Sarah - this was the most perfect tutorial for this moment. I just purchased supplies to begin a watercolor journey, and on the advice of another youtuber, purchased the Schmincke Zinc White Gouache so that I could play with gouache as well. As a medium, gouache fascinates me, and I loved the effects of using gouache in a watercolor, mixing the two mediums. What an amazing way to end up with 2 paint sets in one! Every minute of this video provided the info to get started - thank you! The most exciting, was to see the impact of laying down the pink and gray wash as a first step. I've not yet seen this technique realized so beautifully and clearly. Bravo! And thank you for all you share. 🙏❤🙏
This video was exactly what I needed. Was using permanent white with watercolor to dip my toes into gouache. Loved it, bought 3 tubes of primaries in gouache and am now doing comparisons. Helpful to know I can use the watercolor to tint gouache so I don’t need to start with a larger gouache palette. Thank you for these wonderful videos!
Thanks so much for sharing this way of using a combination of watercolours and white gouache to achieve a gouache pastel look effect 🥺 The greys in your demo's are amazing! Really liked how the painting turned out.
Very interesting to see the differences between zinc and titanium white! I will admit to grabbing “whatever” and not paying much attention to which white I’m using. For a very long time, my only gouache was white and used for highlighting watercolour (or mixing with watercolour); that eventually encouraged me to buy some tubes of coloured gouache.
I'm kind of a beginner to watercolor paint (I used to dilute watercolor markers). I came here after mixing copper with titanium white and getting inconsistent results with the white often floating to the top. Seeing different chemicals for white achieve different results here is fascinating.
Great video as always. Another white gouache with a very shiny finish is Pebeo Studio Gouache (I have "permanent white"), so be advised whoever thinks to buy a huge tube thinking of saving a bit of money.
I really like how you experiment with grays here because it unlocks a whole range of values and it also helps to make more contrast if a more saturated color was added near the grays. Your videos are my go-to for learning more about gouache. 😁
You make nice colorful greys! For mixing I use the Titanium white from the Schmincke Academy line, which is affordable, comes in large tubes, has a fluid consistency, and is not so aggressive and shiny as others. Thank you for your content!
This was actually really helpful. I am a watercolor artist. I struggle a lot working with thicker more opaque paints. Maybe I should try more baby steps.❤
Great video! I mostly use M. Graham’s white titanium gouache because 1. It comes in large tubes (making it more affordable) and 2. It rewets easier than others. I don’t like Winsor and Newton’s titanium white gouache because it dries hard as a rock (even with a stay wet palette) and so I end up wasting some because of that. Daniel Smith’s titanium white gouache is fantastic, but it doesn’t come in larger tubes. Since I use a lot of titanium white, I need something more cost effective. Side note: Daniel Smith gouache is absolutely amazing! It’s a joy to work with. It’s expensive, but superbly vibrant and fun to use. I can’t wait for them to release more gouache colors!
I'm also loving Daniel Smith gouache and agree with M. Graham white for the price. Their titanium white is a bit more yellow than other brands, but I use zinc more often anyway. Did you see the 52(?) new Daniel Smith gouache colors that released a week or two ago? So exciting!
I love this technique the I use it all the time! I mainly use it for my travel kits or to use up my student grade watercolors. I’m so happy you did a video on this since it’s not really known that you can use them like that. You can also get really cool effects with granulation sometimes. I love using these two together.
i recently found your youtube channel and i'm so happy! i really appreciate all the reviews and experiments that you do, it's extremely helpful to know your thoughts and opinions on different techniques and brands of art supplies. also, thank you for staying mindful about your location and access to different materials, not all content creators acknowledge that their viewers may come from all over the world.
I started off with gouache like this when I was at school-one tube of W&N zinc white plus ordinary watercolours. These days now I have money I tend to use gouache more and mainly stick to permanent white (easier to find the large tubes where I am). One thing that I found makes it easier working with water colour plus white is to use a palette with more opaque water colour pigments such as cadmium reds and yellows (or their modern less toxic equivalents)
I bought some zinc white M. Graham gouache many years ago just to use as accents in watercolor. Thinking the reason it wasn't adding crisp white like other people was because they must be using a different brand, I got some Holbein Acryla. Well...that was definitely more opaque, but I discovered it is not rewettable the hard way, lol. After educating myself more through several more years of watercolor, I was finally inspired to try gouache. A tip I picked up from some other artists is to use zinc white for mixing where you want to keep stronger color saturation but just increase the opacity, and I have enjoyed Schmincke zinc white for this when using Schmincke gouache. M. Graham also still works well, despite my tube being several years old, so I've used them pretty interchangeably but will be buying more M. Graham when I run out. I rarely use titanium white other than when I need some really opaque and/or light highlight areas, so a single tube of it will probably last forever! I have Schmincke right now but will probably replace with Daniel Smith since M. Graham's has a yellower tint than others (though in your swatches it doesn't look as yellow as other swatches I've seen) and Daniel Smith looks like it doesn't have the shine Schmincke's has. I also have a tube of Holbein that came in a 5 tube set and it works okay but dries out so fast while I'm painting if I don't put it on a damp paper towel.
This was so instructive! I have zinc white but never use it because the only time I use gouache is when I'm adding a white highlight to my watercolor, and the titanium is stronger for that. Now that I understand the difference, I'm really excited to try mixing with the zinc. The ability to layer like this is enticing. Also I love what the under painting did for this piece as it is different than just an initial wash of light tones in the actual subject, another thing I hadn't considered trying with watercolor before. Thank you!
