Me too 😉😀

Glad it was helpful!

I am glad you found this video helpful! This video was filmed before I started using zinc white in my painting, so at that time titanium white was the only white I used.

Thank you so much, Sandi! I love your channel! You’re always so positive and funny 🥰

@@LenaRivo Lena - you watch my channel?!?! Whooohoooo! Really appreciate that!

😁 I do, Sandi! I love your personality!

Lena Rivo 🙌🤗

Thank you, Tom!

I am glad you enjoyed this video, Will! Thank you!

I am glad you enjoyed this video! 😊

Thank you so much!

I am glad you have found my tutorials helpful, Colleen. With the W&N blending medium you might not need the stay-wet palette at all because with the medium gouache stay moist much longer. I just love it.

Old tea or hand towels, washcloths and discarded mens undershirts (thin white t-shirts) work well too, and can be washed and used again. My hubby went thru a lot of undershirts as a postal carrier, so I would cut the seams off and use them. When my face washcloths become too raggedy they go in the sack for blotter cloths. Environmentally friendly yes, but I also don't feel bad if I loose it somewhere. EDIT TO ADD: I'm going to paste this comment on the main section too. 😉

I usually do not clean my brush when I used colors from the same family of colors, blues, for example, or reds, but you are right, sometimes I dip the brush into different colors without cleaning it well. The palette becomes contaminated slightly but after every painting session I clean it by removing the small specks of foreign colors from the wells of my palette using a damp brush - I clean the brush, dry it in the paper towels and then I dip it into the contaminated color to pick the colors that shouldn’t be there, then I repeat this process for another color. It’s work surprisingly well and it takes me only a few minutes to clean the entire palette.

Hi Roy, with gouache you can easily correct anything in your painting and repaint even the largest shapes. It’s opaqueness and covering power allows you to do that. Color shifts become a problem mostly when you need to match a color that you have already used. For example, if I need to repaint a part of the sky and I need to mix exactly the same colors of the same value, I usually mix a color that seems to be correct and make a small brushstroke in the area I need to repaint. I wait a few seconds to see if the brushstroke dries darker. If it does, I make the color lighter and test it again. It might sound complicated but it’s not, it’s just a matter of habit and patience :)

Lena Rivo thank you.

Thank you, Andrew. I am glad you found this video helpful!

I have noticed that watercolor artists and people who have some experience in painting with watercolor tend to use gouache in thin layers while oil painters tend to use it in more opaque layers. It seems to be the matter of preferred painting techniques. Technical reasons aside, I use gouache in the way I use it because it replaced oils for me, so I just adapted my usual painting technique to this medium. Painting in a puzzle-like manner in opaque layers, without doing much layering, allows me to finish my paintings faster and keep my colors cleaner, but many artists achieve beautiful results using gouache in thinner layers. We should do what we like and what works the best for us. I didn’t want to sound like stressing about archival properties of paintings too much. Not at all. I think that the greatest value of painting lies in the feelings the artist experiences during the painting process and in how every painting and the challenges it presents change the artist, in terms of both their skills and their personality.

@@LenaRivo Absolutely. I am more of a watercolorist (not a good one!) and am getting back into gouache again after only trying them briefly years ago. Have enjoyed watching (and still watching!) your videos.

That storage palette that I use prevents my paints from fast drying. Since it has narrow and deep wells the paints dry only on top. When you squeeze gouache on a palette your paints dry on all sides, if that makes sense. So, getting this kind of a palette is the first thing you would want to do to make your paints stay fresh longer, but even with this palette you would still need to spray the colors in your storage palette and on the mixing tray when they start getting a dry peel.

I am glad you have found this video and my pdf guide helpful! Zinc white allows you to slightly alter the values of saturated colors without making them look faded/washed out. Many of my students dislike zinc white because it dries faster on the mixing tray than titanium white, but zinc white has been used as a mixing white by artists for centuries and I find it great for when you want to preserve the vibrancy and saturation of your colors, so basically yes, it offers you more control. Titanium white is perfect when you need to mix very light or/and very opaque colors. As for the , yes, I use them because they are most opaque red and yellow pigments. Winsor and Newton recently launched cadmium-free red and yellow colors which should be good substitutes for the original , but I haven't tried those yet.

