An Invitation to the Gouache Corner

[painterbear]

Those of you who love to paint with Gouache are invited to join in The Gouache Corner October activity "Anything Goes" in the Watercolor Studio. You will find it here.

Lots of beautiful reference photos to choose from are there, or you can use one of your own since "anything goes" as the title says.

[Deborah Secor]

Thanks so much for posting this, Sylvia!

I hope everyone will come on over and see what we're doing.

[Deborah Secor]

Someone remarked that most of the gouache painters have migrated over to the Gouache Corner over in the Watercolor Studio, so I want to give you the link to the Gouache Corner Archives. We have a monthly challenge thread where we share images to paint, but you can paint anything your heart desires and share it there, too. This month's (May 2011) is here. Come on over and join us any time!

[Just aj]

I started out painting with the 8 pan of Prang watercolors when I was just 6 yrs old. As I've grown up I learned to mix my own colors from there. As an adult I've bought tube watercolors, and the little half pans. I'm still a fan of the pans. But my question is what is the difference in gouache and watercolors?? I had done some, all from the same pan set, and a man commented on my "gouache painting. I'm standing there like a dummy, not saying a word, and wondering what he was talking about. Is it that painted, in a heavy paint, watercolor becomes "gouache"?? And "watercolor" is mostly transparent washes?? I though watercolor was watercolor. That's what I'd bought was watercolors. I'm confused, and could use some info. Thanks in advance.

[karenlee]

Here is part of the article on gouache from Wikipedia:

Gouache paint is similar to watercolor but modified to make it an opaque painting medium (non-transparent). A binding agent, usually gum arabic, is present, just as in watercolor. Gouache differs from watercolor in that the particles are larger, the ratio of pigment to water is much higher, and an additional, inert, white pigment such as chalk is also present. This makes gouache heavier and more opaque, with greater reflective qualities. Gouache generally dries to a different value than it appears when wet (lighter tones generally dry darker, while darker tones tend to dry lighter), which can make it difficult to match colors over multiple painting sessions. Its quick coverage and total hiding power mean that gouache lends itself to more direct painting techniques than watercolor. "En plein air" paintings take advantage of this, as do works of J.M.W. Turner and Victor Lensner. It is used most consistently by commercial artists for works such as posters, illustrations, comics, and for other design work. For example, comics illustrators like Alex Ross use mostly gouache for their work. Industrial Designer and Visual Futurist Syd Mead also works primarily in gouache. Most 20th-century animations used it to create an opaque color on a cel with watercolor paint used for backgrounds, and gouache as "poster paint" is desirable for its speed and durability.
As with all types of paint, gouache has been used on some unusual papers or surfaces.
One variation of the medium is gouaches découpées created by Henri Matisse, cut paper collages. His Blue Nudes series is a good example of the technique.
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As mentioned in the above article, illustrators use gouache, so the range of colors and of pigments has been much greater in gouache than the range of colors and pigments used in artist's watercolors: gouache includes many pigments that are not lightfast, as they serve the purpose of providing bright color for reproduction purposes. However in recent years, artist's gouache has become more lightfastness-conscious. Nevertheless, some some very fugitive pigments such as Opera and Alizarin Crimson are in such high demand by artists that they are still in production, even in artist watercolor lines.