I am so glad I watched this. It wasn't what I excepted. It was so much more. Love the idea of mixing watercolor and gouache. The underpainting was fabulous. And I like the painting tips about light and color temperature use from a graphic design program. Thanks for brightening up my morning. Love your "grey period" of art. Can't wait to see more. Have fun in Scotland.
I started out with adding Permanent/Titanium White Gouache to my Watercolors for highlights & for making pastels of my colors. Then I realized that I needed to us the Zinc White for mixing pastels & the Titanium White for just highlights. I did try full tubes of gouache eventually & enjoy it but because the gouache paint is a bit more expensive than watercolors I don’t use it as much. Gouache & watercolors are my favorites for mediums to use though. Thanks for sharing this wonderful video!
The painting is so beautiful, muted and subtlety really works. I much prefer gouache to watercolour but have lots of watercolour paint so this would be a great way to start using it. Thank you, as always, your work is so inspiring 🙏
Oh my! Such an interesting and worthwhile technique to learn! As you say, it's not well known by "trad" water-colorists. I've just used gouache occasionally for highlights. But I'll be trying this "watercolor conversion" method very soon. Thanks for the excellent and beautiful demonstration!
Love the moody greyed palette results. Just lovely. Making me want to experiment with same. Thx Sarah. As always you mine out such valuable topics to explore. -Lue
It's really interesting that you've mentioned the perks of using zinc white! I bought a big one as a mixing white a few years back and was immediately disappointed because it was way more transparent than I expected. I only use titanium white now but maybe I should give it another try again 🥰
I love the subtle more neutral colours! But I’m also wondering about how the bright blue tape surrounds might affect our colour perception- have you ever done a comparison between using blue vs beige or yellow tape to paint the same scene?
This video provides a great service! I know about the difference between Zinc White and Titanium White only because of my background in oil painting (where Zinc White has somewhat fallen out of favor because it becomes brittle, especially on its own.) I don’t think it was even covered in any of my classes - like a commenter here, I remember being disappointed by Zinc White (in oil) the first time I tried it, not understanding the difference in pigments. It has stood out to me for a long time that most TH-cam artists (across painting mediums) don’t know the difference and frequently don’t even know of the existence of Zinc White. It’s interesting because some of these people have picked up on the existence of pigment codes for some other colors. I constantly see people teaching that adding white will make your mixture “chalky,” and to add any other color to change the value, but never use white. At the same time I see some people who are very heavy-handed with the Titanium White and DO end up with chalky mixtures and would benefit from trying out Zinc White. (As an aside, I didn’t notice if you mentioned the name “Chinese White,” which typically refers to Zinc White. You very well might have and I might have missed it.) I have a pan of dried Schmincke Titanium White in my watercolor palette, but don’t love it dried. I did actually grab a tube of “Chinese White” from a cheap watercolor pan set and use it with my artist grade watercolors (in sketches.) I think it’s even weaker than an artist grade Zinc White, which I kind of like.
I've only used Shminke white and was concerned about the shinyness. Good to see it's not consistent on other brands. I use it with the Caran D'ache pan set because the white is really bad in that. So it's a bit like watercolour and professional white. Great to see this video. It's like an approval on my beginners technique.
Fantastic video! Very useful. I love these comparison videos. Ok. I found a hack you might like! I have found a solution to white gouache in a small watercolor palette. Dried gouache in a pan wasn't my favorite thing but also I didn't want to carry around a tube. At the dollar store, mine at least, there are little paint by number kits and with them come tiny little watertight plastic paint pots. They are MADE for keeping paint wet and they are tiny enough to fit into most little palletes. That is now where I keep my gouache and it stays wet. I've had one of them in my palette for about a year and it's still pretty wet.
This was really fun, i love all your gouache experiments... I fell in love with using buff titanium watercolor mixed into other colors, I ended up making a gouache version of it to also mix with watercolors, it's amazingly fun and interesting!
I just found you and subscribed. I love your style and coloring and this guide is very helpful. I learned some things from this video. The beach painting is gorgeous!
I like your fibrant contrasty paintings but I understand you need to experiment! Using zinc white this way gives interesting possibilities. Thanks again for your quality video❤
I tried with a white tube of gouache with watercolor but honestly gouache just isn't for me. but I do use titanium white for highlights in my watercolors. By the way love the video keep up the great work👍👍
I've had trouble with gouache too. What specifically about it makes you say it isn't for you? I can't seem to get my brushwork to not look streaky, and I can't get clean edges.
Sorry it took so long for me to respond. I don't like it because it's too opaque for my liking. I mostly work with watercolor, so I am very used to the transparency of it. But then again, I only used white gouache mixed with watercolor, I might change my mind if I try with just gouache.
This was very interesting. I’m just getting into gouache after doing watercolor for quite awhile. It’s quite overwhelming, but I’m going to give this a try. Of course, I’m nowhere near the artist you are, but you inspire me. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
The Winsor Newton Zinc White (though it can be bought individually) usually comes in their Designer Gouache set. Designer Gouache is something from the 1920's where magazine artists (because of technological limitations) wanted a gouache with more White added into the pigment (primaries and secondary colors) for the sake of balancing out colors from the printing processes of that time. This does not work so well today. So keep this in mind when you're considering WN Designer Gouache...you can just buy the Zinc White separately.
