Can Gouache Be Dried and Used Again

Reactivating dried gouache in palette

This topic has 26 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 1 year, ix months ago by Amuse Moderator Watercolour Forum.

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May 6, 2016 at 2:36 am #994056

Hi all, how are y'all? It's been a while. I take a big gouache palette that closes shut .. gift from a friend. Anyhow I haven't used it in a few months and some of the colors are quite dry. They basically handle like watercolor at present .. you lot get them wet and scrub them and they basically become a thin watery layer on tiptop. I like to pigment gouache very thick and opaque. Final night I added a bit of water to the dry ones and put the chapeau dorsum on to seal them. I don't recollect this will restore the thick, creamy gouache I had before. Anyone accept recommendations? I want it thick and opaque again. Thank you.

One or two drops of glycerine may practise the trick. Works with watercolor, but non sure about the results on gouache.

regards
Jay

I have taken to using a Caran d'Ache pan gouache prepare which may be formulated differently equally it rewets easily. I had the same trouble filling a palette with tube gouache.

Doug

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My gouache is Lukas and Winsor & Newton and neither of these brands rewets well later on drying. I generally employ it fresh every bit a result.

Char --

Mannerly Art -- "Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art." Leonardo DaVinci

I think that the method you lot used is the best for rewetting stale gouache. Information technology volition take though a couple of days for the paints to become soft again and they might need more water later on, because the h2o you used will disappear. Better go on your palette in a identify with lot of humidity till the paints get soft once more. Your bathroom would exist perfect for this work.

I was told (several years ago at present) when I was taking a form where we were doing color studies with Gouache that tube Gouache doesn't re-wet well and that we shouldn't bother even trying, just scrape the pallet and offset over.

I was very happy to acquire that watercolor mostly behaves differently, means less paint waste. And so if your experiment doesn't work at least y'all know for the future.

Nearly gouache artists, including James Gurney, work from fresh paint. He squeezes it onto a folded moisture paper towel and keeps spraying with water while he'southward working. But he says he merely works with wet paint, never dried.

I have some gouache in a travel palette and spray it with water to reconstitute before I use it, but the character is definitely different one time it has dried.

We had a demo for our watercolor guild by a professional gouache artist. He worked directly out of jars and just closed them up when he was washed. He didn't mention spraying occasionally with h2o, and so maybe just the dampness of the castor in and out of the jar helped go along information technology from drying.

Jan

Hello Josh – Thank you for raising this question.

I've heard re-wetting ability is highly dependent on brand. I've bumped into a few (and I exercise mean a few) artists saying they've had good luck with M. Graham Gouache re-wetting well, for an example. I'm going to paste a link below to an creative person write-up, in case yous haven't read this webpage.

http://rozwoundup.typepad.com/roz_wound_up/2008/10/travel-palettes-for-watercolor-and-gouache.html

Equally for me, your post is timely & caught my eye, because I'k looking into the same for myself. It so happens I was pondering the topic; and saw some Grand. Graham Gouache on discount and decided to catch it to give it a effort in plastic pans inside a palette box… In short, I'thousand curious – simply not counting on it working well. Seeing and experiencing will be believing for me. Information technology volition be a while, but when I've had a adventure to form a direct stance, I will reply back to this thread.

In the meantime, I will expect forward to other replies on the thread. ~Lissa

Color is my 24-hour interval-long obsession, joy and torment. ~ Claude Monet [/SIZE]
[/SIZE]

My gouache is Lukas and Winsor & Newton and neither of these brands rewets well after drying. I by and large use it fresh equally a result.

Due west/N gouache practise NOT rewet :o
they crumble and become gritty
I merely clasp out what I need

Schmincke has three lines of gouache: academy gouache (student form), HKS designer'southward gouache and the high quality Horadam gouache. The inexpensive rewets *very* badly and when it does, it is however gritty and hard to manage. The middle one rewets much better and the most expensive rewets very well. Though you pay a lot less for the academy it might toll y'all a lot more if you don't use up all of your paint in ane session.

Equally others pointed out, your strategy and the use of glycin might work. If information technology does not, I'd recommend replacing the paints once they are used upwards with a make that rewets better or well if yous want to avert waste.

That is bold the gouache bug has chip you, simply how could it not – it is gouache.

Tin't help with gouache I'one thousand agape – just wanted to say hi and welcome back!

CK =)
I take keen condolement in knowing that my genuine typos will probably be blamed on some device'due south autocorrect.
DIY art supplies, sketches, and more than: cyntada.com / @cyntada

I accept taken to using a Caran d'Ache pan gouache set which may be formulated differently as it rewets easily. I had the same problem filling a palette with tube gouache.

Doug

I'd be curious to detect out how opaque you can paint with the Caran d'Ache pans? Can you really layer lights on pinnacle of darks?

Usually if you lot can get pans of gouache to rewet and use information technology's such a lighter consistency that you end upward painting thin and near like watercolor.

James Gurney only uses fresh and uses it like a standard opaque medium which is how he gets the effects he does. I believe he'south described himself as an oil painter at center.

To the OP: I've had some success with old gouache rewetting by storing information technology in an onetime drinking glass food container with a tight fitting plastic lid. It'll stay moist for a few days/week and yous can always spritz it with water if you're not painting for a while. I've fifty-fifty had some colors dry out quite a fleck and come dorsum with spritzing and allowing the water to soak in. Some colors harden more than than others based on the pigments just similar watercolor.

Es gibt kein Muss in der Kunst, denn Kunst ist frei.

-- Vassily Kandinsky

Every bit I said the Cara d'Ache 14 pan set is very cheap at £24 and very convenient though limited in colours. I bought an extra set. The pans rewet hands and you tin can get a thick cream consistency to give opaque lite over dark. I apply it conjunction with a hardened hulk of tube Titanium White gouache.

Doug

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We must exit our mark on this world

If the bespeak of this thread is how to retain gouache paints soft, ( I 'm afraid that I didn't understand well), and so you need to use an air tight palette that has a wet sponge towel in information technology, cut in a size that allows the palette to close properly.

This keeps the paints soft as they come out of the tube.
Same you tin practice for acrylic paints.
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