Showing 100+ Hours of Gouache Painting for the First Time Ever!

I don't have a sketchbook, but I do have a secret box of paintings that almost no one has seen before. I haven't seen the insides of this box myself in quite some time, but today I thought we'd go on a little nostalgia trip and take a look at it together. Starting with Dragon Ball. What else could it be? I really like this one and I'm especially happy that I didn't sell it. This is painted from a statue or a figure that I used as a reference, but the colors are completely different. But it definitely is a three-dimensional reference. If you look up close, you can see all the crosshatching and the details and the layering of gouache paint that really makes this small painting come to life. This Hellboy painting here I remember very well, because this is the first painting that I ever painted on a live screen. Ever. If you look up close, you can see a bunch of colorful outlines on this, which is actually kind of interesting, because this is something called chromatic aberration. A color distortion effect in photography that I just used as a stylistic element here. This one here makes use of some pretty nice design tools as well. Outlines in particular. The outline around the figure separates it from the background and this effect is further amplified by the fact that the background is painted in a completely different style from the figure. Wet washes of color in the back and clean blocks and sharp lines in the foreground. Jan, this is a very different thing. A flat two-dimensional image, almost painted like a flat uniform colors. Almost naive in a way, but lots and lots of fun. This one here might actually be the very first painting that I did in this series of gouache paintings, which I, by the way, had many, many more of. A few years ago I sold, I guess, half of them. But all of these are gouache paintings, which is probably my favorite medium besides oil paint, but it's kind of strange that this is the first one in the series, because I was never actually a Metroid fan. But for whatever reason, this one is what sparked it all. I don't know if this part here is unfinished or if it is on purpose. I can't remember, but I like Ghibli movies and I used to be a big fan. They're just, I guess, feel-good movies is the right word. This one here I think is unfinished. I don't know what happened, but for whatever reason I didn't finish it. And let's be real, I probably never will. I might have gotten distracted or I lost interest, I don't know, but I have very fond memories of this show. But not my favorite character though. My favorite character is Metal Greymon. What's cool about this is the amount of detail created by layering brush strokes and little shapes of color on top of each other. And also the contrast between brush strokes and flat uniform color shapes. One of the upsides of working not only with gouache paint, but also from very good reference that has a lot of detail and information. This here is one of my earliest artistic influences and inspirations. The Chuck Jones era of animation. I love everything about this. It's just pure genius. And if you look in the background here, you can actually see some of my most recognizable stylistic elements that I use in my paintings to this day. And it's actually something that I learned from these kinds of animations. And that is painting over lines. Something that was a big part of hand-drawn animation for a long time. Oh, Starcraft. Probably my first big video game love. Or obsession or whatever you want to call it. As much as I love the subject and the game and the memories I have of it, I don't really like this painting. If you look closely, the paint didn't dry uniformly. Some areas have more shine than others and there are also some distracting glossy spots. This can happen with cheap gouache paints. Probably because of all the additives they put into the paint. But yeah, maybe I'll have to repaint this at some point. Maybe I'll make a bigger oil painting version of it. We'll see. All Might is definitely one of my top 10 favorite anime characters of all time. And this here is a great example of how less is sometimes more. And how spontaneity and looseness can lead to a much better final painting. Because I think I painted this in like 20 minutes when I was bored. And I especially like what's going on here. Really cool. By the way, if you would like to create similar pieces of art with your favorite childhood characters or movies, I suggest you check out today's video sponsor Skillshare. And in particular this class from my fellow YouTube artist here, Jazza. Mastering illustration, sketching, inking and color essentials. A fun light-hearted approach to making art and illustration that I can highly recommend. And a great starting point for everyone who wants to create something similar. If you want to check it out, or any of the other thousands of classes on writing, drawing, taking photos or dozens of other topics, use the link in my description or my personal code. And since Skillshare is sponsoring this video, the first 1000 to use the link in my description will get a one month free trial of Skillshare. Darkwing Duck. Yeah, this one I don't like. I like the character and I have some super fond memories of the show. But I remember I was super distracted when I painted this and I guess you can also see it. The background is a bit gray and muddy. I was probably too lazy to change the water. Some areas also look a bit unfinished compared to others. I don't know. But I guess they can't all be winners. Another one of those super early influences in my career. Not even career, before that. Things that got me interested in drawing and art. Saturday morning cartoons. Without that I would probably be doing something else today. It's actually a very cool exercise to paint a scream grab of something. Which this is by the way. This one here almost looks like it's painted with crayons or pastels. One of the greatest things about gouache paint is that it is super versatile and you can create so many different effects. This one is also a great example of how important color composition is for a painting. The original colors of this character aren't that aesthetically pleasing, so I went with my own colors and yeah, it works. Lovely character, but I don't like this. I don't know what happened here. This is also painted from a toy reference, the OG Skeletor toy, but it lacks focus, depth and the background is too stripy and busy. I don't know. Same here. I've got some super fond memories of Naruto, but this one also seems rushed. Almost as if I, again, was too lazy to swap out the water because it looks kind of muddy in some areas. But it's just an exercise and a bit of nostalgia and memory, so yeah, I guess it's fine. But this one here I like. I think this is also painted from a screen grab. If you look closely, my way of painting is always very similar and that leads to all my paintings having a consistent style or visual look. Even though this is painted from a statue or figure and this just a two-dimensional image, they still look kind of similar. Yeah, probably my favorite Dragon Ball character of all time. I don't really know why this isn't framed and hanging in my apartment or in my studio here somewhere, because it should. This is a nice piece of memory. And this here, this is a strange outlier, because this is not gouache. This is actually oil paint and it's just too funny. Godzilla and King Kong holding hands. This is oil on paper, by the way. But yeah, this is my little secret stash of paintings, I guess. Let me know in the comments down below what you would put in a box with the label Nostalgia. If you want to find out why none of these paintings were ever intended to be seen by anyone else, I suggest you check out my last video, in which I kind of explain it. And with that, thank you all for watching, friends. See you in the next video and yeah, have a good one.