Another fascinating and helpful video. I’ve never tried mixing watercolour and white gouache but I’m keen to give it a try as I’d been waiting to try gouache but was hesitant to invest without know if I enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Great job Sarah explaining the different whites and using it with watercolor…extremely helpful! And I love the idea of just carrying a white tube of Gouache with your travel watercolors, excellent idea. Thanks so much for the video and beautiful job on the painting!❤
I love this! I paint in the studio with acrylic, sometimes followed with oil and cold wax. I have been looking for a highly portable way to take my paints outdoors, particularly for small studies. I am not much into watercolor by itself and was exploring gouache. This mix of white gouache with watercolor seems like a perfect way to keep the portabilty of watercolor with the control of acrylic offered by the gouache. Do you have specific other videos about the combination of the two? I'm also interested in how you transport your paints.
Very, very interesting. I just bought a DaVinci primary gouache set and I began to wonder what would happen if I mixed my watercolor paint with white gouache; then I discovered your post. It is very helpful. Thanks!
I started with W&N permanent white mixed with watercolours inflenced by Nathan Fowkes, then moved on to using only gouache.I stuck with W&N only because its the one I can get in 37ml tubes although I have gone through a tube of DS which I was happy with...good to see other swatches thanks
Thanks! I live the oastel colours with watercolours. I use Schmincke Akademie Gouache, as they are not expensive (4.99€ for 60ml 😮) As a beginner Indint want them to feel precious so I can play. The titanium white is not shiny in that brand. Thanks for te testing and the beautiful picture, i am amazed how the landscape appeared a little bit after every brush stroke.
I recently got more into opaque mediums and fell in love with gouache. I have many tubes of watercolor, so its nice to know that I can use them together with gouache and they dont go wasted. Though I must say it is a challenge with some pigments to get good covering strength. btw love your paintings
I've had M. Graham gouache in my watercolor palette for years! Im so glad to see more talk about using it with watercolor. Its basically just opaque watercolor so it makes sense. I also love your talk of utilizing gray in landscape. I really need to spend some time focusing on that- as someone who loves bright saturated colors hah
Hey Sarah, very informative video! Zinc white gouache w/ watercolors is so underrated, I’m glad you showed how useful it can be for those starting with gouache painting.
This was wonderful, I have been working to understand gauch and watercolor together! Now I will experiment and hopefully be able to use it!🙋♀️Thanks. Karen Dirmish, learner
I use W&N titanium white gouache. I mostly only use it to add to watercolour when working on grey or other toned paper (like Strathmore toned) as I like the look of that.
The color saturation adjustment tip is really helpful thanks! I tend to use white gouache in watercolor mainly for bright highlights and waves in water but sometimes I also like mixing white in sky gradients, it can give a "softer" feeiling I think :)
Super useful. I would have loved to see how this differs from using only gouache to understand the pros and cons of watercolor + gouache vs. just gouache. But of course, I could try to do this myself. I always learn so much when watching your video. I have done so many gouache paintings recently after watching you. My watercolors have been neglected :). Thank you!
Is this a watercolor set that you just mix with gouache so you don’t have to worry about the gouache contaminating the watercolor or do you give the watercolor a pretty heavy cleaning before the next use of just watercolor? Thanks for the white gouache information.
Very interesting video, as well as the ‘techie’ stuff on how we can visualize our gouache desaturated paintings beforehand by playing around with the photo settings ~ thx for sharing… I haven’t used gouache before, but have been fascinated watching yours & other TH-camrs paint with it & thus would love to try it one day! Actually ~ I think I did buy a tube of white gouache some time ago to do just what you suggested doing here in this video… thanks for all your tips! Your seascape is beautiful 🙌🏼🌊💚🩵🩶
This video is incredibly good and informative! Wow! 💐 This is exactly my topic at the moment, using my watercolors as gouache. The Horadam Titanium White makes it opaque without color shift. This is an incredibly great brand. I don't like watercolor because you can't fix mistakes, it puts pressure on me. And I want to set my highlights in the end. I also love the creaminess, watercolours are not satisfaying me any more after trying Gouache 😀
You have made me want to move to Scotland. I have used this technique many times with Winsor & Newton Permanent (PW6). I still don't know what I think. I like it but maybe prefer all gouache or all water color, rather than mixing the two. More sketch book work needs to happen.
I started using water colors with gouache because there are two colors I love that I couldn't get in gouache, Payne's Gray and Potter's Pink. That opened alot of possiblities when started throwing those in my box with my gouache. I tend to only use Zinc in color mixing but pretty much stick to titanium.
Thank you, Sarah, for this educational, informative, interesting and very helpful video . I am quite new on my art journey and coincidentally had recently been wondering about this very topic of possibly adding zinc white gouache to water colour paints and what would happen. Yes, of course I realise I should actually experiment and try it for myself……and so this video was absolutely perfect. I also loved the part where you gave a little demo from the Adobe Photoshop programme….wow ….amazing features ! Last year I started playing with gel prints and one of the first things I did was research and learn about the differences between the zinc white and titanium white which was an important factor because of the very different opacities. I quickly learned that if I used the titanium white as the last layer to pull the print from the gel plate…..all of the previous layers on the plate were obliterated ! 🤭🤭🤭😩😩😳😳🤪🤪 That was a huge lesson in learning about the transparency of the zinc white as opposed to the opaqueness of the titanium white !
Thanks Sarah, I tried gouache a few yesterday ago but went back to watercolour as I wasn't too sure of the matt finish, but yours looks great so I will maybe try again.
When you use gouache with your watercolors, are you concerned about contaminating your watercolor palette with the gouache, or do you use a separate watercolor palette when mixing with gouache? How about brushes - are you using watercolor or gouache brushes? Thanks so much for your wonderful tutorials!
Thank you for this inspiring and helpfull video ❤. And I‘ve experienced the same shine with the Schmincke Horadam Titanium White (and didn‘t have an explanation so far for the shine in my paintings when using a lot of white 😅). Thanks again for sharing!
