Hey, guys! Happy summer break! I hope everyone had a great spring semester and made it through all of your finals successfully. Since the end of the 2025-2026 academic year, I haven’t really had the time to complete any new designs or paintings, but I do have some progress and inspo photos from my current painting project that I can share with you.

I think in one of my first few articles, I mentioned that I take some art classes outside of Marywood. I have been taking these classes since fourth grade, and they have really helped me improve my artistic skills. Recently, my art school acquired a large set of gouache paints with a wide range of colors. For the past few months, I have been learning and experimenting with gouache paints, as it is a new medium for me. My art teacher decided to dry the paints out and activate them with water, instead of keeping them wet all the time. In this state, they kind of act like a mix between watercolors and acrylic paint. I have really enjoyed the process of gouache painting and the vibrancy that the colors provide.

This painting started out as a watercolor, but it became a mixed-media piece when I experimented with gouache. I first laid down a light watercolor base for the background and water, then used gouache to add details to the swans and trees. With this piece, it was my first time trying out the new paints, and I found out how easy it was to layer the colors and brighten the painting. I really enjoyed the process of gouache, and I wanted to keep experimenting, so I decided to make another painting entirely in gouache.

For this painting, I didn’t have a solid plan when I started. I knew that I wanted to do a cloudy sky, but that was as far as my planning went. I used gouache to create a nice, bright blue sky, then overlaid white to form the clouds. Once the clouds were done, I figured they would look great over the ocean, so I added more blue to create the water’s waves. When the sky and water were finished, it looked like something was missing from my composition, so ultimately, I decided to add some rocks jutting out of the waves with some seagulls sitting on them. I also added some birds flying in the sky to tie everything together. Aside from the large set of gouache, my art teacher had a small set of metallic gouache, which I added to the clouds and water to mimic the sun’s shiny reflections. Overall, I was very happy with this piece, and I kept wanting to continue my experimentation with these new paints.

This is the current painting that I am still working on in my art class. With this painting, I wanted to push myself a bit by trying to replicate the vibrancy of the sky with gouache, as well as the architecture of the Ferris Wheel. At first, I struggled with getting the transition between the reds and yellows with the whites and blues, but I think I finally got it in a good place. Overall, I am extremely happy with my progress on this painting, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

In experimenting with gouache paints, I was very surprised by how much I enjoy using them. I have never really been a watercolor person, but I absolutely love using the gouache. These paintings have been a lot of fun to do, and I see improvement in my skills each time I complete a new piece. I hope you all enjoyed these paintings and my processes of completing them. Let me know in the comments which one you like the best!

Thanks for reading!

– Cecelia 🙂