EVOKE EMOTIONS WITH PASTEL SHADES

US illustrator AMA is known for her soft and whimsical shades. Here she applies her knowledge of watercolours when painting with pastel design gouache

- AMA

People often ask me why I only paint in shades of pastels even though most of my concepts feel dark and heavy, and where I get my pastel shades from. The answers lie in the fact that ever since I was little, I loved Japanese animation and how colourful the characters would be. Even now, I can’t help but enjoy the protagonist’s brightly coloured hair, going against the grain of all the other characters and I think that’s one of the many areas that influences my colour usage within art.

Over the years I’ve played with the juxtaposition of concept and colour, finding that masking my creations in softer hues helps lift the mood while still retaining the message of the piece. I recently stumbled across design gouache back in 2018. Before then I’d been using watercolours, but encountered many challenges when it came to the desaturation of colours when trying to paint in softer shades.

For those who aren’t familiar, design gouache is essentially opaque watercolour. These aren’t transparent like watercolours hence the word ‘opaque,’ but they reactivate when water is added and can blend in the same fashion as watercolours. They work differently than their gouache counterpart (acryla gouache). Acryla gouache can’t be reactivated when water is applied and is used in the same way as acrylic paint. Design gouache enables me to use similar painting techniques as watercolour that I’m most comfortable with, but still achieve lighter and brighter colours. If you’re looking into gouache, make sure you know the difference between the two types because it does affect how you can paint with them!