Which brand of gouache gets the MOLDIEST?? Comparing 12 brands (2 month results)
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- čas přidán 6. 08. 2024
- Ever wonder if certain brands of gouache get more moldy than others? Have you ever spent two months of your life observing moldy gouache just for fun? No? Ok. I'll show you what happens when I purposefully let my gouache get moldy in order to compare 12 brands of gouache in airtight travel palettes. Now obviously a normal person wouldn't WANT mold to grow, and usually we take measures to prevent it. But for this experiment I wanted to know if any particular brand was more prone to mold, and in what circumstances.
Just because a brand of gouache might get moldier than others, doesn't mean it's bad! It just means it has certain ingredients that bacteria like to eat. It also means the paint probably doesn't contain biocides. Ultimately that is more natural than others...so is it really a bad thing? It comes down to how you use it.
Video about preventing mold in your gouache palette ➤ • How to prevent MOLD in...
Gouache database ➤ bit.ly/SBgouachedata
Dried gouache palette setup ➤ • How to use DRIED gouac...
00:00 What is it about?
00:58 Experiment parameters
02:06 Phase 01 results (1 month)
04:58 Phase 02 results (2 months)
08:53 Clean up & disinfecting
10:58 Conclusion
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We came for the slime, but we stayed for the well-researched explanation of why some paint develops mold faster than others! It's absolutely correct that the binder is a key factor in how "tasty" paint might be to fungus. Starch-based (dextrin) binders provide nutrients. Some animal-derived pigments like Ivory Black also seem to invite ick. The manufacturer's formulation (what biocides and what amounts) do have a lot of influence over how long colors can stay mold-free. Preservatives can lose potency in storage too, so older stock might sometimes have less protection than when it was new. We're going to watch this again and gross out our team members with that fuzzy, slimy goop!
It's honestly so fascinating! I love learning about this, as gross as it is to find it in the palette 😅 On one hand, knowing a gouache is 'au natural' is kind of charming... on the other hand, give me some biocide so my paint doesn't turn to fuzz!
Thank you for a great comment and additional information on Gouache. I believe it is really important to understand what you use, with everything in life, and the greater the knowledge the better for the user.
Thank you very much for sharing!
Cheers from Madrid!
@@SarahBurnsStudio We know what you mean. Shelf life is a huge part of realizing a good value, because spoiled paint is wasted paint. Educators are also understandably motivated to keep a mold-free classroom, no matter how fascinating these little alien colonies might seem to students!
Thanks for the info.
Keep climate in mind, too. While in our low humidity, near desert valley, I can leave moist gouaches and watercolors with honey in a closed palette without ever seeing mold. Not so in humid Ohio.
Sarah, all of these gouache experiments are such a valuable resource for every gouache user for years to come. Seriously, thank you for all the hard work you put into all of this and for sharing your findings. I'm looking forward to all the new painting videos you'll be making soon, I'm also painting more and more, finally painting outside and also filled with inspiration these last few weeks as our spring has been one of the best we have had in several years. I've taken SO much video and photographs that even when our extremely hot summer keeps me indoors I'll be able to paint from new refs every day. I wish you all the best, and hope you have loads of fun making new paintings and videos. 👋🏼
This. Thank you Sarah!
I'm so glad others might find these kinds of videos helpful. When I get an idea stuck in my had I HAVE to see it through...but the painter inside me is then trapped underneath going GIVE ME TIME TO PAINT 😂
I had great success removing mold, by taking away the obvious visible mold chunks, and then spraying isopropyl alcohol on top of the paint. It won't come back for sure!
As a former science and math teacher, I applaud your well designed and carefully carried out experiments! 🙏🏻 I am also a Virgo, so I found your meticulous procedures to be SO satisfying. 😁 Thank you so very much for doing this experiment AND sharing it with everyone. I, for one, do not have the financial resources to carry out such an experiment myself. You have earned a place among the 😇. Love and hugs.
As someone with 3 graduate degrees in sciences/medicine and specialty board certification, I thought the exact same thing!! That is some excellent “guerrilla” science ❤
Thanks Sarah. A really incredible way to help the community though. It is being appreciated 😊
I was about to say the same thing! Yes, I have been an artist my whole life........BUT I LOVE SCIENCE! That's what I went to university for and what my degree is in and her experiments are so well done!I especially love how she didn't use them first to see what would happen (perfect control group!)
I had a problem with arteza in a pallet even with adding clove oil, it still went very moldy. So I will continue to just use them from the tube. Himi has still done well in a travel pallet and it has been over a month. This was a great review!
