Gouache paint: what it is and why artists love it
Gouache is one of those mediums that experienced artists tend to be evangelical about and beginners have often barely heard of. It sits in an interesting position — water-based and brush-applied like watercolour, opaque and layerable like acrylic, with a matte velvety finish that neither of those mediums quite replicates. It is genuinely versatile, genuinely forgiving, and genuinely distinctive in what it produces. Once you have tried it, it is very difficult to understand why it does not get more attention.
The word is French and is pronounced gwash — a source of mild anxiety for many people who have only ever encountered it in writing. The medium itself has been used by artists for centuries, with early forms appearing in illuminated manuscripts and the rich opaque tempera traditions of medieval and Renaissance painting. The gouache we use today gained its modern character in the eighteenth century and has been a staple of illustrators, graphic designers, botanical artists, and fine painters ever since.
We stock a comprehensive range of gouache at Craft and Canvas — from accessible starter sets to professional artist-grade tubes and pots — at 3 Carlton Street, Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk. This post covers what gouache is, how it differs from watercolour and acrylic, what it is best suited to, and which products to choose.
What gouache actually is
Gouache is a water-based paint made from pigments bound in gum arabic, with the addition of a white pigment — typically chalk or titanium white — that makes the paint opaque rather than transparent. This opacity is the defining characteristic of gouache and the thing that distinguishes it most clearly from watercolour, which uses the same binder but without the white addition, producing a naturally transparent medium.
The gum arabic binder means gouache behaves like watercolour in several practical respects: it thins with water, brushes clean with water, and — crucially — it remains water-soluble after drying. This last point is significant. Unlike acrylic paint, which becomes waterproof once dry, dried gouache can be reactivated with a damp brush, mixed back into a liquid, and reworked. This is both a useful property and a limitation — useful because mistakes can be corrected and dried paint can be reused from the palette; a limitation because layers applied over dried gouache can reactivate the layer beneath if too much water is used.
The matte finish that gouache dries to is one of its most distinctive and valued qualities. Where watercolour has a subtle luminosity and acrylics can have a slight plastic sheen, gouache produces a flat, velvety surface with a quality that photographs and reproduces exceptionally well — which is part of why it became the medium of choice for illustrators and commercial artists for much of the twentieth century, before digital reproduction changed the industry.
How gouache differs from watercolour
The relationship between gouache and watercolour is close enough that many artists use both together, switching between them within the same piece. But the differences in how they behave are significant enough to matter.
Watercolour is transparent — the paper shows through the paint, contributing to the luminosity and freshness of the finished work. This transparency means watercolour is traditionally applied light to dark, building up layers of increasingly saturated colour while the white of the paper provides the lights. Mistakes and corrections are very difficult because any mark tends to be permanent and visible.
Gouache is opaque — the paint covers whatever is beneath it. This means it can be applied dark to light, with pale colours and bright highlights added last directly over darker passages. It means mistakes can be painted over rather than having to be avoided. And it means gouache can be used on toned, dark, or coloured paper — black card, grey paper, kraft card — where watercolour would be invisible. White gouache is one of the most useful products in any artist's kit, used by watercolourists to add precise highlights and by mixed media artists across almost every technique.
The other significant difference is in the physical quality of the mark. Gouache can be applied in a way that leaves clean, flat areas of even colour — a quality valued by botanical illustrators, graphic designers, and anyone who wants precise, legible colour fields. Watercolour, by contrast, tends to have inherent texture and variation from the way it flows on wet paper.
How gouache differs from acrylic
The comparison to acrylic is less intuitive but equally instructive. Both are water-based and opaque, both can be layered, and both can be applied to a wide range of surfaces. The differences lie in the binder and in the dried result.
Acrylic uses a synthetic polymer binder that becomes waterproof and permanent once dry — layers applied over dried acrylic sit on top of it without reactivating the paint beneath. Gouache uses gum arabic and remains water-soluble even when dry. This makes gouache more suitable for working in a reworkable, sketch-like way, and less suitable for complex multi-layer work where each layer needs to be completely sealed before the next is applied.
