Gouache portrait painting

I love illustrations from the 50's, and the artists from that time often used gouache paint.

After browsing through some old car magazines, I wanted to try and paint a portrait in gouache.

I always found the paint a little difficult to work with.
Oil paint stays wet much longer and that makes it easier to blend and to make soft edges.

For this illustration I used heavy canvas paper.

I had used gouache before on watercolor paper, but never really liked the results. The paper seemed to absorb the paint too much.

I'm not yet getting the smooth blends I'm after, but I feel that moving the quick drying paint around is easier on canvas paper.