By Alain Chaperon
I make a hellovalot of mistakes when tooning and my second best friend (the first being the actual ink) is my faithful
tube of White Gouache (pronounced "goo-arsh") paint. It is water-based and can be easily applied over waterproof inks
(including waterproof marker pens) with the aid a fine brush and a touch of H2O.
And if you happen to do too much correction, simply apply ink over the dry gouache.
It's also extremely handy when creating a white aura, or outline, around characters and objects. Not to mention creating
fine lines & crisscross toning/shading/highlighting effects.
Really, if you have the time and patience, experimentation can produce fantastic "how-did-they-do-that-?" results.
For a beginner, it would take three-to-four hours of serious experimentation to use this product with confidence. I'd start by
covering a whole page of artboard (or whatever paper one uses) with black ink and then apply the white gouache using a fine
artists brush, with a small amount of water to dunk/wet the bristles.
The only real hard part is balancing the use of water with the gouache: too much will produce water-color effects, thus the black
ink underneath will be visible (not good for gag toons or strips); too little will make the gouache thicker and less maneuverable
with a fine brush.
Limitations? Well, yes, Gouache has a few demons:
1- Gouache doesn't work over most markers and biros (who uses those anyways?). Only markers using waterproof ink will
survive the cut - usually the "designer" markers.
2 - Some cheap brand Gouache products not properly mixed during production will, over time, crack and sometimes peel
off from the artwork. It's a case of "buyer beware".
3 - Speedball and calligraphy nib users can't use it to create white lettering over black ... at least, I never pulled
it off.
