An Update on DaVinci Gouache and Some Thoughts on Economical Choices

Because I posted here earlier about my experiments with DaVinci Gouache in my 2013 fake journal I wanted to be sure to let you all know that I've had more problems with this gouache.

Besides reactivating when I put PVA on the backs of the paintings I was going to glue into my fake journal I have found that simply painting on the backs of pages where other paintings have already been painted will cause reactivation of this paint on those earlier pages. (And the reactivated paint will then print onto its facing page, ruining the painting you left behind, and anything on its opposite page.)

You can read more about this problem of DaVinci Gouache on my blog Roz Wound Up, but these are the main points, and there is no getting around them, especially if you work in a visual journal.

So please keep this in mind when deciding to take the gouache plunge. DaVinci Gouache seems like a good value based on price and tube size, but when you factor in the cost of wear on the brushes and the frustration of having your paintings "reactivate" in this fashion it isn't economical at all, it's just wasteful.

People reading this blog know that I love gouache and that I want the world to enjoy it as well. If you do decide to take the plunge and work with gouache I urge you to buy either Schmincke or M. Graham brands of gouache. Both are excellent quality paints with high pigment loads, no opacifiers, and great consistency and workability. You'll enjoy your gouache experience with either of those brands. (I have never ever had either of those brands reactivate in this fashion.)

The other day I was in Wet Paint (my favorite independent art supply store) and just as I was leaving a woman came up to me and said, "You're Roz Stendahl aren't you?" (The braids are sort of a dead give away. If I'm going to pursue a career as a spy I'll have to do something about that.) "Yes, I am," I said, smiling, "and you are?" (Thinking that she must be a past student I don't remember because of the conk on the head, and I like to know the names of the people I'm talking to.) She introduced herself and told me she was a friend of a friend and that friend had brought her to one of my talks. She went on to say that she had recently read some of my gouache posts and had purchased some Winsor & Newton Gouache at Blick. (Evidently she didn't read my gouache posts closely enough!)

We were standing in front of the checkout counter at Wet Paint (where I had been discussing the latest plot twists in "Hawaii 5-0" with Greg) but even if I had not been standing there I would have pulled a face, which I did, she could have come and purchased that gouache at this independent store. "You do realize that by talking to me you have now invoked my right to advise you on your purchases!" And everyone behind the counter rolled his or her eyes, "here we go."

"I don't care for Winsor & Newton gouache at all. They use a lot of fugitive pigments. They do claim they don't have opacifiers in it now but the mixes all seem more muddied. And the SMELL, it has such a strong chemical odor. I can't stand to work with it the odor is so bad. Really, in the future you need M. Graham or Schmincke brands of gouache."

"But it was on sale," she replied (still smiling, I hadn't totally overwhelmed her).

"I can buy crummy chocolate on sale too, but that doesn't mean I should eat it." I replied.

And everyone laughed (because everyone knows how I feel about chocolate) and we investigated further into her other purchases (which I'm happy to report were all sensible and well chosen).

Life is very short. Life should have a fun factor—even if you are totally overburdened with the worst of everything there should be a moment in each day when you can look out at the cloudless sky (or whatever turns you on in weather) and see the beauty, smell the crisp air, and think a fun and happy thought.

Painting brings more of the fun factor into our lives, or at least it should. Painting is fun. It's work, it's practice, but it is also fun, fun, fun.

It is, gasp, more fun that eating chocolate, and maybe (MAYBE) even a tad more fun than riding your bike.

But it's fun. And to have the absolute maximum amount of fun some materials do matter. As soon as you can budget for better materials as you move along in your art journey, the more fun your art journey will be. This doesn't mean you can't have great times simply sketching with a pencil, but even with a pencil there are brands that have better leads.

I'm an advocate for everyone finding what his or her fun factor is and exploiting that to have the most fun possible when making art. And because of that I will sometimes tests different brands and tell people about them. I am compelled to test things, in much the same way I'm compelled to eat chocolate. But I think that by letting people know about my tests they can better spend their money on something that might give them a greater fun factor—so I like to be clear about what I like or don't like about a product because something I don't like might be just the thing someone else is looking for.

You get to decide your own fun factor. In fact no one else on the planet can decide this for you.

But there are all sorts of "economies" and just because something comes in a bigger tube, or is on sale for half price, doesn't mean it's an economical choice. It might be the most expensive choice you make.

Yesterday morning I had decided that I would continue to use DaVinci Gouache in life drawing sessions where everything is quick and I'm not going after sketches that I'll keep.

