Paint | Postcards & Coasters

I bought a set of really basic gouache paints and some tiny paintbrushes recently and have been having a lot of fun playing with the bright colours. I found some postcard and coaster sized canvases at a local cheap shop and have spent the last few evenings painting them. I want to send some of the postcard sized canvases through the post (will have to see how they stand up to the rigours of the post!). I also made a set of coasters to give as a gift to my sister in law.



Postcard number one (sent to a surprise recipient).



Postcard number two (also sent to a surprise recipient).


Some other postcards I'm working on.


Before painting the coasters I traced around a glass to make a centre circle.



I really enjoyed painting the tiny detail although it did make me think to myself "why does everything creative that I make end up so damn repetitious!?". They took me about an hour each to paint - I impress myself with my patience sometimes (although now I feel like my eyes are permanently crosseyed).




I am happy with the way the coasters turned out, but I am a little worried that unsealed, they might get ruined easily as gouache is water based. Does anyone have any recommendations for sealing water based paint on canvas? I tried using PVA glue/aquadhere but it made the colours run. I'd be really grateful for any wisdom!


In their proposed use!



One of the best things about gouache paints is that once they've dried on your (makeshift in my case) palette you just have to add a little water and you can get them to return to their original consistency. This means a lot less paint wastage.

I think I might have to buy some more little square canvases and make some more coasters - maybe even for myself!