When my studio shrank from a sunny spare room to a cosy corner in a shared flat, one of the hardest things was fitting my working kit into a smaller footprint. A full-size studio easel felt like a luxury I couldn’t justify—until I found a secondhand French easel at a local auction. It wasn’t...
Sep 04, 2026
• by Éloïse Martin
Latest News from Sonriseartists Co
I spent a rainy afternoon last week photographing a new series that uses iridescent powders and interference pigments layered across gouache and collage. The shimmer was beautiful in person, but on my phone screen the highlights turned into blown-out white patches that flattened all the colour shift I’d worked for. After a few rounds of trial and error with LED panels, diffusers and phone...
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I remember the first time I decided to use gouache as an underpainting in a mixed‑media piece: I wanted the tonal clarity of a waterbased wash but also the ability to repaint and layer without muddying. The result taught me a lot about the differences between student and artist‑grade gouaches — not just in colour and finish, but in longevity, re‑wetting behaviour and how they survive...
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I often use gouache as an underpainting when I want my acrylic highlights to sing: the matte, velvety base of gouache gives a colour depth and immediacy that acrylics alone sometimes lack. Over the years I've developed a repeatable, studio-friendly workflow that works with both high-end paints (I reach for Schmincke when I want maximum pigment strength and mixing reliability) and more affordable...
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I ship a lot of collage work — small studies, commission pieces and fragile mixed‑media experiments — and over the years I’ve learned the hard way that exposed torn or layered edges are the most vulnerable part of a piece. One knock in transit, a sweaty day in a van, or an overzealous courier can lift a fragment, crease a thin paper tongue or crush a corner. I now treat edge stabilisation...
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Turning a tiny corner of my studio into a portable live‑teaching setup was one of the best investments I’ve made in my practice. I wanted something compact that I could pack away between classes, quick to set up before a demo, and versatile enough to teach in person or stream online. Over several semesters of workshops and streamed demos for Sonriseartists, I refined an approach that balances...
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I often get asked how I photograph iridescent and interference paints on canvas with nothing more than my phone and a single household lamp. These paints are playful and fickle: they change colour with viewing angle, light source and even the slightest move of your hand. Over the years I’ve developed a simple workflow that captures those shifting colours reliably without a studio full of...
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Keeping collage seams intact through framing, handling and shipping is one of those small victories in my studio that makes exhibitions and sales less stressful. Over the years I've repaired my share of popped corners, lifted edges and discoloured tapes — and I've developed a workflow that keeps seams secure and stable while respecting archival standards and the delicate look of collage. Below...
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I wanted to understand why my tubes of Schmincke gouache behaved so oddly on a particular paper I’d been experimenting with in the studio — a sheet I had sized to a silky finish using a dilute animal glue sizing and a couple of coats of Chinese silk sericin mix (a workflow I’d been using to get a smooth, low‑absorbency surface for collage and ink). The same colours that behaved...
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I photograph a lot of textured, mixed-media pieces for the journal and for my own practice, and over the years I’ve developed a simple approach that works reliably with just a phone and a single light. The aim is to make texture sing — to capture ridges of collage, brushstrokes, torn edges and surface sheen — without needing a studio full of kit. Below I share a one-light set‑up, camera...
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I often get asked whether to use a matte or satin varnish on mixed media pieces that combine acrylic and gouache. It’s a deceptively simple question—one that opens into considerations of colour depth, surface texture, light behaviour, and practical protection. Over time I’ve developed a little decision flowchart in my head (and on scraps of paper in the studio) that helps me choose the...
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