My Favorite Supplies for Painting with Gouache

Hello, thanks for checking out my blog! I’m Daphne Vantine, a gouache artist living in Medford, MA with my husband, Mark - we’re newlyweds - still getting used to that!

18 months ago, I decided to put a pause on my corporate sales life and see if I could make this full time artist thing work. A huge part of that exploration was finding supplies for painting with gouache that made me feel successful and happy with my resulting artwork. I was gravitating heavily towards gouache paint right after I quit my job and figured I had nothing to lose - so I jumped right in.

Up until that point, I had been doing digital art on my ipad after work for about a year. It had been a lovely outlet, but after that year, I was feeling burnt out from looking at an iPad at night directly after staring at a laptop screen all day. I was feeling a calling towards an analog art medium. 

In my first few weeks of "funemployment," I found myself in a Blick Art Supplies store in Cambridge, MA (still my happy place) staring at a shelf of gouache paint. It was overwhelming, but I had done enough research with some other artists on Instagram/Youtube to get an idea of what was considered high quality, and what wasn’t. Fortunately, Blick is pretty top shelf to begin with, so naturally I couldn’t go wrong. I landed on a 12 set of Holbein traditional gouache. Thus began my love affair with this new medium.

Over the past 18 months, I’ve developed a list of my go-to supplies for painting with gouache. My hope is that this list gives you more insight into my process. And if you’re wanting to get started with gouache, or just want to learn more about my favorite materials, this one’s for you! I’ll be going over the basic materials that are essential to my process, then will divulge the more “nice to haves.” Now let’s get into it…

My essentials

Pencils

I have one single blackwing pencil and I have been using it for a few years now. I’m not a big pencil nerd but you can certainly deep dive on it if sketching with pencils exclusively is your primary goal. However, for me, pencils are a very small part of my process. I use them to get the basic shapes down on my paper and don’t fuss about it much more than that. That said, I wouldn’t recommend a mechanical pencil. For me, the tip is just too fine and tends to create too crisp of a line that is hard to erase later in the process.

Eraser

The kneaded eraser from Faber Castel is a fabulous option if you hate eraser shavings. You can roll it into a little snake like you did with playdough as a kid and roll it over your sketch with light pressure to just barely just erase away the sketch. I like to avoid pencil marks coming through the paint, and this is a great way to retain the essence of your sketch but still remove most of the pencil. Plus you can control exactly how much of the pencil you want to remove depending on the pressure you apply - much easier than a traditional eraser.

Paint

Holbein traditional gouache is my favorite. I got started with their 12 tube set and I still haven’t finished most of the tubes I started with! A little goes a very long way with gouache, so don’t be surprised if your tubes last a long time, as well. White will go a lot quicker, so I tend to buy an extra large tube of that, and I'm only on my second tube so far.

Brushes

The Princeton Velvetouch synthetic brushes are my favorite. I have several different ones I’ve picked up, but I most commonly use the 5 or 6 Round, 1 Round and 20/0 Round. My work tends to be very detailed and small scale, so these come in handy. However, when blocking in a large area of paint, I may use an 8 Round or ½” Wash Brush. You might default to just buying a set of brushes however I find it best to just choose a few small ones to get a feel for the medium, and then add to your repertoire over time. I find I use really only 2 brushes for almost every project - this will certainly change based on how large you work.

Paper

If you read nothing else on this list, read this. I’m a snob about paper. IMO, there is one paper that is far and away the best, and that is Arches. It happens to be the most expensive, but it is worth it every time. Once I discovered arches, it proved to me how important high quality materials are. I wasn’t truly satisfied with my work until I started using this paper. I began with the hot press (smooth texture) but soon realized the cold press (rougher texture) was where it’s at. For me, cold press absorbs the water the best and gives your art that real fine art paper look. Arches comes in pads and blocks - for blocks, you’ll want to have a palette knife on hand or can use a butter knife from your kitchen to release the top layer of paper from the block.

Easel

There are times when painting with gouache (especially if you use a lot more water in your work) that painting flat is preferred. This is because gravity can cause your paint to “pool” at the bottom of the section you’ve painted. Therefore, there are times, especially when I’m using more water to do a wash or blend certain areas that I keep my paper flat while painting/drying. However, most of the time, I’m not using much water and don’t run into this issue as much. And if you’re an old lady like me, craning your neck down towards the table can be uncomfortable. That’s why I use a tabletop easel like this one. It provides the right angle for me to comfortably paint for long stretches. 

