Art Supply Review: Liquitex® Acrylic Gouache

It is no secret that I have a slight (okay maybe not slight) obsession with art supplies. So I thought it would be fun to review some of the supplies I have found that I use and love on a regular basis!

First up is Liquitex Acrylic Gouache. I have always been an acrylic artist, ever since I was a small child using the craft paint tubes from the local corner store that was just a bike ride away that I would use my allowance on. I love the ability to be able to cover up mistakes if things go awry. Watercolor is fun too, but man it can be so hard to get a handle on… and as someone who struggles with patience (ie. letting the paint dry) it rarely turns out beautifully. Acrylic paint has a glossy plastic finish that isn’t my favorite, especially if you are photographing or scanning artwork to be used digitally. Enter – gouache (pronounced GO-WASH)! I was introduced to gouache in college, where we had to meticulously paint giant, perfectly proportioned, typeface letters out of black gouache. Not sure what that was meant to teach, but maybe that is where I learned to appreciate that letters could be drawn or painted? Anyway, gouache entered my life and we’ve been friends ever since (except for the many year hiatus I took from art due to work/life/motherhood. But that’s for another blog post).

There are two kinds of gouache – acrylic gouache, and ‘regular’ gouache. Regular gouache you can rewet with water like watercolor (though I feel like it can be tough to get it back to its original opaque glory once dried). I love and use them both - both have their uses and I find enjoyable to use. I lean more toward the acrylic kind for my personal aesthetic, since I enjoy being able to paint over top of paint I’ve already laid down without it rewetting already completed work and lifting it off the paper.

I found this particular brand at my local Michaels craft store and was excited to try them. I’ve noticed they’ve started carrying a lot more professional grade supplies–which is so great since my local professional art supply store went kaput, and Blick is an hour drive away! I have enjoyed using this paint so far! It is opaque and matte, and so lovely to mix with. On one particular piece I had to cover quite a bit of what I had already painted because of my indecisive color changing ways, and it worked beautifully. On the other hand, when I wanted some texture from what I had painted underneath to show through, I was able to lay transparent paint over top in a very nice way. Holbein acrylica gouache is still my holy grail absolutely favorite, but the convenience will be lovely in a pinch! Holbein gouache is just so creamy, smooth, and pigmented. I recently ran out of white in the middle of a painting and was able to run 15 minutes up the road to get some of this gouache. I haven’t had any problems with mixing Holbein and Liquitex brands.

I’ve seen some reviews online bashing the unique bottle design, but I actually really like it. It’s so easy to just pop off the top super quick and put a dab of color down on the palette when you want it, rather than fiddling with those metal tube tops that always get paint all over them and sometimes don’t want to screw off and then more always comes out than you want… and then you have to try and screw it on to the threads that are covered in dried paint…just me? I really do enjoy this bottle design, and find that I’m wasting less paint because I can squeeze out just the amount I want. If it dries in the top though, you’re toast! So beware of that.

Overall I’ve loved these paints and I’m excited to continue to use them to paint with them!

Featured Project: Mossi Microgreens