Stormy Sunset -- Opaque Watercolor/Gouache

This one I did a while back. I have only painted in gouache a couple of times. Most of my watercolor work up to now has been using watercolor pencil. Gouache is interesting to use. You can use it like regular watercolor when you use a lot of water, or it is a lot like painting with acrylics with a dry/dryer brush. Gouache allows you to paint light over dark (with a dryer brush), which is the opposite of regular transparent watercolor. The colors can be much brighter than transparent watercolor. This painting was done in the watercolor mode - lots of water.  I put the dry watercolor paper on a pliable plastic cutting board (Walmart sells them - or you can use a plastic table mat), and soaked it with brush and water. As the paper becomes wet and stretches, it may try to buckle. Just lift it up and lay it down flat again. The paper when totally soaked will lay flat and hug the plastic board. Then you can have fun with lots of paint (wet on wet). I deliberately added extra paint and water to make the paint to "bloom" or move around on the paper. I did have a deliberate picture of a sunset in mind as I worked on this. It came out better than I expected. It was a fun learning experience. (My gouache hydrangea picture below was painted wet on dry. I used regular amounts of wet paint on dry paper. I blotted the sky and green hill to soften them. The hydrangeas have three layers of paint, getting darker and darker. The hydrangea white highlights were done with a totally dry brush.)