Stuff with gouache

2025.10.11
Characters: Miriel, Ivu, Aava
License: CC0

I've recently started learning to paint traditionally with gouache. Here's a few of my first personal paintings, presented in chronological order to show my progress, of which I'm quite proud so far :)

Most of the credit for my quick improvement belongs to Justin Donaldson and his online gouache course. Highly recommended!

Painting of a red-haired elven woman relaxedly leaning on a rock in a grassy field. It's a sunny day and a coniferous forest is seen in the background.

Half-body portrait of Ivu the dryad: a lady with birch bark skin and leaf hair, wearing a dress and an apron in the colors of fall. She's standing in a sunlit forest, caressing some poppy flowers with her hands.

Gouache painting of Aava, a pale-colored mermaid with black bob-cut hair, wearing a billowing pink dress. We're underwater, but not very deep - the darkness is broken by dim shafts of light from above. She's falling backwards away from the viewer and towards a gothic cathedral tower seen in the background. Bonus photo of this framed on my wall (the first thing I've ever had framed, which I find very exciting!): The previous painting hanging on a wall, framed with dark stained wood that matches the darks of the image.

Gouache painting of Aava the mermaid lounging in a shallow stream with a crown of flowers on her head. The water is murky, covered in lilies and fallen leaves. A clear sky is reflected from the water surface, and there's lots of green foliage surrounding the stream, but yellow tones and fallen leaves suggest that it's not quite summer anymore.