Great video! Thanks for this! I was actually just wondering about mixing white gouache and watercolour.. So many different types of whites! When I was at the art store i remembered i was quickly running out of my Holbein white gouache (which worked great as I bought just primaries and white) , but forgot which type of 'white' I had before. Ended up getting the permanent white by Winsor & Newton. Haven't had a chance to test it out and see since I still have a bit left of the other one. I do prefer opaque whites though, so I think i picked what I need.
Hey Sara. I have been following your gouache videos for quite a while and I love them ❤ I have a beginner question. While applying the initial layers (1st or 2nd) the pencil underpainting gets covered with gouache. How do I keep them visible and follow them as my guidelines for adding more details? Thank you 😊
You just read my mind as I was wondering JUST yesterday about the difference between the two whites (and been using titanium white for years but bought zinc white yesterday out of curiosity). Random but isn't this the technique used by Nathan Fowkes? He always has such vibrant and luminous colours mixing watercolours with white gouache (but when I try it, oh man, the mess LOL)
My tubes of WN are all ‘permanent” white which I hope is used interchangeably with “titanium”? In any event, tinting with watercolour does remove a lot of the stress from learning gouache as I find I’m wasting gigantic piles of gouache in the inevitable push pull that is inherent to finding the colour I want in gouache. I love your fearlessness Sarah (and of course the dry brush at the end) _ thanks for this great video! 🇨🇦
I did a gouache painting last night w/ the schmincke horadam white, it also had a glossy finish after drying. The paint arrived last week, so I believe it is just the brand and not the age of it, FYI
Now if only we could convince the purists of watercolors that chinese white is indeed a very useful color in a beginner set, the revolution for a stress free society would be complete! 🤣🤣🤣
I used to HATE getting a pan of white in my watercolor palette, it felt like such a waste to me 🤣 not from a "purist" mindset, just from a color-cost perspective. But I agree, I find the purist mindset to be such a turnoff and I think it has wrongly discouraged to many artists from experimenting
@@SarahBurnsStudio I thought so too, I just found it useless. And then, quite recently, I was making a mixing sheet so I had to check it and compare it, and it turned out that it's so much easier to get a nice even pastel coverage than trying to get a very low pigment load on the page. It looks and acts smoother. That was my impression at least.
I'm a beginner in watercolor but a seasoned artist and I've always used white to help toke down strong colors... Didn't realize this was a controversial take
I’m only just trying this technique with watercolour so what white gouache to get is a puzzle! Thank you. I think I only have access to a few brands in Australia where I am W&N, Daniel Smith, Daler Rowney and Art Spectrum an Australian brand which is really good, have you tried it Sarah?
Hi, Sarah! Great video! Very helpful for a watercolor artist, especially. I am waiting with great anticipation for my first gouache kit to arrive. Hope your holidays are merry and bright! Much love ❤️ ❤❤
i had the same issue with the horadam white which lead to me needing a replacement. i switched then to the winsor and newton which was a bit better as you said and they shine too and i did not tried other brands after that. which one do you use now?
When a piece compels me to purchase, or is one I’ve sold, it is usually “vibrant”. The few workshops I’ve attended in the last many years have been pushing gray and muted, to the point of a paynes gray wash over top. Not sure if people want moody or inspiring. Think I’m going to make what makes me look forward to the process…and that’s not muted.
I think you are a true artist whether you paint with vibrant colors or explore the greys. Meaningful and subtle results either way. I’ve never seen anyone else on TH-cam cover these topics in the same way. Makes me want to try out what you showed. 😊 Thank you for the thought-inspiring video!
Sarah - this was the most perfect tutorial for this moment. I just purchased supplies to begin a watercolor journey, and on the advice of another youtuber, purchased the Schmincke Zinc White Gouache so that I could play with gouache as well. As a medium, gouache fascinates me, and I loved the effects of using gouache in a watercolor, mixing the two mediums. What an amazing way to end up with 2 paint sets in one! Every minute of this video provided the info to get started - thank you! The most exciting, was to see the impact of laying down the pink and gray wash as a first step. I've not yet seen this technique realized so beautifully and clearly. Bravo! And thank you for all you share. 🙏❤🙏
This video was exactly what I needed. Was using permanent white with watercolor to dip my toes into gouache. Loved it, bought 3 tubes of primaries in gouache and am now doing comparisons. Helpful to know I can use the watercolor to tint gouache so I don’t need to start with a larger gouache palette. Thank you for these wonderful videos!
Thanks so much for sharing this way of using a combination of watercolours and white gouache to achieve a gouache pastel look effect 🥺 The greys in your demo's are amazing! Really liked how the painting turned out.
Very interesting to see the differences between zinc and titanium white! I will admit to grabbing “whatever” and not paying much attention to which white I’m using. For a very long time, my only gouache was white and used for highlighting watercolour (or mixing with watercolour); that eventually encouraged me to buy some tubes of coloured gouache.
I'm kind of a beginner to watercolor paint (I used to dilute watercolor markers). I came here after mixing copper with titanium white and getting inconsistent results with the white often floating to the top. Seeing different chemicals for white achieve different results here is fascinating.
Great video as always. Another white gouache with a very shiny finish is Pebeo Studio Gouache (I have "permanent white"), so be advised whoever thinks to buy a huge tube thinking of saving a bit of money.
When you started the mountain scene, I had no idea what to expect. Then suddenly out popped that beautiful mountain! WOW'!
