3 Add Other Media

In The Third Part Of Her Series, Kate Osborne Encourages You To Try Gouache And Other Materials In Your Paintings To Develop Your Own Vocabulary Of Marks

- Kate Osborn

My students often approach the start of their painting life with a degree of trepidation thinking that there is a right and wrong way to ‘do’ art. I suspect that it is the unfortunate fall out from an old-fashioned art education that encourages this idea and makes students nervous about getting stuck in and allowing mistakes to happen.

It’s an old saw that you only learn from your mistakes but, with watercolour, some of those errors can become happy accidents, which go on to give you the confidence to continue taking risks. Fear of failure is the enemy and taking some risks always, in the end, works to your creative advantage.

There are many talented watercolourists who paint in the pure medium and in a traditional style, but the medium does lend itself happily to mixed-media painting and drawing. However much you admire an individual’s style, finding your own voice within your painting practice is far more worthwhile and satisfying than emulating someone else’s. I am not knocking the idea of copying as a means of getting to grips with your medium – it is a great way to learn, just don’t get stuck with a bunch of rules that you are too nervous to break. Always be prepared to swim into slightly deeper water.

FEELING GOUACHE