Workshop: Create a unique gouache artwork

See how LIESBETH TATJANA transfers her carefully planned character concept to a wooden surface using digital and traditional tools

See how Liesbeth Tatjana transfers her character concept to a wooden surface.

When I’m not busy working in my home studio in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, I like to take inspiration from my many fantasy-related hobbies. I love reading fantasy novels by authors such as Robin Hobb and JRR Tolkien, or preparing for my Dungeons & Dragons games that I play with friends. I enjoy video games, too – anything from the Final Fantasy or The Legend of Zelda series.

Although most people know me for my traditional artwork, I actually started out as a digital artist. When I was 13 I discovered the art community on Deviantart and begged my parents to buy me my first tablet. I taught myself how to use Photoshop and spent all of my free time designing my own characters and building fantasy worlds.

It wasn’t until I entered art education that I fell in love with traditional mediums and I haven’t looked back since. Recently, I’ve discovered gouache and consider it my dream medium.

I usually work on round slices of wood as a canvas. I started painting on these because I really appreciate the natural, “hand-made” looking aesthetic. Every slice of wood I paint on becomes a one of a kind: a tangible work of art that you can hold in your hand.

However, still being spoiled by the convenience that digital art programs offer, I still like to use them to my advantage. In traditional art there’s no Undo button or a Hue/saturation slider, so it’s important to make most of your creative choices before you even pick up a brush. After all, there isn’t much you can do when you suddenly realise halfway through a painting that certain colours aren’t working, other than redoing many hours of your hard work! Planning ahead will save you a lot of time and enable you to focus on the fun part of the creative process: the rendering.

In this workshop I’ll be showing you how I plan out a painting from start to finish. I’ll cover how I do thumbnail sketches, how to use digital tools if/when you need them, choosing the colours, how to transfer the drawing on to the primed canvas and taking you through how I “sculpt” everything into the final product.

Liesbeth is a freelance fantasy artist and character designer based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Art has always been a part of her life, and she loves creating her own stories and characters. You can discover more of her art at www.instagram.com/liesbethtatjana.

1 Sketching thumbnails

I always start with rough thumbnail sketches of my idea. Because my canvas is a round slice of wood, I love to make the composition flow with the roundness of the canvas and I do my best to capture that movement. I always sketch a few different options, but this time I chose the first one.

3 Sketch the final composition

I use my chosen thumbnail sketch to render out a rough drawing. I trace the slice of wood directly on the paper to get the shape and size right. During this drawing stage I make the final decisions about the composition and proportions. I don’t render details out too much because I’ll end up tracing it again later.

2 Prepping the slice of wood

The wood that I work on is treated and lacquered. This isn’t ideal for painting on, so I prime it with two or three layers of Gesso to create a decent base. It helps to create texture and ensures that the paint adheres to the canvas. Two or three layers should be enough.

4 Choose your colour palette

Photoshop helps me to choose my colour palette for the painting. I first use some random colours that I put on different layers so that I can slide the Hue/saturation individually until I find the palette that I want. You can also experiment with the lighting on a separate layer.

5 Transfer the drawing to the canvas

Next, I photocopy the drawing in my sketchbook. I made the drawing the same size as the slice of wood, so I simply place my sketchbook on the scanner and press Copy – no size adjustment necessary.

7 Define the final lines

Because the reverse trace is pretty light, I go in for one last time with a pencil to define the lines using a mechanical pencil. It doesn’t need to be too neat because I’ll be painting over it and referencing the original drawing during the painting process.

6 Reverse tracing

I flip the photocopy over and use a graphite watercolour pencil to cover the paper with the pigment. I use graphite because it doesn’t smudge too much. I cut it to size, secure it with tape and apply pressure with an ink pen to trace the drawing.

8 Spray with finishing spray

The pencil lines will smudge if I just went in with paint, so I use a matte finishing spray to seal the drawing. I usually do one later and make sure to open a window or do it outside! One layer should be enough to protect the drawing.

9 Apply transparent acrylic colours

I begin with a layer of acrylic, which is a lot more forgiving than gouache when you want to work in a transparent layer. At this stage I still want to see the drawing underneath to help me as I place my chosen colours on the wood canvas.

10 Colour blocking with gouache

Once the first transparent layer is on, I move on to gouache. I block in the basic colours, keeping my chosen colour palette in mind. I’m not being particularly neat at this stage, so the artwork can start to look messy! The gouache is opaque, and things might move around a bit.

11 Define the line-work

I love coloured line-work, so I keep defining the lines while painting. I match the lines with the surrounding area and make it part of the lighting story. Keeping the line-work on show during the painting process prevents me from straying too far from the drawing’s original shapes.

12 Rendering the composition

Now I just chip away at the painting for a while. I block in the colours while referring to my chosen colour palette. I also look up references for the flowers, the pose, the hands and the dress, studying their shapes and how these objects react to light.

14 Concentrate on the lighting

This piece has a strong light source from the candle. I find references of candles in jars and study how objects around the candles react to the light, always overexaggerating slightly. I always leave this part until last, because the lighting is my favourite painting step.

Checking the proportions

When rendering, I sometimes lose focus and things get moved around a bit. The face is the centre of the painting so it needs to be right. I check the facial proportions and notice that the ears are lopsided. A quick repaint fixes this.

15 Finishing ‘sketchy’ touches

I add a bit of “sketchiness” back into the painting by applying flecks, random dots and cross-hatching to selected areas. I prefer my paintings not to look too polished, but am always a little worried about taking this distressing stage too far. Once I’m happy with my mark making, I call the painting finished.