Hi Imelda, hydrogen peroxide won’t affect your colors, but I do not recommend to use it anymore because it doesn’t seem to have any effect on the mold. Currently, I am using distilled water to spray my squeezed gouache paints, but my quinacridone rose gets moldy anyway if I leave my palette intact for more than two weeks. So, it seems like nothing can stop the mold from growing and to me it’s not a big deal because the only color in my palette that can get moldy is quinacridone rose (of any brand). Maybe the pigment itself contains the spore of mold. So, I think we can use just tap water to spray our palettes. I had used it for a few years before I stated adding hydrogen peroxide to it or using distilled water and I hadn’t had any serious problems with mold during that time.

Lena Rivo Thanks for letting me know.

I use W&N and Holbein traditional gouache paints 😉

@@LenaRivo Hi! You are so inspirational to me! Holbein traditional gouache is that the white box that is listed for a higher price on Amazon?

No, if I open the box and spray my paints at least once a week. If I forget about them then the only color in my palette that can get moldy is quinacridone rose.

@@LenaRivo thank you! I have the same paint box and mine started to smell a bit funky...but maybe it was just one color! Ive heard a drop of clove oil can help with that but I havent tried it.

Hm.. weird.. I have stored the same paints in my box for years without cleaning the box or refilling the paints completely, and they never smelled anything but gum arabic, the binder of gouache. The only color in my palette that can get moldy is quinacridone rose, but it’s clearly seen when the mold appears on it. Gouache from cheaper brands may contain some organic compounds that are edible for mold, but professional pigments that I use do not seem to be probe to getting moldy.

@@LenaRivo Interesting! I use Holbein Artist's Gouache which I thought was professional but maybe they just use something weird in their binder. Thank you for your insights!

Sarah Burns Studio I use them too... along with W&N gouache. I use my paints often so maybe that is the reason I have never had serious problems with molding... Mold doesn’t like fresh air and when you move the paints. I don’t even know what to think. I love Holbein’s gouache and never had problems with it.

Hi! You probably just need to clean your brush every time you deep it into one of those bright colors. I don’t always wash my brushes between different colors, but when I need to pick a yellow I definitely clean the brush well. Also, after every painting session I clean each one of the colors in my palette box using a clean and slightly damp brush. It easily absorbs the small bits of foreign colors and leaves the palette clean 😉

Hi Maria, acrylic gouache is basically acrylic paint with opacifiers added. It dries permanently and can't be reactivated once it has dried. I have never used it because for me it's very important to be able to work on edges in my painting at any time, making them softer or harder. This can only be done with traditional gouache.

Synthetic brushes for acrylics are the best for painting with gouache, they are not too soft like watercolor brushes and they aren’t that hard as brushes for oils. Natural bristles are too rough and they don’t like water.

Lena Rivo thank you for your response. It helps.

Hi Tami, the palette in this video in the version that I had used before I created my online course that you have taken. When I was working on the course I eliminated all the unnecessary colors from my palette as well as the colors that weren't lightfast enough. The green you have asked about is the permanent green light from WN. I think its permanence is B. I wouldn't recommend using it. You can mix the same light green by adding cadmium yellow lemon to permanent green deep which is lightfast. The three other greens in this palette are the greens that I keep using in my palette now: permanent green deep, sap green chromium oxide green.

Lena Rivo This leads me to ask you then about the green created in your more recent painting, ‘Summer Fun’ - the boy with light green swimming suit; was this made with cad yellow lemon and sap green to be that bright? Color is amazing to me. Thanks to your course I have learned things about it I never knew-

Yes, exactly, but I also added a tiny bit of red to the color to make it a bit grayish because as you know shadows should always be gray not matter how colorful they may seem. The color seems so bright because it’s surrounded by grayer colors with lower saturation. I am very glad that the course was so valuable for you, Tami! Thank you ❤️

There’s a simple solution to your problem. You need to watch this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rK11oatzl6vVYWQ.html Also, make sure that your paper is not too absorbent. For example Hanhemuhle bamboo paper is awful. Good quality hot pressed paper is the best for gouache in my opinion.

It does a bit, but I clean the colors in my storage palette with a clean brush after every painting session therefore they stay clean.