Same! My arteza just wants to mold, whereas himi is fine. I'll definitely won't be buying the arteza gouache again, even though I love their colours
Honestly, I’m not surprised Arteza was the first to go. I got a big 96 box of arteza when I was in high school to use for projects, and when I tried getting back into art during the pandemic, it was me constantly narrowing down the tubes I could actually used because they started smelling funky. One day, I opened up my box and noticed a lot of the tubes were really hard to the touch- like pressure had built inside of the actual tube of paint. When I loosened the cap, this weird chemical reaction started with like half of them where they oozed out of the tube at high speed, even if I put them so they were standing straight up. It was that same weird, gooey slime stuff too! Threw them all out and despaired over the waste ;-; but in all seriousness, thank you for the hard work you put into getting this information. Now I know what brands I should focus on to get better quality for my money! :’)))
Oh that is such a bummer! I’ll have to keep an eye on those tubes…
@@SarahBurnsStudio And all the moreso when you rated them so highly as a cheap gouache! So they're great -- but they don't last.
EW. You should’ve recorded it.😨
Wow! Thank you for such an informative review!!
I struggled a lot with a stay wet gouache palette (Daler Rowney, poured into pans). I live in a more humid climate and a few colours were getting mould as quickly as a day in. That said, what I found to really work was to spritz it with isopropyl alcohol in it before putting it away. I don't think there has been any noticeable effect on colour strength etc, so that could be something to try!
I think the type of pigment could affect it as well like if it's an organic pigment. I've had black gouache of multiple brands mold but not any other colors
Your scientific efforts are so appreciated!! I put clove oil in my M Graham gouache palette, but perhaps i didn't add enough to my black one because after perhaps a few months of not touching it (not for science reasons but because i didn't have time for art), that specific one was COMPLETELY moldy. Some PROPER green fuzzy mold 🤢 I don't think i even painted with it, so there can't have been much of or any contamination from brushes or water. It was interesting to see it only happen to one colour. Like i said, i thought it might've been due to the amount of added clove oil, but seeing you had the same issue, I'm definitely suspecting now it may be a colour-related thing for M Graham!
Thank you so much for doing this experiment so we won't have to! That's really good advice at the end about how it's probably not worth using a wet palette for only occasional painting. I like to switch between different materials for each project so sometimes go weeks or months between each medium, so I think a wet palette would give me more worry than convenience! Thanks again 😊
Thank you for all your efforts Sarah, they're greatly appreciated! :)
Thanks for all of this work! You saved me from ruining my M. Graham by keeping it in an airtight palette! Glad I waited for this video.
With some treatment (clove bud oil or similar) you could do it, I'd still recommend using it at least once a week :)
I recognize and value the factitious attention to detail of scientific evaluation, but don't have the patience, so thank you so much❣️
I have a few tubes of professional gouache stored in palettes in my refrig but my favorite is the dry gouache palette by Caren d’ache. I bought this for my grandkids to use and they immediately enjoyed this gouache palette over the kids dry watercolor palettes. What surprised me was that I too really enjoy using it. The palette is larger size than the small travel palettes I use but it is so easy to use and store, no mold issues. It is marketed as student gouache and I believe it is used in European schools. I purchased mine on Amazon, US.
Yes, great idea to keep it in the fridge!
Thank you for doing all these experiments, uploading your findings and even laying it out in the blog as well. These are great resources to use both to use in one offs, comparisons, and to build off of with my own experiments!
It was a great experiment, and it was something I'd worried about that had kept me away from gouache. But I've been watching your videos and it encouraged me to try it and persevere. Usually I paint in oils but I've been enjoying playing with watercolours and now gouache. Thanks for doing the disgusting mould test so we didn't have to - definitely a public service!
I just wanted to comment real quick and say that the himi gouache, I MUCH prefer using it dried. It rewets soo easily and I felt had better smoother coverage. I also have m graham and holbein and I prefer using all of them from dried state in most cases. Preferring to use it dried I have had zero mold issues so far and I feel like my gouache lasts longer.
Thanks for your video's. Enjoy them all.❤
I love my himi gouache but I love using dry watercolours so if I want to use the himi dried do I just literally leave it to dry or is there a special process?
@@purrfectdesignstmwhen mine was fresh newly opened I scooped out some of each color into a empty watercolor palette and yep..just let them dry. Worked great for me. Now the actual cups have dried and I can use the colors from the cups.
I have also added a fair amount of water to the dried cups and let them soak for a day and then stirred them back to creamy constency.
