Intro Materials

Artist Stuart Loughridge is a full-time working artist who mostly works outside with watercolor as he sketches his surroundings, looking for ideas and taking notes for larger studio paintings.

The problem with that is how do you go from a small sketch to a large painting? There are problems that may arise in a larger format that the smaller format didn’t have. To offset this issue Stuart develops a “cartoon”, or preparatory sketch, the size of the final painting with gouache on cardboard. The materials he uses are cheap, readily available, and easy to work with given a little know-how.

Stuart discusses the differences between gouache and watercolor and why he chooses to use gouache for this process. He iterates that it’s important in this stage of developing a final painting to have fun and enjoy the process. Because you’re not using expensive materials, you get to have some freedom to play and explore.