Yes, I know that many artists use gouache like watercolor, but that is not just a question of habit, it’s more a technical question. The particles of watercolor are tiny, they are designed to be absorbed by the watercolor paper, while the particles of gouache, oils, and acrylics are much larger, they need a binder to hold them together and “glue” them to the painting surface. Just as we can’t dilute acrylics with water (acrylic medium should be used for that), oils with turpentine (linseed oil should be used here), we shouldn’t dilute gouache with water too much too. The pigment particles in these mediums have to be connected, held together and attached to the painting surface by the binder. So, we can’t dilute the binders of these three mediums too much or they will loose their properties (the first washes for underpainting are an exception). I keep this in mind when I am working in oils, acrylics and gouache. There is not much difference between these mediums.

If you have download my free pdf guide by the link in the description to this video, you should find a section regarding my mixing palette in the guide. That palette is the inner part of a storage palette that I got on Amazon (I left the link in the guide). It’s made of plastic and it’s really easy to clean. I have used the same mixing palette for years and it’s still in a great condition. It’s only slightly scratched by the ferrules of my brushes for I mix color furiously 😁

they do have dioxazine purple gouache (Windsor violet), and there is at least a watercolour version of permanent magenta

I use three brands of gouache interchangeably, depending on the stock of colors when I re-purchase paints. These are W&N, Holbein (artist gouache) and Schmincke Horadam. All of them are excellent and I don’t have any preference between them.

The price! Haha. I bought Schmincke when there was a great sale on it, when I realised the standard price, I jumped! Then I thought: « oh maybe I won’t stick only to one brand... » Thank you for your answer.

@@Neorhim to me the price of gouache paints is irrelevant because they last a very long time. On my three-week plein air painting trip to Capri I took a couple dozens of extra tubes of gouache or even more, thinking that I would need a lot of paint for the three weeks of painting. I painted every day, two-three studies a day (from 5x7 to 6x8 in), I painted 38 studies in total and I only used one full tube of ultramarine blue, one full tube of yellow ochre and three tubes of white. I partially refilled my palette with other colors only once. So, when you use gouache correctly, meaning without layering it in thick layers, it lasts much longer than oil or acrylic because it’s much more pigmented than any other paints.

Fair point, I'll consider that indeed. Still it is interesting to know your feelings about other brands, it gives latitudes. Thanks.

@@Neorhim I understand, but I don’t buy other brands. I live in Spain, so those three brands are the most accessible to me. And I would never use student-grade gouache for my painting because they don’t give the unique experience of real gouache paints. I have tried Sennelier “fine” gouache and found it not to be “fine” at all. It felt like very cheap student-grade gouache. It was my only experience with other brands… Many people use M.Graham, but several of my students had problems with mold when using it. Maybe because M.Graham add honey to their paints or other organic substances, I don’t know. When those students switched back to W&N the problem disappeared.

Hi Mikhail, you can get that storage palette on amazon at this link amzn.to/3sxq6gZ. or you can find it on AliExpress if you type “airtight palette box” in the search bar.

Glad in was helpful! Yes, I have, as well as many of my students. You can carry this palette in your hand luggage with your other liquids. However, it’s not very convenient because you will need to make sure not to flip it, otherwise the color may bleed. Letting the colors dry for a while before the flight can be beneficial.

Glad in was helpful! Yes, I have, as well as many of my students. You can carry this palette in your hand luggage with your other liquids. However, it’s not very convenient because you will need to make sure not to flip it, otherwise the color may bleed. Letting the colors dry for a while before the flight can be beneficial.

Yes, the colors would run into each other if you tilted the palette. It has to be stored and carried flat, in a horizontal position. The lid is great, it has a layer of rubber that makes the box airtight, but it doesn’t prevent the colors from bleeding from one well of the box to another.