It's a bit fiddly...but I don't mind. I usually reconstitute them when I want to refill my smaller palette.
Good luck and happy painting!
@@Tonisfarm2024 Thank you so much. I will try that. You have just saved me buying a whole new set. 😊
Mold is why I'll always be a dry palette painter 😅 for some reason I always have issues with winsor and Newton phthlalo green, especially the watercolor. It goes moldy even when dry! Such a shame when it's such a pretty colour!
The only problem I ever had with contaminated gouache was the himi- after letting it sit unused for to long. I trashed it.
Good to know about the m graham, though I find it odd that only the black went sour. Thanks for the info!
Thank you so much for doing this! I knew about serious mold issues with Arteza, but didn't realize that M. Graham had them too. I totally tossed the Arteza after my 3rd mold issue. Even though I used your suggestions in the episode on maintaining a wet palette, I still had mold issues despite using them consistently. Since then, I've really been trying to purchase art supplies made in the US, so of course I had to get M. Graham. I've been diligently using your suggestions from the moment I set up my palette and so far so good! On another note, I also picked up some Holbein Acrylic gouache, and haven't had any issues with those at all and haven't done anything to maintain the palette. I use them only infrequently because for some reason, whenever I use any kind of acrylic paint, I make such a flipping mess while painting, and then can't dispose of the water down the drain because we are on a septic system. I don't think I am going to replace them once I use them up.
I hope your M Graham palette continues to work fine! I think if you don’t keep it closed too long, and not too much moisture in there it will be OK. Btw I’ve had some in my ‘dried palette’ for a few weeks now, and love it.
@@SarahBurnsStudio I am going to have to give that a try. It would definitely be so much easier to deal with.
Totally just opened up a moldy M graham palette...it was closed for 2 weeks...sigh....I am setting up a dried palette of my M Grahams.
Thanks for the information. I am trying Daniel Smith gouache that I dried in palette. I hope you and Wolfie had a wonderful Easter. I can’t wait for more videos 😊
I REALLY like Daniel Smith in my dried palette
Wow! Impressive! I have never had mold on my gouache, Talens and Holbein. They have been left for months at a time. Well done Sarah.
Thank you for taking one for the team and testing!
Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this experiment! It's such a gift to the art community.
This is a really thorough experiment, very interesting to watch 😊
Thank you for doing this whole experiment and sharing it with us!!! 🙏
Lot of work Sarah and it is appreciated.
Than you for sharing the results of your experiments! I find it quite interesting.
I so appreciate how much effort you have put into this investigation, Sarah! Your generosity with content does not go unnoticed. You are a sweetheart ❣️
Thank you so much, Sarah! The amount of work you put into this is amazing!
This is a really brilliant video. Thank you for doing all of this research - it's fantastic to learn all of this stuff!
amazing as always sarah! such helpful content!! i really appreciate all the effort and blogs you put together. its clear just how passionate you are about gouache! ❤
🎨🖌️❤ Thank you for all of your hard work Sarah. I appreciate your research and all that you share.
Thank you for this epic journey, Sarah! I always learn something new and useful from your videos - and the knowledge enhances my enjoyment of painting and art and beautiful things ❤ Plus which, somehow I come away from your videos (even ones with moldy yuck!) feeling joyful and inspired. Yay!
I wanna see you paint! I love all of your videos but I especially love to watch you paint ❤. You are so talented and your paintings are amazing!
Hi Sarah, thank you for sharing this amazing research you did on gouache. It was so interesting and very useful to know all of this ! ❤
Interesting and pretty good results to only have 2 with obvious mold! Have to say, as someone without a million tubes of gouache, it was hard to see all of it being tossed 😂. It did remind me to take out my stay wet gouache palette that I started around end of Jan. No mold and everything still looks like new (relieved!!)… there will be no tossing of gouache today 😅. So fun to have all those empty palettes ready to fill!
Yea I cried a little inside when I cleaned out the palettes. But I was certain there must have been stuff growing unseen and as much as I paint, I can't handle THAT many palettes / colors at one time 😂
Very interesting, indeed. Thanks for all this work. Also, kudos to the containers for being good at keeping the paint in good condition.
Thanks so much for these comparisons! I look forward to all the paintings you are going to do with all the gouache now :)
Thank you so much! I'll buy a coffee to keep me awake after all this research 😉
Wow that’s a great amount of time, data, & interesting details about gouache. I am super excited & thrilled with the results & will definitely be diving deeper into the information you have provided on your website data base. 💕🎨Thanks for sharing this valuable information with us. Can’t wait to see how your month of April 🌸🌼🌻painting results go! Have a great weekend! 🥰
Hi Sarah. Jim, from Madrid -Spain - again...
