Arteza Gouache Paint Review

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Arteza had gifted me these amazing gouache paints, which I’ve now been using for quite awhile and have really enjoyed painting with them. I was also given  two paper pads of 32 sheets 300 g/m². The paper however I haven’t really used since I mostly paint and draw in my Rêverie Journal.

What I've painted with them :

Are you considering Arteza gouache paint?

I have the 24 tube paint set, and the first thing I always like to do is create color swatches. This is when I discovered that the paint is not always true to the color "shown" on the tube packaging, some were completely different. So it’s always useful to create color swatches to see the real colors, and how they look once dried on paper.

About Gouache :

1. It’s more opaque than watercolors.
2. Gouache reactivates with water, meaning the dried paint on your paper will reactivate, so be careful when adding layers to your painting that you don't over mix.
3. The colors dry the same as when they were wet on paper. Sometimes with other paints the colors might become lighter once dry, but not with gouache.
4. Gouache can be watered down and used as a watercolor.
5. It also dries pretty quickly.

 

Mixing & Using Gouache

If you're like me, and only have one paint palette (with dried acrylic all over), then you can take a simple dish and use it as a mixing palette. 
I always like to just squeeze out very little. I feel a little goes a long way for me, but that always depends on the style, or size of the drawing you’ll be doing. You don’t want to waste your products, but the good thing about gouache is that even when it’s been taken out of the tube it reactivates with water, even when completely dried.

PRO :

- The paint you've squeezed out from the tube and that has dried can still be used, you just have to add water to it. So you don’t have any wasted paint, unlike acrylics, where once dried they can’t be used anymore.

CON :

- Overblending... I read online that some had a problem when adding paint layers, that all of their colors mixed together and turned into “mud”.

(I haven’t had this problem but just keep this in mind. The tip I read was to choose your colors wisely to avoid this problem.)

- Broken and cracked Arteza tube lids is a problem I had with some of my paints tubes. The paint has started to dry near the opening. This is probably just an issue with the brand's packaging.

The Arteza Paper

The one they sent me is their 32 sheets watercolor pad. It is listed as being : cold press (which just means it’s textured paper, while hot press means it’s smooth paper), it’s acid free, 300 g/m² or 140lb. As for the size they are A4 sheets (21 cm x 29.7 cm).

It also lists that it can used for watercolor, as for mixed media. I won’t be giving a review on the paper, maybe in the future once I have used them more since I mostly paint in my journals.

I hope this quick overview of Arteza’s gouache paint has been useful. I haven’t used another brand of gouache so I can’t compare them quality wise, but so far I really enjoy using them and find they are good paints.