How To use Gouache

Core Concepts and Techniques for Gouache Painting

• What is Gouache? [00:00:05]: Gouache is a water-based medium, often described as opaque watercolor. It can be used thinly and transparently or thickly and opaquely by adding less water [00:00:11].


• Key Properties and Workflow:
  • Opacity: You can work from light-to-dark or dark-to-light, as you can paint light colors opaquely over dark areas [00:00:29]. This makes it more forgiving of mistakes [00:00:39].
  
  
  • Reactivation: Gouache is resoluble, meaning dried paint on the paper or palette can be reactivated with a wet brush, allowing you to return to a painting later [00:00:46].
  
  
  • Drying Shift (Practice Needed): Gouache dries to a matte finish, but colors shift in value: light colors dry darker, and dark colors dry lighter [00:01:21].


• Materials Checklist:
  • Paint: Gouache typically comes in tubes and is best used fresh and creamy [00:01:55].
  • Paper: Watercolor or mixed-media paper (300 gsm is ideal) that can handle water. Cold-pressed paper is preferred for a bit of texture [00:02:11].
  
  
  • Brushes: Synthetic watercolor or mixed-media brushes are great, especially those with long bristles that hold a lot of water [00:02:40].
  
  
  • Setup: A palette, water, a paper towel, and a spray bottle to mist your paint and keep it creamy while working [00:03:34].


• Techniques:
  • Consistency (Creamy is Key): The goal is to mix paint to a smooth, creamy consistency that is opaque [00:04:30]. Add water slowly until the paint spreads smoothly without leaving a streaky, dry-brush texture [00:04:20].
  
  
  • Layering (Thin to Thick): The basic rule is to work from thin, diluted layers to thicker, more opaque layers [00:05:41]. This prevents you from accidentally lifting the under-layer of paint.
  
  
  • Blending: Blending is best done while the paint has that creamy consistency [00:08:40]. You can blend two colors together by meeting them in the middle or gradually mixing the second color into the first on your palette and pulling it down [00:08:16].
  
  
  • Lifting/Fixing Mistakes: Because gouache is resoluble, you can re-wet a mistake with a wet brush and gently soak up the excess pigment with a tissue to lift the color [00:06:31].
  
  
  • Glazing: Use paint that is heavily thinned with water (transparent) to gently apply a glaze of color over a dried layer without lifting the pigment beneath [00:09:54].

Video Credit: INTRODUCTION TO GOUACHE | A Beginners Guide - Materials, Blending, Techniques and more by Jess Chung, published on June 11, 2021.