Awesome video!!!! For real!
Best video I've seen on a real study on Gouache with so many brands... Incredible! You told me you were doing your thing and... all I can say is... keep doing it! Nobody else is... so, awesome!
There's so much information you can gather with these analysis... Good for you!
Cheers from Madrid! 😁👍
I was very interested in the results of your experiment. I found with my own paints, earth colors such as umber and sienna molded faster than other colors. Thanks for sharing your results
Such a helpful video. Makes me want to try this with Casein and see what happens
I never comment on CZcams videos but this is an incredible job keeping track and behavior of the paint, it helps me for future purchases of other goauche brands, thank you!
Lots of work, thanks. Since I am an off and on person, I’ll just stick with my let it dry palette. But I do have a bottle of clove oil now. Also I am enjoying your daily short videos outdoors.
Thank you for all this info!!
Excellent results. Yes Sarah, go out and happy painting now! After all, that’s the paint… I mean the point! But I want to thank you very much for the results and your scientific approach. Really good and valuable informations here. Wish you the best!
Thank you for work , much appreciated. Look forward to more painting but also maybe a lightfastness test of the gouache.
Yes I’ll report about the lightfast results after a few months (started them in February)
Hi Sarah, thank you so much for doing the hard, interesting, insightful work! I appreciate it very much .Now I'm looking forward to seeing more of your painting videos again. Couldn't you have used the other colours that weren't mouldy? I believe you that it hurt to throw away all the colours. But you have so many different tubes that we can look forward to many new videos. Besides your beautiful DS watercolours. Have a lovely sunday. Thank you again, Gabi
Thank you so much for your in depth advice on gouache, mold, dry versus wet comparisons. All of this information is extremely useful to amateur painters like myself. I appreciate the hard work, your methodical scientific approach and the time you were prepared to spend on these investigations out of a busy artist's working schedule. Clearly you are very dedicated to your art and to helping others achieve similar results under the best possible conditions. As a pensioner, I appreciate especially the variety of brands you have used to suit all budgets.
Thank you Sarah, you are just BRILLIANT. X
I'm so glad!
From my experience the oroblem w mold is more w certain colours than brands. In my Schmicke pallet I always get mould in Delft blue and Indigo while other colours stay fine. I have tried brushing w strong vinegar after taking away the obvious mould and it helped w Delft Blue but not with Indigo, there the mould came back. So I brushed w a preservative from Sennelier I think is used when making ones own paints and now I wait for the result in about a week, I hope it works, I hate wasting paint and Schmicke is so expensive but also such good quality I do not want to stop using it.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us 🙂.
Thanks so much Sarah. Incredibly helpful💐👌❤️
Here for the news! I have issues from time to time with my M Graham molding ..but ..I live in the humid South (Tennessee) and am prone to using old paint water...likely a contaminant source. The clove oil definitely helped!!
Thanks for sharing and for your experimentation! I'm a bit sad about M Graham as I love their paints but so long as I'm careful I think I'll be ok. I also use their watercolors and not their gouache at the moment. I haven't tried gouache yet but am doing my research. lol Definitely enjoy your variety of videos!
I found you because my alizarin crimson watercolor was the only color that has molded in my palette. This series was so fun and informative, im definitely going to be more careful with my paints in the future 😅
Interesting and Thank you for all the time and money you put into this. I have a few M Graham and will keep them in tube until I use them. Ugg.
So interesting that the cheapest and most expensive Gouache were the ones that got moldy. Thanks for doing this. I know it was a lot of work. Save the brand videos for the winter months. Get outside!
Thankyou for the informative video, I think that what it will come down to most is climate, I live in the Uk like you and feel fortunate that when it is hot it’s not humid. This helps save our art supplies from mould more than anything I think.
I agree, very fortunate that way!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I kept wondering why my M. Graham gouache kept getting moldy in my dry palette. I guess I'm only going to use it from the tube and only enough for my current session.
Great testing of the brands! I wonder what is in Arteza that grows mold so quickly. M. Graham makes sense, since they use honey. Gum arabic is also a natural ingredient, so mold could naturally occur after time. The water of course adds many contaminates that might react with the paints. And I think overall the experiment says as much about how good those sealable palettes are as it does the gouache! I've been tentative about trying a sealable palette because I hate to waste paint, but now I am sure that they would last in one long enough for me to use them up.
