Gouache

Lore & Background

Gouache, also known as body color or opaque watercolor, is a water-medium paint composed of natural pigment, water, a binding agent such as gum arabic or dextrin, and sometimes an inert material. It is designed to be opaque. The paint is similar to watercolor in that it can be rewetted and dries to a matte finish, and it can become infused into its paper support.

However, gouache is modified to be heavier and more opaque than watercolor, with larger pigment particles, a higher pigment-to-binder ratio, and often an additional white filler like chalk, which gives it greater reflective qualities. When wet, gouache appears one value but generally dries to a different one—lighter tones usually dry darker, and darker tones tend to dry lighter—making color matching across sessions challenging. Its quick coverage and total hiding power allow for more direct painting techniques than watercolor, a quality exploited in plein air painting and by artists like J. M. W. Turner.

Commercially, gouache is widely used for posters, illustrations, comics, and design work; most 20th-century animations employed it for opaque color on cels, with watercolor used for backgrounds. It can be applied with a brush, airbrush, or on unusual surfaces like Braille paper or cardboard. A notable variation is acrylic gouache, which uses an acrylic-based binder instead of gum arabic, dries to a matte, opaque, and water-resistant finish, and contains additives to ensure that matte quality. Historically, a form of gouache with honey or tragacanth gum was used in Ancient Egyptian painting, and European illuminated manuscripts as well as Persian and Mughal miniatures are predominantly examples of gouache, though often mischaracterized as watercolor.

The English word derives via French from the Italian guazzo, meaning "mud," originally applied to a 16th-century practice of applying oil paint over a tempera base. During that century, artists often mixed gouache with pastel for fine details, and in the 19th century, industrially produced watercolors in tubes included a "Chinese white" tube for this purpose. Later, mass-produced "poster paint" using a cheaper dextrin binder replaced older hide glue or size paints.

Reader's Guide

Gouache is significant for its opacity and versatility, allowing direct painting techniques and complete hiding power. It is similar to watercolor in being rewettable and drying to a matte finish, but differs in having larger pigment particles, a higher pigment-to-binder ratio, and often an additional white filler such as chalk. This makes it heavier and more opaque, with greater reflective qualities.

Gouache dries to a value that differs from its wet state, which can make color matching difficult. It is widely used by commercial artists for posters, illustrations, comics, and design work, and was used in most 20th-century animations for opaque color on cels. A newer variation is acrylic gouache, which uses an acrylic-based binder and dries to a water-resistant, matte surface.