Holbein Acrylic Gouache Five Primary Colours Set (Japan Import) 20 ml (Pack of 5)

Product Information

Swatch Card Rubber Stamp for Watercolor, Ink, Acrylic etc. Universal Art Medium Complex Color Chart Organization (Select Mounting Option)

Holbein Acrylic Gouache does not have the same fragile surface as traditional gouache made with Gum Arabic because the acrylic paint film is more flexible. It can be mixed with other acrylic or traditional gouaches, as well as with watercolours. Japanesque Colours: This selection of beautiful, sophisticated tones are formulated with fine powders which give them a unique slightly gritty, textured matt finish.

When my painting I dry I try adding some details with pencil but because Acryla Gouache dries up more plastic than regular gouache, this is not easy. When the paint dries it is more plastic so adding layers with pencil is not ideal. I manage though, I’m stubborn like that 😉

All acrylics become under-bound with too much water, as they don’t have enough binder to coat the pigment. You can sometimes get away with it on watercolour paper as the fibres can hold onto the pigment. Traditional gouache is opaque, matte watercolour – so like watercolour it is re-soluble, not water resistant. I’m really pleased with the end-result. The colours on the paper are still crisp and although the paints dry up plastic-y, they look really matte on paper, which I love. Although I prefer acrylic paint, I have worked with all water-based paints (other than egg tempera) and I will say the acrylic gouache paint was easy enough to use, although it did take me a couple days to adjust to the difference. After some trial and error, I discovered the best palette to use was a small metal one. If a wet palette is left overnight, one is likely to end up with a watery mess. I found this out the hard way!I also tried an application of matt spray varnish over the top and that sealed everything permanently. I used 2 thin coats of Golden MSA spray varnish matt to keep the matt surface finish.

Holbein and Turner brands are the most popular and truly unique of the acrylic gouache hybrid paints. There are other "acrylic gouache" titled paints out there that are not as nice (Liquitex has a mostly semi-opaque, lesser pigment load, not fully matte version that I do not recommend). Most others like Lascaux, Jo Sonja, Amsterdam and cheap craft acrylics/decoart/americana/applebarrel just make "matte acrylic" which does not disperse as easily in wet washes. Golden's So Flat is a high quality matte acrylic that can be used a similar way, but more of their selection is semi-opaque than Holbein or Turner.

After almost five hours (divided over three days, mind you) I painted all 102 colour swatches. This sounds like a lot of work. Correction: this is a lot of work. But it’s worth it, trust me. Pearl Colours: These effect colours have a refined pearlescent lustre. The last 6 pearl colours are “interference” tones which are translucent and will vary in appearance depending on ground colour and viewing angle.