Tape

I love a light colored painters tape. This is helpful to keep your paper at the right angle, or along the edges to fame your piece. There’s nothing like pulling the tape back at the end to see that crisp white border around the edge! What I love about the Arches Cold Press is that it bonds very well with the tape. I’ve used other papers and when removing the tape, the paper can rip. Never once has that occurred with Arches. 

Palette

When using gouache or watercolor paint, you are going to need a sealed, ceramic palette. Plastic may work, but I sometimes find, depending on the finish, the paint beads and becomes impossible to work with. A butcher tray like this one is super user friendly as it’s small enough to travel with, but big enough that you can get a lot of paint mixing done before having to clean it off!

Reference images

There are many ways to paint, but I do best with a visual reference. My personal opinion is that the best art is created when you reference images from your own life experiences. This means snapping pics out in the world, or setting up still lives in your home. For me, this can also mean using my iPad and Procreate to digitally collage different photos I’ve taken to create the composition I’m looking for. Most importantly, use your own reference photos as much as possible to avoid violating copyright, falling into trend traps, and to create art that is authentically you.

Nice to Haves

BrushWell

I got away with just a water cup for at least a year, and you can too. You certainly don’t need any fancy brushwell to start. I have just found I can get into a better groove when I can paint for long stretches without having to change my water as often. 

Canvas lamp

This is a beloved lamp for the artist community. It has different color settings and intensities for you to achieve the right amount of light, and even has an easy-to-use camera mount if you’d like to film your process. I am hot and cold on filming - I find it can cause undue pressure and I prefer to just live in the moment most of the time. BUT it is without a doubt the easiest setup for light + filming if you’re into that kind of thing.

Spray bottle

Unlike other paints, traditional gouache paint can be reactivated on your palette. Not to be confused with acrylic gouache, which cannot be. This is one of the major reasons I prefer traditional gouache. You can squeeze out a bit of paint, and if you don’t use it all up, you can simply reactivate it later. You can certainly just dip your brush into water and use it to reactivate the paint, but when you’re just looking for a tiny spritz, the spray bottle can come in handy. 

Ipad

This is something I don’t love to admit, but I’m not great at sketching. At least, it’s a part of the process I don’t enjoy as much. That’s why I use my ipad to sketch digitally, so I can easily erase and refine the sketch before committing it to the paper. Like I said, the paper is expensive, so I like to have my sketch finalized before any marks are made. I use an app called procreate to put together a line drawing of my composition, then print it out on 8.5x11” printer paper.

Lightboard

Once I have my printed sketch, I use a lightboard to trace my digital sketch onto the art paper with my Blackwing pencil. You can get away with using the light of your ipad or a bright window, too.

Paper Cutter

This is absolutely essential for cutting paper into different shapes or sizes from the original pad. Let’s say you have a 9x12 pad, but want to paint on 5x7 pieces. A paper cutter is the easiest and fastest way to achieve this. Any scraps of paper that are remnants from cutting turn into little test swatch pieces for me, which I love to keep as mementos.

Scanner

Should you want to create prints of your work, or simply take your designs onto the computer for further editing, scanning your works is the best way to accomplish that. I use the Epson V600 Scanner. It’s the major tool that’s allowed me to bring my artwork to the masses via prints and cards!

Printer

I also use an Epson XP-15000 to create prints and cards. I’m transitioning away from printing in-house as it’s become too time consuming for me, however it’s great to have on hand if you’re just starting out and aren’t comfortable placing large print orders elsewhere. I still use it very often for prints I’m testing out in the market, or for ones that my print shop cannot get right - yes, my home printer can actually deliver better color quality sometimes. It's no one's fault, it's just that every printer is different and sometimes you like one version over the other. That's why I like to keep mine on hand for one offs like that, and leave the rest to my local print shop.

Digital Tools

Photoshop

Once my paintings have been scanned in, I use photoshop to do some light editing - remove little pieces of fuzz that got stuck under paint, or flecks of dust that might have been stuck to the scanner glass.

Lightroom

Once that step is complete, I’ll bring the file over to Lightroom for some color adjustments. I always print the first print without any adjustments to see how my printer is processing it. It’s crazy how much variation there can be from the computer screen to the printed version and this will change from printer to printer, as well. So it’s important for me to get a baseline print done first, to minimize any unnecessary edits. Then I begin making minimal tweaks to colors and printing a new version, and so on and so forth. Usually I get it right around version 5. I also have to go through this process with my print shop too, but once we have it right, we can use that file any time in the future.

By carefully selecting the right supplies for painting with gouache, you can set yourself up for success and fully enjoy the process of working with this medium! Have any questions about tips and tricks, materials, or selecting the right tools to get started? Drop a comment below or reach out to me here.