Thank you letting me know. How do you transport your gouache pallet and prevent spilling? Just trying to get some ideas. Thank you so much ☺️

To me professional gouache doesn’t seem to be more expensive than professional oil or acrylic (I don’t have experience with oil pastels), because even though gouache tubes are smaller they last much longer that any other paint (although, I do not paint large with gouache). The only “color” that I use up a lot is permanent white which is sold is larger tubes and I buy those in bulk. Except for the blues that I use more than other colors, I refill my storage palette on average once a year (and not all of the colors need to be refilled) which means that most of the tubes last me two or three years. I haven’t bought new gouache paints for a long time. Lefranc Bourgeois Linel extra fine is excellent gouache. Cheaper gouache paints shouldn’t even be considered gouache because unfortunately they do not provide the same experience and results as high-quality gouache paints. I live in Spain, so I buy most of my art supplies here. Many of my students begin with a very limited palette and then, they gradually expand it by adding a couple new colors a month to speed up and facilitate color mixing. I am aware that in some countries professional gouache is not available or is too expensive. In that case, I would use a different, more accessible painting medium.

@@LenaRivo Thank You so much for the detailed reply and encouragment. Definitely, I am happy to hear that gouache paint lasts a long time other than whites, but that is OK, the situation is similar with oil pastels, you use enormous amount of white oil pastels. With oil pastels my typical size is 24 x 32 cm, which is not a lot larger than your 20 x 25 or 30 cm paintings.

Hello, you can just scrape the mold off that color and keep using your colors. That’s what I have done. I have never used clove oil with gouache. I usually use distilled water to mist my paints while painting, and when I don’t use my gouache for a long time I open the palette box at least once a week and mist the paints with distilled water. One of my colors (quinacridone rose) used to get moldy when I left my palette unopened for a long time, but since I started opening the palette and misting the paints more often that hasn’t happened. Mold doesn’t like fresh air, so opening the palette once in a while and refreshing it with clean water is important. Also, you have watched my video about the W&N medium that helps gouache stay moist longer. That medium is pure propylene glycol. Propylene Glycol has anti-microbial properties, so if you add a few drops of the medium or pharmaceutical-grade propylene glycol to each one of your colors it will further protect your palette from the mold. I hope this help :)

Absolutely, thank you very much for your answer. Very important information about the blending medium. Do you use exclusively distilled water while painting too?

@@Neorhim no, I use distilled water only to mist the paint in my palette box. To wash my brushes, I use tap water. When I travel, I use tap water to mist the paints as well :)

Thank you again, sorry for all my questions. Mold seem also to grow on our nerves ;-) if I may: I can't find anywhere else that the winsor and newton blending medium is propylene glycol. I'm trying to check if indeed there is a Anti-microbial properties to it. Do you remember where you had the confirmation of the composition of the winsor blending medium? I'm just trying to cross-check the information. Thank you so much.

@@Neorhim they used to provide that information in the safety sheet of the blending medium on dickblick.com. I have seen it. But then, they for some reason removed that information from the safety sheet. Maybe they wanted to keep the composition of the product a secret. I don’t know. If you email them and ask them what the medium is made of they will tell you that they can’t tell you that. You don’t need to use the medium. Propylene glycol has been used to slow down the drying time of acrylic paints for a long time. It can be mixed with acrylics, gouache and watercolor. It is often added to foods that have to stay moist for a long time, and it has anti-microbial properties.

I believe I got it a grocery store 😁

No, that is an ordinary plastic mixing tray.

Even though I answered to this question in an email yesterday, I will copy and paste my answer here in case someone else has the same question. I always hold a paper towel in my left hand while painting and before dipping my brush into a new color I dry it using that paper towel. If the color I am going to use is very different from the color I have used before I wash the brush and dry in with the paper towels in my second bowl. If the color I want to use is similar to the one that is on the brush I only dry the brush with the paper towel in my left hand and pick the color I need. This keeps my palette relatively clean.

@@LenaRivo Thanks and that answers my question perfectly!

Not adding too much water to gouache paints doesn’t mean painting in thick layers. Using gouache the way I use allows me to finish a painting with just one layer (with a few details added on top of that layer) instead of applying many semi-opaque layers of paint. This approach saves me a lot of time and helps me control the values and hues of my colors much better. It also results in a clearer painting. In this video, I explained how I use gouache because many people had asked me about that. I am aware that many, even probably most of the artists who use gouache, use it in semi-opaque washes. I wouldn’t say it’s a smarter way to paint with gouache though, especially considering it’s physical characteristics. Diluting gouache with water to a watercolor-like consistency is like diluting oil paint with turpentine which is technically wrong.