I really like how you experiment with grays here because it unlocks a whole range of values and it also helps to make more contrast if a more saturated color was added near the grays. Your videos are my go-to for learning more about gouache. 😁
You make nice colorful greys! For mixing I use the Titanium white from the Schmincke Academy line, which is affordable, comes in large tubes, has a fluid consistency, and is not so aggressive and shiny as others. Thank you for your content!
👍🏻 I do this too. I find Schmincke Akademie Gouache truly affordable and of excellent quality. I never see any sheen on it.
Where do you get it?
@@margaretspringer9197 I usually by it at boesner but at least in Europe you should get it in any art store
@@margaretspringer9197 Depends on where you live. In Europe, Gerstaecker, Boesner, Jackson's and others. I dont know in the USA, though.
This was actually really helpful. I am a watercolor artist. I struggle a lot working with thicker more opaque paints. Maybe I should try more baby steps.❤
Baby steps and lots of experimenting!
Great video! I mostly use M. Graham’s white titanium gouache because 1. It comes in large tubes (making it more affordable) and 2. It rewets easier than others. I don’t like Winsor and Newton’s titanium white gouache because it dries hard as a rock (even with a stay wet palette) and so I end up wasting some because of that. Daniel Smith’s titanium white gouache is fantastic, but it doesn’t come in larger tubes. Since I use a lot of titanium white, I need something more cost effective.
Side note: Daniel Smith gouache is absolutely amazing! It’s a joy to work with. It’s expensive, but superbly vibrant and fun to use. I can’t wait for them to release more gouache colors!
I'm also loving Daniel Smith gouache and agree with M. Graham white for the price. Their titanium white is a bit more yellow than other brands, but I use zinc more often anyway. Did you see the 52(?) new Daniel Smith gouache colors that released a week or two ago? So exciting!
oh thanks for that tip, I will definitely try M grahams now
I love this technique the I use it all the time! I mainly use it for my travel kits or to use up my student grade watercolors. I’m so happy you did a video on this since it’s not really known that you can use them like that.
You can also get really cool effects with granulation sometimes. I love using these two together.
i recently found your youtube channel and i'm so happy! i really appreciate all the reviews and experiments that you do, it's extremely helpful to know your thoughts and opinions on different techniques and brands of art supplies. also, thank you for staying mindful about your location and access to different materials, not all content creators acknowledge that their viewers may come from all over the world.
I started off with gouache like this when I was at school-one tube of W&N zinc white plus ordinary watercolours. These days now I have money I tend to use gouache more and mainly stick to permanent white (easier to find the large tubes where I am). One thing that I found makes it easier working with water colour plus white is to use a palette with more opaque water colour pigments such as cadmium reds and yellows (or their modern less toxic equivalents)
I bought some zinc white M. Graham gouache many years ago just to use as accents in watercolor. Thinking the reason it wasn't adding crisp white like other people was because they must be using a different brand, I got some Holbein Acryla. Well...that was definitely more opaque, but I discovered it is not rewettable the hard way, lol. After educating myself more through several more years of watercolor, I was finally inspired to try gouache. A tip I picked up from some other artists is to use zinc white for mixing where you want to keep stronger color saturation but just increase the opacity, and I have enjoyed Schmincke zinc white for this when using Schmincke gouache. M. Graham also still works well, despite my tube being several years old, so I've used them pretty interchangeably but will be buying more M. Graham when I run out.
I rarely use titanium white other than when I need some really opaque and/or light highlight areas, so a single tube of it will probably last forever! I have Schmincke right now but will probably replace with Daniel Smith since M. Graham's has a yellower tint than others (though in your swatches it doesn't look as yellow as other swatches I've seen) and Daniel Smith looks like it doesn't have the shine Schmincke's has. I also have a tube of Holbein that came in a 5 tube set and it works okay but dries out so fast while I'm painting if I don't put it on a damp paper towel.
Will this make the colors more pastel? Is there a way to mix the colors more opaque while also keeping it's value?
Agree about the greys.
What a beautiful painting!!
Gorgeous! I love how the underpainting really takes it up a notch! Wow!
This was so instructive! I have zinc white but never use it because the only time I use gouache is when I'm adding a white highlight to my watercolor, and the titanium is stronger for that. Now that I understand the difference, I'm really excited to try mixing with the zinc. The ability to layer like this is enticing. Also I love what the under painting did for this piece as it is different than just an initial wash of light tones in the actual subject, another thing I hadn't considered trying with watercolor before. Thank you!
I am so glad I watched this. It wasn't what I excepted. It was so much more. Love the idea of mixing watercolor and gouache. The underpainting was fabulous. And I like the painting tips about light and color temperature use from a graphic design program. Thanks for brightening up my morning. Love your "grey period" of art. Can't wait to see more. Have fun in Scotland.
I started out with adding Permanent/Titanium White Gouache to my Watercolors for highlights & for making pastels of my colors. Then I realized that I needed to us the Zinc White for mixing pastels & the Titanium White for just highlights. I did try full tubes of gouache eventually & enjoy it but because the gouache paint is a bit more expensive than watercolors I don’t use it as much. Gouache & watercolors are my favorites for mediums to use though. Thanks for sharing this wonderful video!
Just keep experimenting!
I haven't tried it yet but loved your painting and am really excited to go for it! Thank you very much for this video :)
The addition of white gouache to watercolor resulted in a stunning seascape. It exudes tranquility and magic! 🌊🎨
The painting is so beautiful, muted and subtlety really works. I much prefer gouache to watercolour but have lots of watercolour paint so this would be a great way to start using it. Thank you, as always, your work is so inspiring 🙏
Oh my! Such an interesting and worthwhile technique to learn! As you say, it's not well known by "trad" water-colorists. I've just used gouache occasionally for highlights. But I'll be trying this "watercolor conversion" method very soon. Thanks for the excellent and beautiful demonstration!
