a scenic location to make a good painting.

Mundane everyday subjects can force you to be creative with your designs.

– Before starting the painting, make 3-5 composition and value sketches. Try to edit out unnecessary elements and refine the composition. Design your sketch around a focal point.

– Finalize a sketch of your choice and use it as a guide for the values structure. Follow the shadow shapes in your sketch instead of chasing the changing light.

– Create an underpainting and use it to complement the color palette.

– Prioritize shapes over details, and block in with a large flat brush.

– Establish a sense of depth with the use of atmospheric perspective: use cooler color temperature, lower contrast, and lower chroma for the objects further away.

– Use complementary colors to darken values and mix neutrals.

– Create textures with different brushworks.

– Photograph your subject so you can keep refining the painting at home.

You are encouraged to do multiple on-location sketches if time permits, but finishing the painting(s) is not necessary. We will refine the painting in the studio next week.

Building on the previous assignment, take your plein air painting and refine it in the studio. You may refer to photographs of your subject, but try to avoid getting focused on fine details too quickly. Use this stage of the process to reevaluate your value structure and color relationships, applying any necessary corrections. Submit your final painting to complete this course.