Home › Forums › Explore Media › Casein, Gouache, and Egg Tempera › Best rewettable gouache brand?
- This topic has 9 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 7 months ago by Erica Shipley.
-
AuthorPosts
-
August 12, 2012 at 12:22 pm #990013
I love how pan watercolors work – even if you only have a time for a “few” strokes, with pans you can use this time very productively. Setup time is effectively zero. No waste. All your colors are immediately available. So I am contemplating doing the same with gouache – getting some tubes, partially or fully transferring them to pans and letting them dry there. But it, of course, requires the paint to be rewettable.
The only somewhat comprehensive review of “panned” artistic gouache approach I found is Roz Wound Up by Roz Stendahl. She recommends schmincke horadam and M.Graham. However, she is clearly in the bed with schmincke (she did commission for them and there is a joined product – a gouache set), so the recommendation may be tinted by her commercial interests.
Thus the questions:
1. Who produces the best artistic rewettable gouache? Are you aware of any rewettability tests, reviews or reputable recommendations?2. With the best rewettable brand you’ve tried – does the “rewetting” approach give you gouache feel and capabilities similar to out-of-tube approach?
Thanks in advance!
August 17, 2012 at 8:52 pm #1169601I use the M. Graham gouache and very often rewet the already dried leftover paint in my butcher’s tray. I use that probably 75-90% of the time, routinely adding only fresh white paint to the palette every time I paint. I find that it works quite well, and I only feel the need for a dollop of fresh color when I’m using a lot of one color and want to mix a considerable amount, or I need it to cover more completely (opaquely) and want it thick and juicy. That’s one thing about the re-we paint–it never reconstitutes with quite as much body. But the M. Graham has plenty of pigment to stand rewetting well. The colors are brilliant and they stand being stretched with water, holding a lot of color as they’re extended. The consistency changes, yes, the body, as I call it, but not the colors.
I have a few other brands. Holbein is good, but when rewet it has even less body. The MG has a creamier consistency. I have several colors of L&B gouache, which is stickier in a way, and tends to clump when dry, turning to chunks that sometimes float into the mixture. I can coax it into a more useful mixture, but I have to really play with it. The majority of my palette is M. Graham and I love it most!
I hope that helps…
Deborah
"All glory to Him, who alone is God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Landscape Painting in Pastels (free online book)
Gouache BlogAugust 24, 2012 at 11:38 am #1169596Thus the questions:
1. Who produces the best artistic rewettable gouache? Are you aware of any rewettability tests, reviews or reputable recommendations?2. With the best rewettable brand you’ve tried – does the “rewetting” approach give you gouache feel and capabilities similar to out-of-tube approach
I am aware of no systematic scientific rewettability comparison tests that have been published. Here is a niche for you to fill! I’d be very interested in your results!
As far as anecdotal evidence goes, Ralph Parker reports: “I have a little plastic foldup watercolor palette that I took on a trip recently. It still had dried globs of paint from some outdoor sessions nearly a year before. I rolled a wet brush around on it, and it was good to go, although it never quite softens up completely like out of the tube. ” More here[/URL]. But I am not sure Mr. Parker mentions brands.
You also might explore what MacEvoy has to say on the topic here.
For me the best rewettable brand I’ve tried is Schmincke Horadam. Sorry! Graham’s is very nice too.
I gave away all the Winsor&Newton (and miscellaneous Other brand) gouache tubes I had. Never used them after I got into the Schmincke and Graham’s.
For me, the “rewetting” approach does almost (but not quite) give the gouache the feel and capabilities similar — in a way — to fresh paint. (Except for white, which does not re-wet well, in my limited experience.) But fresh-outta-the-tube gouache is unique. That’s the most fun stuff to play with!:D
Jan
August 24, 2012 at 1:09 pm #1169597An alternative to squeezing gouache into pans, there’s this mini-palette kit, all in a food container. The “palette” is inside the lid. The container is a “Lock & Lock” 12 oz. box. But any number of different little snap-lock food containers will work. I had to scrub the inside of the lid with a scouring pad to make it matte, so the paint wouldn’t bead up.