Great test Sarah, I will pass info off to DS.
I always enjoy watching your videos, but it occured to me when I started watching that this might not be the best video to watch while eating dinner. xD
Gonna continue watching in a moment, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the results from your experiment. Thanks for your hard work and effort!
Fair enough 😂
@@SarahBurnsStudio Just finished the video and - yuck! Thanks for the things you do for science (and us)!
It makes me realize that I'm definitely someone who shouldn't bother with a stay wet palette, because I paint too infrequently and the chances of mold growing would be too great. Thanks for the educational video!
Haha, darn well the Arteza is the one I have. Oh well, I'll just be careful. Thanks for the thorough testing and review!!!
What an interesting experiment! I also have one of the small palettes set up with Schmincke Designers Gouache and some from Royal Talens and your video reminded me of it. I set it up about 9 month ago and I used it approximately each week for about 2 month. Took a break an used it at the end of last year again. So far I had no issues till then. Your video made me look into it again and this time I hat a bit of an unwelcome surprise. The Schmincke Black came to life. The rest was good, but some dried up a bit.
So I cleaned it and my goal is to use up the rest of the colours in next two to three weeks. After that I'm going to set it only up when I use that pallette again and with the only the amount of paint I can use. 😅
I primarily have arteza and m graham gouache and had given up on my wet palette. If I get more different brands I will maybe give it another try. It was nice to se le that it’s not just weird user error on my part
Thanks for the video Sarah. I've had my himi gouache about a year now. I've only used them about 4 times (I've been unwell) and probably only open and spray them every 3-4 weeks and they're doing really well. No mould and going strong.
As good as double blinded randomised controlled trial...such great research
You are they dedicated. Your time and efforts are greatly appreciated and the information you share in an easy-to-understand format. I do a lot of different things in our household and I have learned through extension services from colleges and health departments cetera, white vinegar at 5% acidity what kill 99.9% of germs. I will reach for the vinegar before I reach for the bleach, So when I wipe out my pallets or clean my table tops or whatever a mix of 50% vinegar 50% water. If I need more sanitation, ie stronger , I will use straight vinegar. I'm not a big fan of the chemical disinfectants, your skin absorb some and you breathe the vapors oh, you get the point. Like they have a mineral spirit cleaner that is odorless, still a chemical and it still has Vapors that you will be breathing you just don't get to smell them. Have attended many painting classes where people use odorless mineral spirits and a closed room several of us end up with extreme headaches after a couple of hours. I love your videos I watch them multiple times, and I hear something or learn something I didn't catch the first time around. Keep up the good work
Sarah, this interesting. I am not actually surprised about the chalkier paint of the Arteza and black paint of the M Graham being mouldy. The only paints I have ever had go mouldy are my cheaper student grade Mont Marte watercolour set, the Ochre and the Black. This occurred when I moved to a very temperate, very wet highland area of Australia and it rained for nigh on six months constantly. Is it actually the pigments???? Anyway…. I was so excited when you suggested this experiment and super thrilled with your results. Thank you for this. It was so cool!
Excellent research and conclusions, Sarah! I wish you had been my lab partner back in school days!😄
😂🤓
I used to have several tubes of Maimeri gouache and I generally liked them when I used them either straight from the tube or dried first. I quickly learned though that their paints mold FAST if you try to keep them in a stay-wet palette. I never had any problems with mold until I introduced those paints and I still get mold in the palette that I used to have them in (after cleaning and spraying with alcohol once a week). I finally had to start all over with a brand new bought palette and no Maimeri at all. They're still great straight from the tube, but that's it.
Thank you, thank you so much for your experiments! I have learned a lot from them.
But now, I think gouache is kinda strict, not as easy-going as I thought😂😂
Thankyou Sarah. Very helpful. I have a few Holbein and Schminke gouache colours so it’s good news for me. I added clove leaf by mistake (instead of clove bud). Keeping an eye on them. It’s been a few months and they all still look ok. Hope I haven’t just jinxed myself 🥴
I’m guessing clove leaf oil is similar, just maybe not as strong? I think it should be fine if you are using them regularly
Great video. I was using a brand called Öberton, is a cheap option in Mexico and I tried to have a wet pallet to carry everything but just after 5 days a lot of colors were completely invaded by fungus.
I guess the super moisty summer environments didn’t help.