The surface quality is also different. Acrylic has a slight flexibility and can have a glossy or semi-glossy finish. Gouache is always matte and has a characteristic velvety, chalky quality to the dried surface that is quite unlike any other medium.
Acrylic gouache — a product category where an acrylic binder is used to produce an opaque, matte result — is a separate type that combines some qualities of both. The standard gouache we stock at Craft and Canvas is traditional gum arabic-bound gouache rather than acrylic gouache.
What gouache is best for
Illustration and graphic work. Gouache's ability to produce flat, even, opaque colour fields makes it the natural choice for any work that requires clean, precise colour — botanical illustration, fashion illustration, editorial illustration, map-making, and any application where colour needs to be exactly what you intend it to be without the variation and unpredictability of more fluid mediums.
Working on toned paper. Because gouache is fully opaque, it can be used on any colour of paper, including very dark papers and black card. This opens up a distinctive aesthetic — warm mid-toned paper used as the middle value, dark colours applied for shadows, pale and white gouache for highlights — that is one of the most characteristic and appealing ways to use the medium.
Plein air and location sketching. Gouache dries quickly, does not require elaborate setup, and is forgiving enough that decisions do not have to be irreversible in the way they are with watercolour. Many plein air painters use gouache alone or in combination with watercolour for outdoor sketching.
Mixed media. White gouache in particular is a near-universal tool in mixed media work — used to add highlights and corrections over watercolour, to add opaque details over ink, and as a ground for drawing and painting on toned paper. Many artists who would not describe themselves as gouache painters keep a tube of white gouache in their kit at all times.
Beginners. The forgiving nature of gouache — the ability to paint over mistakes, to rework dried areas, to add lights on top of darks — makes it a genuinely welcoming medium for anyone starting to paint. The learning curve is considerably more accessible than watercolour.
The gouache range we stock
Sennelier Artist Gouache — 21ml tubes — £7.25
The full range of 59 colours from Series 1 through Series 4, covering the complete working palette — whites, the full spectrum of yellows, oranges, reds, pinks, purples, blues, greens, earth colours, greys, blacks, and three fluorescents. The series number reflects the cost of the pigment rather than any difference in quality — all four series use the same premium Sennelier formulation. Buying individual tubes allows you to build exactly the palette you need.
Sennelier Artist Gouache — 100ml pots — £24.95
Twenty-four of the most frequently used working colours in a generous 100ml pot format — considerably better value per millilitre than the tubes and a practical choice for colours you use heavily. The selection covers the essential working palette: Titanium White, the complete earth range (Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber), the key blues (Cobalt, Cerulean, Phthalocyanine, Blue Indanthrene), strong greens, the most used reds and pinks, Dioxazine Purple, Payne's Grey, and Mars Black. Titanium White in particular is worth buying in the 100ml format — it is the colour most gouache painters use at the highest volume.
Seawhite Gouache Paint Set — £6.99
Twelve 12ml tubes in a practical starter range covering Titanium White, Lemon Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Vermilion, Crimson Red, Grass Green, Mauve, Cerulean Blue, Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna, Viridian, and Black. An excellent and affordable introduction to the medium — everything you need to begin painting in gouache at a price that makes it easy to experiment freely without anxiety about cost.
Caran d'Ache Gouache Studio 15 Colour Tablet Set — £49.99
A complete working palette in a neat tablet format — 15 colours of Caran d'Ache Studio Gouache presented in a practical set ideal for artists, students, and painting classes. The tablet format is more convenient for outdoor and travel use than tubes.
Sennelier Extra Fine La Gouache — Primary Colour Set 5 x 21ml — £32.95
Sennelier has been making artists' materials in Paris since 1887, and La Gouache has been part of the range since 1925. The Extra Fine range uses the finest pigments and premium gum arabic, producing colours with exceptional richness, depth, and consistency. The Primary Colour Set — five 21ml tubes including Titanium White — is the natural starting point for the range and gives access to the full mixing possibilities of Sennelier's professional gouache at a manageable entry price.
