Gouache painting combines the brilliance of watercolor with the depth of opacity. By mixing white pigments into color blends, artists achieve a velvety, matte finish full of charm and contrast. This versatile medium - ideal for illustration, design, and fine art - bridges the delicacy of watercolor and the boldness of acrylic, offering endless creative possibilities.
Gouache is a painting technique based on water colors, except that here the white "color" is included in the color mixtures (unlike watercolor where only the white of the support is used), giving a matte, non-transparent, slightly chalky-velvety appearance.
Portrait in gouache technique
It is worked on various flexible, semi-flexible or even rigid supports. The primer can be colored unlike other techniques, which can enhance the pictorial ensemble. Due to the use of white, typical contrasts are created, which particularize this painting technique.
The brushes used are those made of soft hair, which allow the flat tint to be combined with the very fine contour line. For larger and more vibrant areas of color, brushes with longer pig hair can also be used.
The colors are prepared from the same pigments as watercolors, but a certain amount of white is added to the binder mixture (titanium, which is a white with a high covering power, or zinc white, which has a slight bluish tint). That is why gouache colors are not transparent, they have a high covering power, and after drying they have a chalky appearance.
Since it is a reverse technique to watercolor techniques, lacking transparency, the dark tones are applied first, over which the light ones come. The gouache technique does not recommend thick layers of colors, as they crack and peel off from the support after drying.
This technique is used predominantly in graphic works, book illustrations, posters, decorative works and projects, composition sketches. When working, it should be taken into account that after drying the colors lighten by 1/3 compared to the initial tone when wet.
Textile design and illustration in guasa
Here are the steps for executing a gouache painting on a colored background.
Gouache technique
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