In week three, Steve Huston introduces the use of gouache to create composition thumbnails for landscapes and cityscapes. You’ll start with foundational techniques in color keying, framing, and simplifying complex scenes into basic shapes and values. Steve guides you through the layering of opaque and transparent gouache, teaching you to experiment with edge quality, color temperature, and gradation for depth and focus. By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to capture the essence of a scene with a few well-placed values and shapes, giving your sketches clarity.

Throughout this course, you’ll have access to the NMA community for feedback and critiques to improve your work as you progress.