Any tips for using gouache?

[NinAcTi0N]

Hey everyone, how are you all doing? ^^

I bought a gouache kit today with the primaries + black and white, and really wanted to get more into the medium, but I'm really longing for any tips and tricks you guys might have towards it!

Stuff such as: what material should I use as a palette for the paint? Or- can I use gouache in a watercolor-esque approach? Which techniques are your favorites and which bits and bobs are recommended?

Curious to hear from you guys!

[celestefem]

personally, i use a diy stay wet palette. there are quite a few tutorials for this, but i just took the lid from a butter tub and cut some paper towels and a piece of parchment paper to fit in it, and got them damp. it seems to work well enough, but you’ll still want to mist it with a little spray bottle every once in a while.

you *can* technically water gouache down a lot and try to use it like watercolor, but i’ve found that it doesn’t really flow the same way as watercolor, if that makes sense? and it’s quite a bit more opaque, even when watered down, so you might lose your sketch.

i think what works best for me is to do watercolor backgrounds and gouache foregrounds/details, but i haven’t really experimented much with it, honestly… excited to see what you come up with, though, and hope you like working with it!