What Is Acryla Gouache?

Is it Acrylic? Is it gouache? Or is it magically both? It is technically an acrylic paint in many aspects, but it has some of the properties of gouache that no other acrylic paint does. It truly is unique and a paint all on its own. We get a lot of questions about this paint and I wanted to answer some of those here.

Holbein Acryla Gouache moves, reacts, blends and feels like traditional gum arabic gouache. It is water resistant once dry. Drying to a velvet matte finish; Acryla Gouache does not shift in color tone from liquid to dry color. What you see is what you get once dry. It doesn’t have the same fragile surface as traditional gouache in gum arabic and is compatible with all other water soluble media. So Acryla Gouache is the best of a few worlds, all rolled in to one paint. It is opaque, creamy, matte, and easy to spread. Final dried surface is water resistant and velvety matte in appearance. Being so flat in sheen helps when photographing your work, avoiding glare from traditionally glossy pigment colors. Since the pigment load is so high in these paints, a little goes a long way. No need to squeeze out much, these tubes go much farther than it may appear they will. Holbein Acryla Gouache is a great medium for designers, illustrators, hobbyist, student, and professional artists. Acryla Gouache is in a class of its own, highly pigmented and extremely versatile. You can paint on wood, canvas, fabric, paper, and many other surfaces that traditional gouache does not adhere to.

It comes in 107 highly pigmented colors in 20ml and 40ml tubes, including luminous neon like colors and metallics. The pastel shades and dusty muted colors are always popular. We sell it at everyday discounts of 20% off retail. We stock all of the 20ml tubes and carry black and white in 40ml as well as 20ml. While we are constantly discussing what section this rack should live in, it currently is located with the gouache. It is not traditional gouache though, so make sure to ask us if you need a run down on what is what in person.

Here’s a link to a YouTube video I found that shows some helpful characteristics of this unique line of paints. I like a lot of her tips for using it and the way she breaks down how you can start with just a few colors.