Favorite Art Supply: Acrylic Gouache

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First off, this is not a paid blog post. All of the supplies in this post are bought and paid for by me.

Hi everyone!

When I re-ignited my art practice several years ago I experimented with all types of paints and tools and finally settled for traditional acrylic paints, as these are reasonably priced for the amount you get plus they come in a huge color range. I painted mostly on stretched canvas at the time and when thinned down with medium, a little of these acrylics can go a long way. I keep my paint tubes in these stackable bins sorted by cool and warm colors, so that I can easily grab what I am looking for.

However, I quickly found that I did not have enough wall space to keep going with these large paintings - and selling the odd piece now and then sadly did not free up enough to justify painting on a large scale. 

So, I figured I would switch to creating small art. Various papers as well as art journals seemed like good options. Intuitively I felt my small art works required  a different type of paint. Paint that did not require a lot of mixing, priming, thinning or thickening, as is usual when painting on canvas. Early on I was gifted a set of watercolors and although the colors are pretty, I never quite got the hang of adding just the right amount of water to build up the layers to create depth. Frankly, my preferred art style is a little messy, a little wild with saturated colors and visible brush strokes. Obviously, watercolors do not lend themselves to this type of painting! Below is my attempt at painting watercolor roses.

After my unsuccessful watercolor experiment, not for want of trying, I read about gouache paints. I hadn't tried these thus far, so I bought just a few colors that I liked. Gouaches can be thinned down like watercolors, but I prefer to add just a drop of water to activate them. This way they are opaque and light colors can be overlayed on dark colors and vice versa. They dry matte, but they are not waterproof. Below is one of my practice floral paintings with gouache. Gouache, btw, is a French term and sounds similar to "squash" without the S.

After practicing with gouache paints in my sketch pad for a bit I ventured to go bigger on a good quality substrate. Below are two simple and somewhat "nordic" floral paintings I made and had framed for our guest room. These are behind glass - please ignore the reflection of me.

While I liked painting with gouaches, it did bother me that they were not waterproof like acrylics. To my delight I discovered acrylic gouaches! These are relatively new and not easily found in craft stores in my area, but luckily I did find some online. As I always do when trying new supplies, I initially only purchase a few of my favorite colors. Besides, acrylic gouaches are on the upper end of the price scale.

There are two brands (that I know of) that carry acrylic gouache paints. One is Liquitex, the other is Holbein. Both are imported brands, hence the price :(

However, most online art stores have big sales once or twice a year, so it does pay to wait until these are reduced. As soon as they were I stocked up on colors that I knew I would be using throughout my work!

I love painting with acrylic gouaches! They have a creamy consistency and are highly pigmented. Just a pea size dollop plus one or two drops of water goes a long way. Just like regular gouaches they are opaque and can be overlapped light over dark and dark over light. They also have the properties of acrylics, the main one being they are waterproof when dry! They dry smooth and matte. For variety and a more "textured" look I sometimes mix acrylic gouaches with my regular acrylics. I hope the store I bought them from continues to stock them, as they are currently my absolute favorite art supply!

 Thank you for stopping by and reading along! Have a lovely day wherever you may be.