Well, I got out of the gouache game, but not for long!
After moving with only my watercolors, I started to miss having a second medium, especially one that forces me to think differently from watercolor and that has different benefits and challenges. While I love the dreaminess and luminosity of watercolor, some types of painting lend themselves better to an opaque medium, such as poster or digital-style with large blocks of vibrant color, or any scene with extensive light-over-dark.
I wasn’t married to gouache, but I still wanted something pretty low-key that doesn’t stink or require hazardous solvents, so oil was right out. After doing some research, I decided to take a small step from traditional gouache to acrylic gouache.
My first acrylic gouache sketchbook pages
Mt Rainier, Digital Style
I started off with a modern primary set of colors (cyan, yellow, magenta, black, and white) from Holbein. To this I added Ultramarine Blue and Light Red Bright, as I learned from my traditional gouache experience that a super-limited palette can be difficult to start with, and those are handy additional colors to have. My substrate is a a cheap Canson XL Mixed Media sketchbook. Opus art store brand synthetic brushes, palette paper, paper towels, and brush soap rounded out my kit.
I chose a poster-style image with lots of bright colors to test it out. I hand-copied this image from of a digital poster by JLC Design Company.
Loved:
- Bright colors! My initial color choices were good for this image. (I said the red was PR101 in my sketched notes, but it is actually PR9/PY3 – a combo I would not have chosen intentionally so I think I got something mixed up in the store.)
- Rosy clouds (an idea from the original image, I just liked the colors I got)
- Lightened mountain with low-contrast blue shadow. I’m always fascinated by the bright blue shadows of distant mountains, and I think Ultramarine + white worked really well here.
Learned:
- Use more water to smooth the paint and prevent drybush. (You can see accidental drybrush in my sky gradient, for example.)
- Wait for layers to dry. This isn’t usually a problem for people with acrylic because the layers dry quite quickly, but I’m just super impatient!
California Poppies
For some reason the second thing I wanted to paint was California poppies, even though the oranges that are central to this subject were difficult to mix effectively from my current set of paints. So I just had to go back to the art store and add some orange paints! I added Warm Yellow Deep (PY83), a color I had almost gotten the first time. I wanted to get a warm red but the art store was out, so instead I added Orange (PO13) and Carmine (PR170). Then I also grabbed Blue-Green (PG7, PW6) because why not.
I used a combination of reference photos by Rylee Pearson and Jeremy Bishop.
Loved:
- Oranges from new paint colors
- Muted sky gradient (I mixed the Light Red Deep in with cyan, ultramarine, and white)
- Flower overlap color – not glazing but mimics it
- Contrast of muted and bright color ~glow~
Learned:
- Keep background more muted to let foreground pop.
- Flowers follow crags in the mountain; sketch them ahead of time.
- Paint isn’t entirely opaque (especially yellow). Preserve large areas of white, as it is hard to cover background if you paint in strictly back-to-light order.
Impressions & Comparison to Other Media
Acrylic gouache vs. traditional designers’ gouache
Acrylic gouache handles very similarly to traditional gouache. My list of differences between traditional gouache and watercolor generally apply to acrylic gouache too (except the reactivation as noted below). Traditional and acrylic goauche paints are a similar consistency, requiring a small amount of water to reach the “sweet spot”. Both can achieve watercolor-like effects when over-diluted, or drybrush straight from the tube. Both range from very opaque to semi-transparent, depending on the pigment. Both dry vividly colorful and matte.
The difference is that designers’ gouache is typically suspended in gum arabic, like watercolor; it is basically opaque watercolor. Acrylic gouache is suspended in an acrylic polymer, like acrylic paint. This has a few ramifications.
The main ramification here is that acrylic gouache cannot be reactivated by adding water. Once it dries, it’s permanent. This is problematic for some ways of working, but personally I find it to be a great feature and was honestly the #1 selling point for acrylic gouache for me. When working with traditional gouache, I had started to find the reactivation annoying because it severely limits how much you can layer before your painting turns into a muddy mess. You have to be so, so careful when putting down a second layer.
I also didn’t really find it to be beneficial to reactive dry paint on my palette, since it’s always kind of Wrong when it’s reactivated. I was setting out new paint each time anyway.
The downside of this is that it’s harder to clean since you can’t just wash it out with water. This means you have to be more careful not to get it on your clothes. You also have to be careful to wash your brushes right away using brush soap, rather than just lackadaisically rinsing them occasionally. The options for palettes are different, too. You can use a peel-off palette if you don’t mind peeling plastic off of plastic, or disposable options like palette paper (my current choice), paper plates, or a Sta-Wet palette (which uses palette paper over a damp sponge).
Another cool benefit is that acrylic gouache is less prone to cracking when dry.
I do find that acrylics have a slight smell, whereas typically I do not smell traditional gouache (or watercolor) at all. It’s not terribly unpleasant, and it’s by no means at fumes level, but as a person with extreme scent sensitivity, I still appreciate some ventilation.
Can you mix them? Both acrylics and gouache are water-based paints, so you can mix them – but treat any mixes essentially like acrylic gouache, since it will take on the property of being permanent and not easily washed from a palette, etc. I’ve also encountered artists who discuss using acrylic gouache for base layers and designers’ gouache for top layers. I don’t really see the advantage of switching to designers’ gouache for top layers, though, and since I don’t have any designers’ gouache right now, I’m not going to go out and get it for this purpose.
Acrylic gouache vs. standard acrylic paint
I have limited experience with standard acrylic paint. My partner has painted with acrylics and informs me that acrylic gouache is essentially just expensive acrylic paint. “Why don’t you get regular acrylic paint and matte medium?” they asked me. So I guess that’s an option.
Personally I went for acrylic gouache because I wanted to ease into acrylics through a side-door that I already felt fairly comfortable with. As it’s new to me, it feels more comfortable to not have to use a medium to achieve the matte effects I want. I have also read that acrylic gouache has a relatively high pigment load, and is designed to be able to achieve watercolor-like effects when diluted, which regular acrylics can’t typically do well. A small but relevant side issue is that acrylic gouache, while more expensive per unit, comes in smaller tubes which allows me to store it more easily.
I like that this medium is giving me exposure into acrylics which gives me a landing place from which I can already see myself possibly moving into “regular” acrylics. I also find that teaching materials that use acrylics, which are very common, are generally useable with acrylic gouache, so that opens up a whole world of possibility.
Can you mix them? Yes! They’re both acrylics. That said, typically acrylics dry with a bit of a sheen so if you want to maintain the matte appearance, you could use a matte medium. Fluid acrylics are also said to dry matte so that is something I am interested to try. One option I will likely try soon is replacing my white with white acrylic gesso, white paint intended for canvas priming. It is said to be very opaque and matte but also much cheaper than acrylic gouache.
Conclusion
If you love traditional gouache but hate the way it reactivates when you try to paint a second layer, I urge you to try acrylic gouache. It is really pleasing me as a gouache alternative.
If you’re interesting in taking up acrylics but have no prior experience with traditional gouache, I’m not sure I’d advise starting with acrylic goauche. As my partner pointed out, it’s just expensive acrylics.