I tried everything: water with vinegar, alcohol. I replaced them and tried to keep them super clean. Nothing worked until i followed your advice and i used clove oil. That fixed the problem pretty much
Interesting, I’ve never heard of it! Thanks for letting me know
Keep them in the fridge. Use distilled H20 (water) when painting with Gouache, especially Jelly types. Just make sure no one eats them if you put them in the fridge lol. Mold spores are prevalent most everywhere. I use the fridge when I am not going to use them for a while. If you do reactivate use distilled water, least contaminants.
Dear Sarah,
So, first of all thanks for the experimenting in your home environment, your lungs, your paint loss, your time and morbid curiosity.
My questions which may be answered in your next video, are about the gouache in the pocket painter.
What brand?
&
Did it dry completely, or could you put your finger on a hard outside shell, with movement inside each gouache half pan?
I really liked the teaser pictures, the cutting in of the shapes and shadows, the chiseled fast patches of beautiful tertiary green colour mixes, showing the type of brush, it's shape, and the speed and confidence in which you paint over the blue mountains.
You have really taken your gouache seriously, and you are a top painter now.
Just working on things regularly naturally improves us, but I think after you took that course on rock chiseling mountain form shapes, with a trainer, I can't recall, I think the way you looked at shadows and planes changed.
Like each mountain was a cute little roof in Scotland, and the arrow showed the direction, the way the slope, water and snow fall off it.
You have always liked painting and drawing rocks, but it is just after this learning, and more practice lately, is when I think your work changed for the better about how to see things differently, including in planes of tree canopies.
(Question: If you know the artist trainer and video I am remembering, I would like to look at that one of yours again?)
My colour and design teacher, Olivia from TAFE, a shorter dear old lady who made her own dresses out of old linen, and laughed a lot, but was very serious about how we worked. We as student's then, had to get the Designer's Gouache in 1993 by Winsor and Newton, and we only had the two blues, two yellows, two reds, a large tube of white and black. We may have been allowed a vermillion as the warm red, and I think we had a bright violet. We weren't allowed to buy a green.
We may have had one other, say Art Spectrum an Australian brand in our art stores here, but really no other choice in Australia back then.
We had one of the first flower porcelain palettes with the shiny glazes. We let our gouache dry on this. We had to learn to mix quite a bit of each colour for large areas of flat, matte design.
I do recall how it got a bit translucent with more water to wet it, also I think if we had to add more tube to it. I think we had to colour match, and match the opaqueness, so the colours left on our palette by the end of the exercise, became more transparent. I recall having go to go over areas again to get the opacity back, which seemed simple enough, except that the drying shift meant it was lighter or darker, but having the "clue" from the last lesson dry on the mixing palette, gave us a better idea of how to remix it, and match it both dry, and whetted.
Questions: Do you find these above issues with your hard half pans? Or colour mixed and dried on the palette?
I recall the 8 or 12 ml tubes, Cadmium Yellow, an opaque colour to start with, series 5 back then, small tubes cost a fortune, but so little was used. Lemon yellow. I think we had three blues, Ultramarine, Cobalt and Prussian. I think we had a crimson as carmine lake we knew to be fugitive. I am pretty sure we had to buy both whites. The mixing white was always Chinese white.
Mixing Tip: Always mix a butterfly's breath of the darkest tone, or strongest hue into the lightest colour, not the other way around. Add more of the dark to the lightest, until right. Save paint this way! We had to do all kinds of exercises to do with colour theory. So what we painted wasn't really the key. Rather, just complete the exercise.
It was more like colouring in though, one exercise was to first make the colour wheel in mixes, then with each complementary opposite on the colour wheel, adjust them to the same degree of tint by adding white. When they were exactly the same tone, after squinting at the mixes, and testing them, we had to place these same values together they would "sizzle". Cad Orange plus white and blue plus white works well for this. A great movement and shimmer happens.
Yellow and white next to Violet and white was difficult to get, as violet is naturally a real lot darker in value than yellow. As you say, you want to learn all about gouache, it simply can not be done with other paint, as it is too shiny, to textured, too plastic, or too transparent to see what you are doing.
Hence Designer's Gouache was great for film photography, printing things, colour separation, and at that time was still used for all artistic magazine designs from about 1930's to 2000. Egg based Tempera or poster paint would be cousins to gouache.
Question: Have you ever accidently made a sizzle?
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little story. I have bought some M Graham, Schmincke and W & N Designer gouache tubes recently, and would love to do a design with Sunflowers, with a burnt sienna and white, and a cornflower blue, and I will mix a kind of DS Serpentine green. Add white to everything, with only a few hues for choice. I put these gouache downstairs in our garage in a box. I bought a stay wet palette, still empty, so I think you have made me figure out, that I can go back to drying them again. :) That is why a little palette with deep wells is important to keep the opaqueness, and creamy consistency, with very little water, so that a lot can be made, and more can be made to match the next week.
