How I painted a succulent in a checkered pot with Turner Acryla Gouache on a fluorescent pink base
This week I wanted to push myself with a limited palette and a bold base color. I decided to paint a succulent in a checkered pot using Turner Japanesque Acryla Gouache.
My process:
I started with a sketch on my iPad, and then I printed it out and transferred it to my sketchbook. To get rid of all the shite on the page, I used a fluorescent pink paint and completely covered my entire page. I like using a bright color because, as I paint over it, you can see pops of the bright color shine through the paper.
Next, I chose my limited color palette. This time around I chose these Acryla gouache paints from Turner. I like to grab colors I don’t normally choose to one use up my supplies and to challenge myself.
Japanesque light green
Japanesque pale pink
Japanesque deep beige
Jet Black
Then, I just started filling in my artwork like a coloring book with all of the base colors. Once I was happy with that, I went in and added some shadows to add some depth. At this stage, I still had the bright fluorescent background, and the colors looked terrible. I was at the “ugly” stage, and I was questioning all of my choices. Then I filled in the background with black, and it all came together, and the colors worked well with each other. I love how you can still see the bright pink popping through the black paint.
I usually outline my art, and I was trying not to do that this time, but I ended up adding in the outlines anyway. I didn’t feel like it was complete without them. Maybe I will try not adding them another time.
My final step was splatter painting the pot. I had a lot of fun with this, and I think it adds some nice texture to help bring some character to a boring pot.
Working with only four colours made every decision feel intentional in a way that's hard to achieve with a full palette. I had to figure out how the colors would mix and behave together. Full video is on YouTube now — come watch the whole process.