Foxes and Gouache

I can't believe it's going to be 2014 tomorrow. This year has been awesome for my art lessons, since I started them around March? May? I don't remember. So really, this is the only year I can go off of! But since then, I have gotten some awesome students and had so much fun. One of my students is learning about gouache right now. She's doing a great job! This is her fox on the left.

I never really got into gouache before, but it's my new favorite medium! It's got the feel of watercolor, but it's opaque and more forgiving than watercolors. So you can paint something and have it dry in a few seconds, then paint over it again if you mess up. It's really forgiving for people who don't have the patience to wait for oils to dry, but get frustrated that they can't fix messed up watercolors.

This student is really into painting specific things. So next week, we're going to do a fish study -- one with watercolors, and one with gouache. I'll post a picture and show you what a difference a medium can make!

Reflections

I'm proud to report that my art student who entered the Reflections contest won an award! I was so proud I told my entire team at work and posted it on Facebook. It's always rewarding for a teacher to see their student work hard and excel. Of course, this student already came to me with a lot of talent. It's been fun to help him stretch in different areas, like composition, framing, subject matter, drawing techniques, and title selection. So proud of him! (By the way, this image is just a picture of Gandhi. It's not the picture he drew. I'll try to get a copy of that and post it on here soon!)