Question: Do you think they will keep well in the tubes, unopened?
PS Van Gogh's work always makes me cry tears of joy, and all of his famous works are tertiary! He takes the edge off with a touch of complimentary.
PPS Did you know we have violet shadows with our yellow sun, but we always see the complimentary colour eg a green light, produces a reddish shadow.
Thanks Sarah for getting me interested again, particularly in this video, in humid Australia is always a concern, as well as whatever floats around us in the millions.... I loved doing it then, and I will be getting them up to work the same way I did years ago, and I really love your work. I think these mountain ones that I love of yours above, in the next video, would be nice made into book cover labels, with lines for a description.....
In kindred spirit,
Eliza Most Beautiful Day is Today!
16th of April 2023
11:27pm
bed office
Dulwich Hill, Sydney Australia.
xx
Wow thanks for sharing this. Great info. Would the same be true for watercolor?
I was squealing to Arx when I saw the results were finally in, he looked at me like I was crazy 😆Thank you so much for this!!
Haha only true paint nerds understand!
Thanks for this test. I have some Magicfly gelli gouache, which is similar to Mia Himi (I think Mia Himi may have bought out their gouache line,) and after almost 2 years, most of the colors are mostly dried and cracking, but with rewetting (instructions suggest equal parts glycerin and water to get back to gelli consistency,) they're still usable, but painting is more like the experience of other gouache when dried and not the luscious and yummy texture of pudding as when they were new. But there is NO MOLD. I live in Maryland and the climate is fairly moderate so I'm hoping I won't have too many mold probs and have had none so far. And I do have other pro brands of gouache & wc and like everyone else, Ive heard if the mold problem w/M. Graham and would only use it from the tube. 👍
Fun video! Thanks for doing the work for us :)
When you talk about using a wet palette at 12:46 , are you referring to the masterson sta-wet (I think that's how they spell it)? If so, have you seen any version where one could separate colors within the palette somehow? I love that thing for home and I wish there were a way to travel more easily with it.
Thanks for the video, Sarah, and your pleinAirpril has been AWESOME!
I'm referring to these small airtight palettes. I don't think I've seen any like the Mastersons that has individual wells
I’ve only used HIMI jelly gouache so far, and I’ve had my palette for a few years now, but no mold, even though it is not air tight, and I spritz it with water as often as I actually use it to paint with, and I lived for 9 months in Oregon where it was extremely humid.
As a beginner to gouache I really love HIMI, even if the colors aren’t lightfast!
This was very interesting. I decided to try the dry palette after watching your video. And I must say I was getting tired of the mess with the little square palette I have like the one you show in the video. That’s why I decided to try it dry. So I grabbed some more half pans got out my portable painter since I don’t use it for watercolor and quickly realized that it requires different size pans. 😡But I rammed mine in there and it just barely closed. Ha! I did find however using a drop or 2 of clove oil in my stay wet palette and never had a problem with any brand of my gouache. And I love m Graham mostly for its affordability compared to Winsor and Newton, Holbein, or Schminke But there are some colors I will only buy in those brands. I wonder if they all would’ve produced mold over time and the 2 without the chemical additive just gave it up earlier because they don’t contain it. But all the more reason to have it in there I guess! I ‘m rambling. Great video!
Yea I discovered that about the 1/2 pan size too. I think I heard that W&N half pans fit? Anyways, glad yours works. Im loving my dried gouache palette too
Thank you so much for this! I have been wanting to do an experiment like this but never got around to it. I can say that Arteza molds!!!! I had a horrible experience in school where I kept my premixed colors in little airtight paint cups and within a week they were furry 😢🤢🤮. Needless to say I threw them out and my project was delayed. I also found out Arteza is not lightfast either like they claim…😢. However thanks again for another wonderful video and I hope my artwork becomes as excellent as yours! ❤
That’s too bad. I do like the Arteza Earth Tones set, for how affordable it is. I guess it’s just one of those brands you can use from the tube and that’s about it
This was fascinating and kind of gross - but mostly fascinating. Thanks for sharing your mad artistic science, Sarah!
