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

$56.97

Video Length: 2 Hours 10 Minutes

Carla O'Connor's painting process promotes unique, personal expression and rapid, artistic growth.

In this watercolor video workshop, she uses the human form as a springboard for powerful, expressive design. Each logical step in her process addresses a specific design issue.

Carla O'Connor's video workshop stresses the importance of the steps you take to create a painting, not the final product. To Carla, the process is the most important aspect of her art. Her approach is one of incredible discipline and expressive free thought. She follows the "what ifs" and then focuses on a different design principle at every stage of her work.

In the tradition of the old masters, she brings up the entire painting at every stage. She starts big and broad then slowly adds detail.

Each stage of her thinking focuses on a different design principle. She starts with a quick gesture drawing of her model. This loose, abstracted sketch, which Carla calls the "set up," serves as the framework for her painting. Carla works flat, integrating her main shapes into the background before transferring her image to watercolor paper. As she works with gouache, Carla shows you how to break down the steps of your painting process and concentrate on one aspect of design at a time. She demonstrates building rich color and texture through many layers of paint.

Carla delves into more than just the technical aspects of laying paint onto paper. She discusses the importance of emotion in your work and when to tackle difficult subject matter. She offers ideas on making your paintings more personal and encourages you to take risks as an artist.

BONUS CLIP: The Setup

Gallery: Carla O'Connor

Carlaâ€™s DVD Covers It All

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.

My Introduction to Gouache

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.

Best of the best

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.

Informative Process

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.

Enjoyed this Video

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.

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

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