What Is Gouache Paint?
Gouache paint is similar to watercolour, but is modified to make it opaque. Just as in watercolor, the binding agent has traditionally been gum arabic but since the late nineteenth century cheaper varieties use yellow dextrin. Gouache is a type of paint which is centuries old, and yet relatively few people even know of its existence today. It’s a medium worth discovering, with characteristics of both acrylic and watercolour that can be used to create vibrant, luminous works of art.
During the eighteenth century gouache was often used in a mixed technique, for adding fine details in pastel paintings. Gouache was typically made by mixing watercolours based on gum arabic with an opaque white pigment. In the nineteenth century, watercolours began to be industrially produced in tubes and a “Chinese white” tube was added to boxes for this purpose. Gouache tends to be used in conjunction with watercolor, and often ink or pencil, in 19th-century paintings.
Watercolour and Gouache – What’s the Difference?
Watercolour and gouache (pronounced “gwash”) may appear to be nearly identical mediums. However, when given more attention, one can see that both paints have individual characteristics that make them easy to distinguish. A primary difference between the two paints is that gouache is more opaque than watercolour.
Due to the transparency of watercolour, the light is able to travel through the pigment and reflect off of the base/background, giving it a luminous quality that differs from gouache’s matte finish. Despite these differing properties, watercolour and gouache are nearly identical in makeup. Both paints consist of pigment and water soluble binder, which allows the paint to be altered even after it dries with the addition of water. The opacity of gouache comes from the white pigment or chalk that is added along with the colored pigment and binder in order to make it less transparent.
Acrylic gouache
Acrylic gouache is a relatively new variation in the formula of the paint is acrylic gouache. Its highly concentrated pigment is similar to traditional gouache, but it is mixed with an acrylic-based binder, unlike traditional gouache, which is mixed with gum arabic. It is water-soluble when wet and dries to a matte, opaque, and water-resistant surface when dry. Acrylic gouache differs from acrylic paint because it contains additives to ensure the matte finish.
Today’s Use
Gouache is today much used by commercial artists for works such as posters, illustrations, comics, and for other design work. Most 20th-century animations used it to create an opaque colour on a cel with watercolour paint used for the backgrounds. Using gouache as “poster paint” is desirable for its speed as the paint layer dries completely by the relatively quick evaporation of the water.