Whatta dedication to Gouache 👏👏👏👏
Try using Zoraida flora concentrated you dilute it and it’s very gentle hope this helps sarah
M. Graham paints, as long as you’re careful and use clove oil while refilling and a spritz of alcohol on top, they won’t mold. Before I found ways to avoid it, those even got mold on dry palettes, especially blacks, greens and purples. I bet it’s the honey in the formula, and my city’s warm humid climate that favors the little critters. I have distilled water with a dropper bottle to reactivate paints too, because I have a dried gouache palette and a wet one. In defense of paints without biocide, I found out there are people who are very sensitive to that particular chemical, and react to it, causing rashes or irritation in the airways. So to find paint that doesn’t have it and learn alternate methods of prevention, is actually better for their health.
I think i have most issues with oooolllddd tubes. Mostly second hand purchased ones. But only one color consistently molds, my yard sale purchased turner red ochre. Unless i let it dry completely, little green fuzzies eventually pop up. Got a ton of colors at that sale but that one is just extra feisty. I just use dry palettes or strait from the tube now. No more green fuzzy balls in my paint that way.
I have himi and turners in a stay wet palette for 3 years and haven’t had a single mold scare
Thanks, Sarah! I was interested to see this because I’ve lost my stay-wet gouache palette when we moved in November and I’m wondering what I’m going to find when it finally turns up! 😂 Once a palette has had moldy paint in it, is the disinfectant really enough to sanitize it?
So far so good!
Having used MG quite a bit. The only color I have ever had grow anything has been Ivory Black. I don't know if anyone else has ever had other colors grow, that where not cross contaminated anyway. I don't think the honey is any issue at all... but the heavy organic pigment load on the ivory black seems to be the issue. I have just stopped putting that one in my continues palette.
I have 60 arteza that won’t get out in pallet. I’d probably use a fresh pallet knife to take them out.. no dirty brushes. ❤
Great experiment! Very informative. What do you think the ambient temperature was during that time? Here in middle Tennessee where the ambient temperature in my house is 68 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit M.Graham will grow spectacular mold colonies... green and hairy! Currently using the clove bud oil with great results although occasionally I get a sheen from the oil plus the scent gave me a headache at first. BTW, M.Graham gouache has even attracted ants here! 🐜🐜🐜
Yes I think that definitely plays a roll too. I heard from a lot of people that things get moldy faster in hot/humid southern climates which makes sense...might just be more spores in the air in general
So interesting, thank you! 🤗💖😊 that arteza was nasty, lol!!!
I dont do anything to my palette and I never seen mold on it, had it for over a year. Am I just not looking right ..I did add a winsor newton blending medium from the beginning to it. But i dont clean it much anymore and dont see any mold I think. Some colors are just hard
I started a gouache pallet with different brands of paint. I didn't know anything about mold. I found that the M.Graham brand had the most mold..I checked the binders in M.Graham it has honey as one of the binders. It is my knowledge that sugar (honey) can feed mold. Not using M.Graham in my pallet.
Funnily enough, my W&N Designers Black was the worst mouldy gouache I had. It was an older tube and once I cleaned out the black from my palette and tossed the tube, I haven't had many issues, even though most of my gouache is M Graham.
Hi Sarah! I've been painting with watercolor for several months, and ~tHe AlGoRiThM~ decided I needed to learn about gouache too and led me to your channel, so I've now adopted you as my Gouache Guru (Gouaru?). Hope you don't mind. 😁
I've started playing around with the Arteza gouache, because it was a cheap option to start with (24 tubes for $25), and I've been having a lot of fun combining it with my watercolor to add extra layers and depth in ways watercolor just can't even. Eventually I want to narrow down my color choices and upgrade to M. Graham because they're semi-local and reasonably affordable. I'm in the general Seattle area, but Daniel Smith thinks his paint is made out of diamonds or something, so Portland is close enough.
Aaaaanyway, I have a question re: clove bud oil. Is there a specific kind one should search for? A quick Google/Amazon search turns up a bunch of clove bud essential oils, but really nothing that is specifically labeled as "clove bud oil." Is there a difference? Or is just anything specifically labeled as clove *bud* oil good enough? If I'm going to buy "premium" gouache, I want to do everything I can to make sure it remains usable, since the cost of EVERYthing has gone Space Shuttle Mode in the last year.
Thanks!
Clove bud oil (essential oil) is stronger than regular clove oil. Dentists use it, so it’s safe, but should be diluted
Gouru would work bc it’s pronounced like Guru.
your so calm, do you get angry and discouraged? I have such inner frustration to deal with before I can settle down and create.
Yes, of course. I'm human! If you ask my husband, he'd admit that almost every single time I paint, I have a tantrum because it doesn't turn out how I want it to. But then I learn from it and move on :)
I'm addicted to the learning process, not the results.