You may have noticed that I have started blogging again. It is great to share more on the blog/Youtube! And I started a blog series about Gouache . A great material: it is an opaque watercolor. Now I thought it would be fun to share more interviews on the blog. Nienke is currently teaching a course 'Painting portraits' with Gouache, so it is the perfect moment to ask Nienke some questions about gouache!
Can you give a brief introduction for anyone who doesn't know you yet, what do you do and what are you currently working on?
Hi, I'm Nienke Vletter! I live and work in Utrecht, in a studio full of lovely art supplies. I always say I'm an illustrator first, because then people understand that you earn money by drawing. But people often think of illustrating (picture) books, and I don't do that. Actually, the best description is that I'm a professional drawing and painting materials nerd haha. In short: I love testing and working with all kinds of materials. I love to dive into it completely and discover what you can do with it. I then share that knowledge with people who want to learn to draw and paint. I do this in online courses, in blogs, on Instagram and in my online community on the platform Patreon, where we draw together every month via Zoom. My most favorite subjects are drawing people and Urban Sketching.
I just launched a new online course: Gouache Portraits ! Almost 100 participants are already participating, which is really fun. In the meantime, I am already thinking of new courses in my head, because I still really enjoy sharing that creative knowledge. There will be a mini-course on the subject of 'drawing hands' and in the fall I probably want to do something with oil, wax and soft pastels.
My mission is actually to give people back the pleasure of drawing. We are often too perfectionistic, we think that we cannot draw well enough and that something has to work right away. But with the right tips you can do so much more than you think! And above all: give yourself the time to learn something new. As long as you enjoy it, it doesn't have to look beautiful at all. That will come naturally if you practice a lot.
What was your first experience with gouache and what attracted you to this material?
That was a while ago. I don't remember exactly when I first painted with gouache. I do remember that I didn't find it an easy material in the beginning. I often 'polished' too much and was too impatient, which made the layers too thick or mixed together too much. In the meantime I know that it really is a matter of practice and I think it is a very nice material to work with! And patience also helps: first see how a color dries before you apply new layers on top of it.
What is the biggest difference in working with gouache and a material like watercolor or acrylic?
What I like about gouache is that you can work in multiple (covering) layers. In that respect, it is more forgiving than watercolor: if something goes wrong with gouache, you simply put another layer over it. Watercolor is more transparent and less predictable. I sometimes find that very beautiful about it: precisely that flow of the pigment in the water gives very nice effects. I sometimes work with acrylic paint, but less often: it is also covering, but dries more glossy and can no longer be reactivated. That is possible with gouache and that is why I find it somewhat more 'accessible' to paint with.
Which brand of gouache do you prefer to use and why?
I have a few preferences, I often have a hard time choosing haha. I have been working with Daniel Smith for a short while now and I also paint with it in my course. It has a nice consistency with a lot of pigment in it, which means you can often put a colour on paper in one go. And
Daniel Smith gouache is also lightfast, so you can hang your work on the wall afterwards without it fading quickly. I also like
Winsor&Newton designer gouache , it has nice bright colours, even when you start mixing colours. With cheaper brands, colours sometimes become 'muddy', but not with W&N! By the way, I also regularly use it to practice
Royal Talens Gouache , because it's a bit more affordable. Oh yeah, and I also have a beautiful set of
Holbein Acryla Gouache ! That's a kind of mix between gouache and acrylic. It works mainly as gouache, but it does dry waterproof. So then you can paint over your underlying layers more easily. And the colors of
Holbein are also very pigmented! Well, I already said that I love beautiful materials and can't choose, right?
What is your favorite color or palette?
Anyone who follows me online knows that blue is my absolute favorite color haha. And I also suffer a bit (very much) from full set syndrome, that I would like to have all colors of a material. But for painting portraits, funny enough, I use a very limited palette. The three primary colors (yellow, ultramarine blue, red), white, Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna. And Payne's Gray or black. The nice thing about such a limited palette is that you learn to mix colors much better!
How important is paper to you when using gouache? Do you have a preference for a certain type?
Paper is definitely important! Especially if you work on paper that can't take much water, your result can be quite disappointing. So I prefer to work on good quality mixed media paper or watercolor paper. For portraits I also like to work on toned paper, so that you already have a warm color as a base.
By the way, on
this page you can shop all my favorite materials for working with gouache, including gouache sets, paper, brushes and handy tools such as palette knives and porcelain palettes.
Are there any particular artists or styles that inspire you in your work with gouache?
I mainly use Instagram to get inspiration and follow different illustrators and artists every time. So I can't name one person right away. What I find most inspiring is when there is a certain looseness in the work, and a lot of color! It doesn't all have to match reality perfectly. It is actually nice to put something on paper with a few rough strokes, so that you can really still see the paint in it. And use other colors than you expect or exaggerate subtle tones. I try to push myself more and more to also put that looseness in my work.
What are your plans regarding gouache?
I want to make much more with it! Now that the course is finished, I have time to paint more myself. What I want to do, among other things, is to play with unexpected colors and loose strokes in portraits. And I also want to practice more with other subjects, such as using gouache for Urban Sketching. Who knows, maybe that will become another course in the future, I think to myself now. So many gouache ideas ;-)
Thanks for this nice interview Nienke! Want to see more?
See you again soon!