I'm mostly a gouache user lately, and I don't have masking fluid, but I like the mixture of watercolor and white gouache.
Love the moody greyed palette results. Just lovely. Making me want to experiment with same. Thx Sarah. As always you mine out such valuable topics to explore. -Lue
Oh thanks SO MUCH for this video! You just opened a new world of possibilities for me! ❤
So helpful. Thank you yet again for a great video and beautiful artwork.
It's really interesting that you've mentioned the perks of using zinc white! I bought a big one as a mixing white a few years back and was immediately disappointed because it was way more transparent than I expected. I only use titanium white now but maybe I should give it another try again 🥰
Yea that's the main reason I use titanium white in most of my gouache paintings.
I love the subtle more neutral colours! But I’m also wondering about how the bright blue tape surrounds might affect our colour perception- have you ever done a comparison between using blue vs beige or yellow tape to paint the same scene?
This video provides a great service! I know about the difference between Zinc White and Titanium White only because of my background in oil painting (where Zinc White has somewhat fallen out of favor because it becomes brittle, especially on its own.) I don’t think it was even covered in any of my classes - like a commenter here, I remember being disappointed by Zinc White (in oil) the first time I tried it, not understanding the difference in pigments. It has stood out to me for a long time that most TH-cam artists (across painting mediums) don’t know the difference and frequently don’t even know of the existence of Zinc White. It’s interesting because some of these people have picked up on the existence of pigment codes for some other colors. I constantly see people teaching that adding white will make your mixture “chalky,” and to add any other color to change the value, but never use white. At the same time I see some people who are very heavy-handed with the Titanium White and DO end up with chalky mixtures and would benefit from trying out Zinc White. (As an aside, I didn’t notice if you mentioned the name “Chinese White,” which typically refers to Zinc White. You very well might have and I might have missed it.) I have a pan of dried Schmincke Titanium White in my watercolor palette, but don’t love it dried. I did actually grab a tube of “Chinese White” from a cheap watercolor pan set and use it with my artist grade watercolors (in sketches.) I think it’s even weaker than an artist grade Zinc White, which I kind of like.
Glad you enjoyed it! I guess it just depends on the specific use the artist needs. There are so many varieties and ways to use different pigments.
I've only used Shminke white and was concerned about the shinyness. Good to see it's not consistent on other brands. I use it with the Caran D'ache pan set because the white is really bad in that. So it's a bit like watercolour and professional white. Great to see this video. It's like an approval on my beginners technique.
Such a beautiful painting and very helpful swatching. Thank you!
Fantastic video! Very useful. I love these comparison videos. Ok. I found a hack you might like! I have found a solution to white gouache in a small watercolor palette. Dried gouache in a pan wasn't my favorite thing but also I didn't want to carry around a tube. At the dollar store, mine at least, there are little paint by number kits and with them come tiny little watertight plastic paint pots. They are MADE for keeping paint wet and they are tiny enough to fit into most little palletes. That is now where I keep my gouache and it stays wet. I've had one of them in my palette for about a year and it's still pretty wet.
This was really fun, i love all your gouache experiments... I fell in love with using buff titanium watercolor mixed into other colors, I ended up making a gouache version of it to also mix with watercolors, it's amazingly fun and interesting!
I love Buff titanium! I have it in both watercolor and gouache
I just found you and subscribed. I love your style and coloring and this guide is very helpful. I learned some things from this video. The beach painting is gorgeous!
I like your fibrant contrasty paintings but I understand you need to experiment! Using zinc white this way gives interesting possibilities. Thanks again for your quality video❤
I tried with a white tube of gouache with watercolor but honestly gouache just isn't for me. but I do use titanium white for highlights in my watercolors. By the way love the video keep up the great work👍👍
I've had trouble with gouache too. What specifically about it makes you say it isn't for you? I can't seem to get my brushwork to not look streaky, and I can't get clean edges.
Sorry it took so long for me to respond. I don't like it because it's too opaque for my liking. I mostly work with watercolor, so I am very used to the transparency of it. But then again, I only used white gouache mixed with watercolor, I might change my mind if I try with just gouache.
This was very interesting. I’m just getting into gouache after doing watercolor for quite awhile. It’s quite overwhelming, but I’m going to give this a try. Of course, I’m nowhere near the artist you are, but you inspire me. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Great video! I really liked your analysis of the effects of using gouache and water with watercolors. Those are very helpful tips!
The Winsor Newton Zinc White (though it can be bought individually) usually comes in their Designer Gouache set. Designer Gouache is something from the 1920's where magazine artists (because of technological limitations) wanted a gouache with more White added into the pigment (primaries and secondary colors) for the sake of balancing out colors from the printing processes of that time. This does not work so well today. So keep this in mind when you're considering WN Designer Gouache...you can just buy the Zinc White separately.
Fantastic colour combination’s 🥰
Brilliant idea! Loving your techniques.
Another fascinating and helpful video. I’ve never tried mixing watercolour and white gouache but I’m keen to give it a try as I’d been waiting to try gouache but was hesitant to invest without know if I enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Great job Sarah explaining the different whites and using it with watercolor…extremely helpful! And I love the idea of just carrying a white tube of Gouache with your travel watercolors, excellent idea. Thanks so much for the video and beautiful job on the painting!❤
Glad it was helpful!
