Carla O'Connor: Figure Design in Gouache - The Process

This is a very good dvd for any medium, Carla shows how she composes shapes and how she arrives at color choices. One of best and I've viewed many DVD's. Her sense of design is excellent - overall design is underestimated in our study of painting. We need to let our personal expression be free. And we need to be brave.

When in College, in the early 1960's, I painted with watercolors and also dabbled with oil paints, but had never painted with Gouache. Carla O'Conner's video was my first introduction to Gouache. I must say, I was lucky enough to have purchased Carla's video. I have watched her video many times and each time I learn something new. If you have not painted with Gouache, I suggest you purchase her video. You will never get tired of watching her video. By the way, I have had great results with my Gouache Painting, thanks to Carla's instructional video.

I have hundreds of DVDs in my library, and this is one of my top three! I watch it every few months and always learn or refresh an idea to apply to my paintings. Excellent for beginners and advanced as Carla tells all the details of each decision she makes. Five star is not a high enough rating.

Interesting and Informative. I like her use of a gold toned acrylic underpainting followed by the use of watercolor crayons as a base for her gouache. Her approach to abstracting the figures and creating her composition is quite good. I felt she backtracked a bit toward the end, otherwise I would have rated this 5 stars.

I really enjoyed Carla's process for developing her design by using a quick sketch and then closing off the lines. I plan to practice that technique when schetching. Her use of gouache is liberating, and I see I may be able to use this technique with acrylic paint.