Surfaces for gouache
Watercolour paper is the standard surface for gouache — the texture holds the paint well and the weight handles the water without buckling. Heavier papers at 300gsm or above are preferable for work involving significant amounts of water. Hot press watercolour paper produces a smoother surface that suits the flat colour fields gouache excels at.
Illustration board and watercolour board are excellent alternatives — the rigid surface eliminates buckling and the smooth, slightly absorbent coating produces very clean results.
Toned papers — grey, buff, and warm mid-tones — are some of the most effective surfaces for gouache, allowing the medium's opacity to produce highlights and lights that read powerfully against the toned ground.
Black paper and black card work beautifully with gouache. Bright colours appear at their most intense against black, and white gouache produces striking highlight effects that are simply not possible on white paper.
Techniques to try
Flat colour application. Mix gouache to a creamy, even consistency — not too stiff, not too fluid — and apply with a flat brush in smooth, overlapping strokes to produce an even, matte field of colour. This is the fundamental gouache technique and the one that produces the medium's most characteristic quality.
Layering light over dark. Unlike watercolour, gouache can be applied light over dark — pale tones and bright highlights painted directly over darker passages once the first layer is dry. Working on toned paper and building up from dark to light through the middle tones to the final highlights is one of the most distinctive and effective gouache approaches.
Dry brushing. Load a brush with relatively stiff gouache and drag it lightly across a textured surface so the paint catches only the raised texture, leaving broken, interesting marks. Useful for suggesting texture in foliage, rough surfaces, and atmospheric effects.
Wet into wet. Gouache can be worked wet into wet like watercolour — soft edges and colour blending on wet paper. The effects are less dramatic than watercolour because the opaque pigment does not flow as freely, but soft atmospheric passages can be achieved this way.
Line and wash. Gouache used as a wash beneath or alongside pen and ink line work is a classic illustrative technique — the gouache provides flat colour and tonal structure while the ink provides line and detail.
Frequently asked questions about gouache
How do you pronounce gouache?
Gwash — one syllable, rhyming with wash. The word is French.
Is gouache the same as watercolour?
No — they are related but distinct mediums. Both use gum arabic as a binder and both are water-based, but gouache contains white pigment that makes it opaque, whereas watercolour is naturally transparent. They can be used together and many artists use both in the same painting.
Can I use gouache on black paper?
Yes — this is one of gouache's most distinctive applications. Because it is fully opaque, gouache covers dark paper completely, and bright colours appear at their most intense against black. White gouache is particularly striking on black paper.
Does gouache dry darker or lighter than it looks when wet?
Generally lighter — gouache characteristically dries a shade or two lighter than it appears when freshly applied. This takes some adjustment for beginners but becomes intuitive with practice. Testing colours on a scrap of the same paper before committing to your painting helps.
Can gouache be used on canvas?
It can, but canvas is not the ideal surface — the texture is difficult to cover smoothly and the flexible surface can cause dried gouache to crack. Watercolour paper, illustration board, and toned paper are better choices.
Is gouache permanent once dry?
No — gouache remains water-soluble even when dry and can be reactivated with a damp brush. This is useful for reworking but means finished gouache paintings should not be varnished with water-based varnish, which will reactivate the paint surface.
What is the best paper for gouache?
Watercolour paper at 300gsm or above is the standard recommendation — heavy enough to handle water without buckling, with enough surface texture to hold the paint. Hot press gives a smoother finish; cold press gives more tooth.
Shop gouache at Craft and Canvas
We stock the full range of gouache products above — from the Seawhite Starter Set at £6.99 through to professional Sennelier Artist Gouache — at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk.
Craft and Canvas | 3 Carlton Street, Hebden Bridge, HX7 8ER | craftandcanvas.co.uk