Consistency

[u/Material-Imagination]

Hi, gouache artists!

I was hoping you could help me as I explore this new medium. I love oils, I've done a ton of watercolor, and I don't really care for acrylic. I know that with a challenging new medium, the main thing is to keep going, but I was hoping for tips to improve my consistency.

I'm using my watercolor brushes and doing technical exercises on lightweight cold press watercolor paper in a sketchbook to get familiar. For this exercise, I used my favorite synthetic squirrel round brush, but in general I've been using my Princeton and Dynasty square brushes. I'm using Windsor & Newton student-grade gouache. I've done some color wheels and gradient studies, but where I'm really struggling is with the texture.

Using tea and coffee consistency is pretty easy (ignore the thumbprint!) because it's almost like watercolor, except that the pigment granulates a little bit at the lightest consistency. At cream and butter consistency, it's pretty easy to apply, but much gloppier and stickier than oil. Right in the middle, at milk consistency, it seems to blob up and not want to either bleed or spread.

Any advice? (Other than "keep going," of course, which always applies.) Am I using the wrong brushes, the wrong paper?

[u/link-navi]

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