How I Use Gouache - Gouache painting tutorial

If you want to learn more about gouache download my FREE 20-page PDF guide “Everything You Need To Know About Gouache“: Equipment used in this video: Palette Box for Gouache/watercolor: Guerrila Painter Pochade Box: My Painting Equipment for different media: ✿✿✿ My GOUACHE Palette Box: ✿✿✿ Arches Watercolour Pad, Cold Pressed, 140 lb: ✿✿✿ Strathmore Toned paper I use to make my own “illustration boards“: Strathmore Toned Gray: Strathmore Toned Tan: ✿✿✿ My favorite GOUACHE sketchbook: ✿ Moleskine Watercolor Album Sketchbook: 5“x8“ 12“ x 8.5“ ✿ Stay Wet Palette for Acrylics: ✿ 9x12 Guerrilla Painter Pochade Box I use with Gouache and Oils : ✿ 8x10 Guerrilla Painter Cigar Box V 2.0 I use with Gouache and Oils: ✿ Guerrilla Painter 6 by 8-Inch Thumbox, Volume II: ✿ Slik PRO Tripod (my most used tripod): ✿ SLIK Mini-Pro (I use it with my small pochade boxes): • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ✿✿✿ My work can be purchased at • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • S O C I A L M E D I A ✿ Instagram: ✿ Website: ✿ Facebook: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Music: *Amazon links are affiliate links. If you choose to buy anything through these links, I’ll make a small commission at no extra cost to you :) Thanks for your support! • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Gouache is a fun and versatile painting medium that allows you to paint fast and use the colors from your palette in their full strength. Gouache is easy to carry around and it’s easy to clean up, and even though it might be challenging to use it in very hot and windy weather, to me it’s still the best painting medium for plein air painting. Gouache is a very unique painting medium and it requires a specific approach. If you want to use gouache successfully, controlling its consistency is the key. Gouache paints are extremely pigmented and if you want to preserve their vibrancy, you should avoid adding too much water to them. Therefore, every time after cleaning my brush I dab it into the wad of paper towels to get rid of excess water. So basically, I always work with a slightly damp brush. When I feel that the paints on my mixing tray are too stiff, I dip a corner of my brush carefully into the water and then I mix that drop of water into the stiff paint. Even though my paper is gelatin sized, it still is a bit absorbent, so with the first contact with the paint it sucks some moisture from it. Some gouache colors need more water than others to become manageable. It depends on the properties of the pigments in each particular color. When working with oils, you add linseed oil or another medium to them to make them manageable. With acrylics, you sometimes need to use an acrylic medium, and with gouache you need to use water. You need very little water to make even the thickest gouache colors manageable. I find this word “manageable” being the best in describing the consistency of the gouache paints that are ready to be applied to the paper. If you feel that the color you are using is too dry, you need to add a drop of water to it. If you see that it has gained the fluidity of watercolor then you probably need to wipe the color off and start over. By the way, those paper towels in the second container have to be replaced once they get soaked. Otherwise, your brush won’t be dry enough when you take it to the mixing tray, and it will become difficult to control the consistency of your gouache. There always should be some dry and absorbent paper towels in that second container. Since gouache dries fast, you need to mist your palette and the colors on the mixing tray from time to time while painting. That water will make your squeezed gouache colors more fluid right in the box, so when you take your brush to to pick a color, most of the colors will be ready for use. I hope you enjoyed this video and found it helpful. Thanks for watching!