A few things I've learned about the use of guache: to mix paints more easily, spray your paints with water first. It'll soften them up. Start things off by laying down flat wash. mop brushes are ideal for doing washes because they can store such a large amount of pigment/water.
Also, I finally put a decent amount of effort into one of these instead of trying to do the painting equivalent of a gesture drawing.the painting of the woman took about three hours and i started it off with one large flat layer of orange using the mop brush, then layered a burnt sienna/aliz. crimson/cad red/titanium white mixture to make the darker skin tones, adding yellow ochre to some of the more yellow parts of the face, and then I had to layer thick layers of white on top of forehead/nose/cheek bones and then blend the white back into the darker layers using a fan brush. The hair is mostly a diox purple/yellow ochre mix with some raw sienna doing a gradient from dark to light with some of the orange still showing through.
As far as the self-portrait goes, I've been spending time in front of the mirror trying to figure out what makes my body type distinctive. Also, ten points for anyone who can guess the original source for the painting of the buff dude.