I love this! I paint in the studio with acrylic, sometimes followed with oil and cold wax. I have been looking for a highly portable way to take my paints outdoors, particularly for small studies. I am not much into watercolor by itself and was exploring gouache. This mix of white gouache with watercolor seems like a perfect way to keep the portabilty of watercolor with the control of acrylic offered by the gouache. Do you have specific other videos about the combination of the two?
I'm also interested in how you transport your paints.
I love using gouache and watercolors together. I have a mix of both in my palettes, love the studies/artworks you did for this series of studies.
Very, very interesting. I just bought a DaVinci primary gouache set and I began to wonder what would happen if I mixed my watercolor paint with white gouache; then I discovered your post. It is very helpful. Thanks!
I started with W&N permanent white mixed with watercolours inflenced by Nathan Fowkes, then moved on to using only gouache.I stuck with W&N only because its the one I can get in 37ml tubes although I have gone through a tube of DS which I was happy with...good to see other swatches thanks
You just reminded me that Nathan does that. I wish I had remembered I would have shown his work as an example because it is incredible
Thanks! I live the oastel colours with watercolours. I use Schmincke Akademie Gouache, as they are not expensive (4.99€ for 60ml 😮) As a beginner Indint want them to feel precious so I can play. The titanium white is not shiny in that brand. Thanks for te testing and the beautiful picture, i am amazed how the landscape appeared a little bit after every brush stroke.
I recently got more into opaque mediums and fell in love with gouache. I have many tubes of watercolor, so its nice to know that I can use them together with gouache and they dont go wasted. Though I must say it is a challenge with some pigments to get good covering strength. btw love your paintings
This is really lovely. I want to give this a try.
Great painting and information
I've had M. Graham gouache in my watercolor palette for years! Im so glad to see more talk about using it with watercolor. Its basically just opaque watercolor so it makes sense.
I also love your talk of utilizing gray in landscape. I really need to spend some time focusing on that- as someone who loves bright saturated colors hah
i’ll definitely try the white gouache with my watercolor. Beautiful painting
Excellent demo. I do mix watercolors and white gouache and vice versa. Can't resist. I would love to see more short deep-dives with whites.
Great video....love the effects of mixing watercolor with gouache and the effects og the underpsinting.
Awesome comparison, Sarah! Thanks (gorgeous painting too!)
Thank you Lindsay!
I got a huge tube of MGraham zinc white when I first started painting 6 years ago. It’s gonna last forevvvver.
Hey Sarah, very informative video! Zinc white gouache w/ watercolors is so underrated, I’m glad you showed how useful it can be for those starting with gouache painting.
This was wonderful, I have been working to understand gauch and watercolor together! Now I will experiment and hopefully be able to use it!🙋♀️Thanks. Karen Dirmish, learner
I use W&N titanium white gouache. I mostly only use it to add to watercolour when working on grey or other toned paper (like Strathmore toned) as I like the look of that.
< for coffee! Thank you for everything you do! Love this comparison. 💖
That's really sweet of you, thank you! (and thanks for feeding my coffee addiction 🤣 )
This video was super helpful, as always. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and the beauty of Scotland. Oh, and congratulations on your visa!🎉
The color saturation adjustment tip is really helpful thanks! I tend to use white gouache in watercolor mainly for bright highlights and waves in water but sometimes I also like mixing white in sky gradients, it can give a "softer" feeiling I think :)
Super useful. I would have loved to see how this differs from using only gouache to understand the pros and cons of watercolor + gouache vs. just gouache. But of course, I could try to do this myself. I always learn so much when watching your video. I have done so many gouache paintings recently after watching you. My watercolors have been neglected :). Thank you!
Is this a watercolor set that you just mix with gouache so you don’t have to worry about the gouache contaminating the watercolor or do you give the watercolor a pretty heavy cleaning before the next use of just watercolor? Thanks for the white gouache information.
I Just clean it before the next use
Very interesting video, as well as the ‘techie’ stuff on how we can visualize our gouache desaturated paintings beforehand by playing around with the photo settings ~ thx for sharing…
I haven’t used gouache before, but have been fascinated watching yours & other TH-camrs paint with it & thus would love to try it one day! Actually ~ I think I did buy a tube of white gouache some time ago to do just what you suggested doing here in this video… thanks for all your tips! Your seascape is beautiful 🙌🏼🌊💚🩵🩶
I love this! Just Ike you I love to paint way to vibrant. Must try this! Ty Sarah!
I love to do spontaneous watercoloring,so much fun,awesome video.❤
Thank you Sarah. Great information on the differences in the whites. Love the painting.
This video is incredibly good and informative! Wow! 💐 This is exactly my topic at the moment, using my watercolors as gouache. The Horadam Titanium White makes it opaque without color shift. This is an incredibly great brand. I don't like watercolor because you can't fix mistakes, it puts pressure on me. And I want to set my highlights in the end. I also love the creaminess, watercolours are not satisfaying me any more after trying Gouache 😀
You have made me want to move to Scotland. I have used this technique many times with Winsor & Newton Permanent (PW6). I still don't know what I think. I like it but maybe prefer all gouache or all water color, rather than mixing the two. More sketch book work needs to happen.
This was very interesting ❤
You visit the most beautiful locations
I started using water colors with gouache because there are two colors I love that I couldn't get in gouache, Payne's Gray and Potter's Pink. That opened alot of possiblities when started throwing those in my box with my gouache. I tend to only use Zinc in color mixing but pretty much stick to titanium.
Thank you so much, this was so inspiring. ❤️
Its so beautiful❤... I feel like I have leaned a lot an have more possibilities to work with the colors I have. Just amazing !
