Nearly-Notan Gouache with Yellow Underpainting

I ask Jeanette if she wants me to help her in the supermarket, and she says, "Really, I'd rather not. Why don't you go do a sketch?" I know what she means. I'm always distracting her with other topics while she's thinking about food.

Behind the VW Dealership, gouache, 5 x 8 inches

I've got 45 minutes and two tubes of gouache, white and black. That's OK, because I'm in a film-noir mood today. I walk over to the edge of the supermarket parking lot and there is a white van parked behind the VW dealership. I like the way it's halfway in the light.

The sketchbook page is already primed with a bright yellow acryla gouache underpainting. I did that to cover up a flubbed diner sketch (can you see the outline of a ketchup bottle just to the left of the van?). 

Over that dry priming, I draw some perspective guidelines with watercolor pencil. The "acryla" part of acryla gouache seals the surface against later wet layers of regular gouache, so the yellow won't pick up with what comes next. 

I like the bright yellow because it forces me to use opaques, and it makes me paint across edges. I lay down the big masses of near-white and near-black tones, using a flat half-inch brush, with no attempt at detail yet.

I'm interpreting the scene as a "Nearly-Notan" statement. By that I mean two families of tone: "very-dark-plus-black" for what is in shadow, and very-light-plus-white" for what is in direct sun.

I can allow myself a little definition within each of those principalities, but I want to avoid middle tones. There should be a deep valley in the middle of Histogramland.

I move to smaller brushes for details. A guy comes out on break and sits to the left of the van to check his cellphone. The sun goes behind clouds for the whole rest of the session, so I have to remember the lighting.

Jeanette has finished the grocery shopping. I've got to wrap. I use black watercolor pencil for the wires. 

I'm nearly done, but I want to add a little more glare to the sky. I add a little white artist's chalk in the area adjoining the sky and rub it in with a soft cotton cloth. If you scroll back up to the top, you can see the subtle glare effect with the chalk.

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Acryla gouache (this is like regular gouache, with some acrylic medium)

Regular gouache for the black and white

Watercolor sketchbook
White artists' chalk
Water soluble colored pencil — for this one just black