Jan
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
August 24, 2012 at 7:31 pm #1169602Love this kit, Jan!
Deborah
"All glory to Him, who alone is God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Landscape Painting in Pastels (free online book)
Gouache BlogAugust 27, 2012 at 9:48 am #1169598August 28, 2012 at 10:16 am #1169600I agree with Jan about the nice rewetting capability of the Schmincke Gouache. The M. Graham also rewets easily; however, the honey content attracts bees. If you paint plein air, this is a huge problem. I only made that mistake once…Never again! Since 95% of my gouache work is done out on location, I cannot have any M. Graham paints in my palette. Is it Schmincke that says they are going to put honey in their paints now? Guess I’m going to have to find another brand or just stick with WN/Holbein……
Lately I have been mixing a couple of drops of glycerin into my pans when I put in the paint. that has helped a lot with rewetting of other brands (like Winsor Newton), though there’s nothing quite like the feel of freshly-squeezed tube paint. For white, I bring a tube or empty ink vial filled with gouache or Dr.Ph Martin Bleed-Proof White, or Daler-Rowney “Pro White”.
Hudson Valley Painter[/url]
Hudson Valley Sketches -- Reviews/Lightfastness Tests/Art Materials [/url]
One year from now, you'll wish you had started today.August 28, 2012 at 1:30 pm #1169603I’ve been concerned about the bee issue, too, Jamie, though at present I don’t paint plein air. I’m considering a small kit like the one Jan shared, but without my beloved M. Graham paints.
Oh, and Jan, thanks for the additional information! Yes, a cover would be necessary.
Deborah
"All glory to Him, who alone is God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Landscape Painting in Pastels (free online book)
Gouache BlogSeptember 16, 2012 at 6:44 pm #1169604Thanks everybody for fantastic advices and replies. I’ve purchased Schmincke Horadam gouache. Then
– I’ve transferred a bit of paint from each color to an empty full pan
– give it about a week to dry
– tried to paint with it!Observations so far:
I’ve noticed that the paint in many cases cracked inside the pans (it really depends on the pigment, for example, cadmiums are not cracked at all). I saw similar cracking when I transferred watercolors from tubes to pans but to a much much lesser extend. The cracking of gouache, unfortunately, resulted in many pieces of loose pigment that can be easily dislodged from the pans… Which complicates my life a bit as it supposed to be a mobile setup.Also, while I found the gouache to be easily rewettable, I am still experiencing probblem preparing large enough mixes. The issue is that in watercolor, I can create pool of water and then easily saturate it with the pigment. In gouache water works against me – I either get too watery mix to be called a gouache or too small amount of the mixed color. I am still looking for solution here…
Third issue is that when I transport my sketchbook in the backpack, due to the friction between pages some guache (though I never aply gouache too thickly) gets transferred to the opposite page (much like unfixed graphite). That never happened with watercolor. I am planning to try to fix the gouache with a layer of gum arabic.
Otherwise I love it!!!
September 17, 2012 at 11:31 am #1169599I could never get gouache to work well in either pans or in those little lidded jars. Either way they dried up, cracked and rattled around, were hard to re-wet and were otherwise annoying. Which is why I switched to the fresh-tube-paints-on-a-small-palette setup. Much easier to use the gouache fresh.
<<< I am planning to try to fix the gouache with a layer of gum arabic. >>> I’d be worried that this would add a shine to the surface. Let us know if it does. An alternative might be the casein-based fixative Spectrafix. Might not be as shiny. Worth a try?
RE: paint transfer — You also might try using glassine sheets as interleaves to help prevent that paint friction transfer to the back of the opposite page in the sketchbook You can either tape these on as you go or have Kinkos bind you a sketchbook with glassine sheets bound right in, between each page.
BTW, if you’d like to explore another product, Schmincke’s Horadam Aquarell pans have not quite as much opacity as gouache, but still they’re very VERY nice. And they have the portability and re-wettabilty of watercolors. Get a few half-pans in your most-used colors and test them. See what you think! My go-to sketch box is full of full and half pans. :thumbsup: See below.
Jan
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Register For This Site
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Search