Thank you so much!
Thank you, Sarah, for this educational, informative, interesting and very helpful video .
I am quite new on my art journey and coincidentally had recently been wondering about this very topic of possibly adding zinc white gouache to water colour paints and what would happen.
Yes, of course I realise I should actually experiment and try it for myself……and so this video was absolutely perfect.
I also loved the part where you gave a little demo from the Adobe Photoshop programme….wow ….amazing features !
Last year I started playing with gel prints and one of the first things I did was research and learn about the differences between the zinc white and titanium white which was an important factor because of the very different opacities.
I quickly learned that if I used the titanium white as the last layer to pull the print from the gel plate…..all of the previous layers on the plate were obliterated ! 🤭🤭🤭😩😩😳😳🤪🤪
That was a huge lesson in learning about the transparency of the zinc white as opposed to the opaqueness of the titanium white !
I must try this method of white gouache ( I like holbein) and watercolors 🎉🎉🎉 great video!
Thanks Sarah, I tried gouache a few yesterday ago but went back to watercolour as I wasn't too sure of the matt finish, but yours looks great so I will maybe try again.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Really helpful, thanks Sarah!x
When you use gouache with your watercolors, are you concerned about contaminating your watercolor palette with the gouache, or do you use a separate watercolor palette when mixing with gouache? How about brushes - are you using watercolor or gouache brushes? Thanks so much for your wonderful tutorials!
Thank you for this inspiring and helpfull video ❤. And I‘ve experienced the same shine with the Schmincke Horadam Titanium White (and didn‘t have an explanation so far for the shine in my paintings when using a lot of white 😅). Thanks again for sharing!
Very beautiful!❤ I paint with Gouache quite a bit.
Thanks so much, Sarah, this is great info to have!And I LOVE your little painting!!! 💜
Thank you!
Great video! Thanks for this! I was actually just wondering about mixing white gouache and watercolour..
So many different types of whites! When I was at the art store i remembered i was quickly running out of my Holbein white gouache (which worked great as I bought just primaries and white) , but forgot which type of 'white' I had before. Ended up getting the permanent white by Winsor & Newton. Haven't had a chance to test it out and see since I still have a bit left of the other one. I do prefer opaque whites though, so I think i picked what I need.
Hey Sara. I have been following your gouache videos for quite a while and I love them ❤ I have a beginner question. While applying the initial layers (1st or 2nd) the pencil underpainting gets covered with gouache. How do I keep them visible and follow them as my guidelines for adding more details? Thank you 😊
You just read my mind as I was wondering JUST yesterday about the difference between the two whites (and been using titanium white for years but bought zinc white yesterday out of curiosity). Random but isn't this the technique used by Nathan Fowkes? He always has such vibrant and luminous colours mixing watercolours with white gouache (but when I try it, oh man, the mess LOL)
Yes someone else just reminded me that Nathan does that. And his work is INCREDIBLE!
Admit it, you only came here to see what gouache you will put on your Christmas List.
My tubes of WN are all ‘permanent” white which I hope is used interchangeably with “titanium”? In any event, tinting with watercolour does remove a lot of the stress from learning gouache as I find I’m wasting gigantic piles of gouache in the inevitable push pull that is inherent to finding the colour I want in gouache. I love your fearlessness Sarah (and of course the dry brush at the end) _ thanks for this great video! 🇨🇦
I did a gouache painting last night w/ the schmincke horadam white, it also had a glossy finish after drying. The paint arrived last week, so I believe it is just the brand and not the age of it, FYI
It seems to be true, based on other comments
Helpful, Thanks
Now if only we could convince the purists of watercolors that chinese white is indeed a very useful color in a beginner set, the revolution for a stress free society would be complete! 🤣🤣🤣
I used to HATE getting a pan of white in my watercolor palette, it felt like such a waste to me 🤣 not from a "purist" mindset, just from a color-cost perspective. But I agree, I find the purist mindset to be such a turnoff and I think it has wrongly discouraged to many artists from experimenting
@@SarahBurnsStudio I thought so too, I just found it useless. And then, quite recently, I was making a mixing sheet so I had to check it and compare it, and it turned out that it's so much easier to get a nice even pastel coverage than trying to get a very low pigment load on the page. It looks and acts smoother. That was my impression at least.
I'm a beginner in watercolor but a seasoned artist and I've always used white to help toke down strong colors... Didn't realize this was a controversial take
I’m only just trying this technique with watercolour so what white gouache to get is a puzzle! Thank you. I think I only have access to a few brands in Australia where I am W&N, Daniel Smith, Daler Rowney and Art Spectrum an Australian brand which is really good, have you tried it Sarah?
Hi, Sarah! Great video! Very helpful for a watercolor artist, especially. I am waiting with great anticipation for my first gouache kit to arrive. Hope your holidays are merry and bright! Much love ❤️ ❤❤
Excellent! Happy holidays :)
i had the same issue with the horadam white which lead to me needing a replacement. i switched then to the winsor and newton which was a bit better as you said and they shine too and i did not tried other brands after that. which one do you use now?
When a piece compels me to purchase, or is one I’ve sold, it is usually “vibrant”. The few workshops I’ve attended in the last many years have been pushing gray and muted, to the point of a paynes gray wash over top. Not sure if people want moody or inspiring. Think I’m going to make what makes me look forward to the process…and that’s not muted.
I think you are a true artist whether you paint with vibrant colors or explore the greys. Meaningful and subtle results either way. I’ve never seen anyone else on TH-cam cover these topics in the same way. Makes me want to try out what you showed. 😊 Thank you for the thought-inspiring video!