Gouache on paper

What is Gouache?

Gouache, also called tempera color, resembles watercolor in many ways, but with the primary difference that gouache is full-coverage, in contrast to watercolor, which is transparent. The pigments are larger than in watercolor.

Gouache dries quickly and completely matt - and just like with watercolor, dried color can be dissolved again with water. During the painting process, you can therefore take a damp cloth and wipe off some of the paint, so that what remains, thus also becomes an exciting background surface.

The word "gouache" is taken from French and is pronounced "gua'sj" or "goa'sj." French received the word from Italian "guazzo", which means "puddle", "water" or "wash".

Before acrylic paint, gouache was the popular alternative to oil. Since then, gouache became a more graphic article - e.g. for coloring illustrations, posters and cartoons, as well as in hand-drawn animation, where gouache is used to color the layers a still image is made up of.