Last night I had to go out and buy some more brushes because working with DaVinci Gouache (which is very, very tacky) had ruined some of my brushes.

When I got home I was talking to Dick and he said, "Why even finish using the tubes? They aren't the pigments you like and the brushes you're replacing are more expensive than the paint."

DUH!

Sometimes we can be in the forest and not see the trees.

The recent discovery that DaVinci gouache reactivated on my journal pages meant I wasn't going to use it in those journals, and I started looking for a way to use the paint elsewhere.

But that's a false economy because of the other problems inherent in this paint—and because of what it does to brushes.

I've had my experiment; I had it through April. It's over now. The results are in. I'm moving on.

(The remaining paint will probably go to my favorite 8 year old—though I sort of kind of hate to do this to him and will have to have a long talk about the ramifications of it with his grandmother who is his art teacher. I do believe we should give children quality products so they can get good results. We'll see what she thinks.)

So I encourage you to be pragmatic in your choices as well. If you purchase a new art product don't get a "set" but instead buy a couple tubes (if it's paint) for a very limited palette. (If you are interested in colored pencils don't buy a whole box, just get 3 to 5 pencils in colors that are your favorites to work with in the brand you currently use, so that you can compare workability with like colors.)

Work with the few tubes or pencils or whatever, that you purchase, exclusively for a couple weeks and really get a feel for what that tool or medium can do for you. Do you like it? Does it improve your fun factor or is it frustrating to use? Don't abandon something because your first efforts are awful. Really work with something every day for at least 15 minutes a day, and preferably longer—every day for at least two weeks. If you work every day this way your learning curve each day will be short, because you'll still remember what you did the day before. You'll arrive at what works and what doesn't work more quickly than if you spend 2 Saturdays 3 weeks apart working with a product.

Only after you have worked daily for an extended period can you decide if a product (medium, paper, tool) works for you because you'll have moved along the learning curve on that particular product. You might not have mastered it, but you'll be in a position to see whether it's worth continued effort.

So, heads up about the problems with DaVinci Gouache.

Go get busy and have some fun!

A Look at DaVinci Gouache

Left: A Pentel Pocket Brush Pen Sketch on Fabriano gridded paper (sheets stitched together with washi tape), and painted with DaVinci Gouache. (A sketch which ultimately went into my 2013 fake journal.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I know a lot of readers on this blog love experimenting with new media and often wonder about certain products. I like to review products when I test them out to give people an idea what's out there and also enough information so that they can save their money if something isn't going to suit their working methods.

Each year in April I keep a fake journal. It's a project that I took public in the early 2000s with my students and then went public with on the internet in 2009. You can read about it on the Official International Fake Journal Blog.

This year my character (because it isn't "you" who keeps the fake journal) was someone who didn't care at all about archival issues, and who worked quite a lot in mixed media. I decided to work in DaVinci gouache in the book for a host of reasons that I detail in my complete review on DaVinci Gouache here.

Left: A Pentel Pocket Brush Pen sketch on Sumi paper, and then painted with DaVinci Gouache. Click on the image to view an enlargement. You can see a description of the process of this image and additional photos here. 

One of the most fun aspects of this project and my testing of the DaVinci Gouache is that I used a different palette of colors than I would normally use (the line doesn't include some of my favorite pigments).

I remain a die-hard fan of Schmincke Gouache, and M. Graham Gouache is a close second (if only they would produce PB60 in their line!). But after working for several weeks (I filled my journal up before the end of the month) with DaVinci Gouache I have to say it's a fun and interesting paint to work with.

It is extremely tacky and has different handling properties from the two gouache lines I typically use. It also doesn't wash out to light washes with the same saturated clarity as the other two gouache lines do. But I found painting with it kept me on my toes and I  had fun.

If you want to get into gouache and just experiment before you start kitting yourself up with a complete set of paint, I think DaVinci might be a good place for you to start inexpensively. The large tubes are reasonably priced.

I would recommend that you take extra pains to really mix up the quantity and consistency of paint you need to cut down the tackiness (which I think for new users who don't know how gouache can work will be frustrating). If you are experiencing too much drag (and you see your brush is beginning to show a lot of wear) take the time to use more water until you can find a level of paint and water that works more smoothly. (In my top image I've used the paint in a dilute fashion, in the second image I've used it more opaquely.)

I have some reservations about the paint line because of the tackiness, the finish of the painted pieces, and the pigment selection as you'll read in my review at my other blog. But I think this is a fine paint for sketching with.

I would recommend, however, if you want to start painting a lot in gouache and archival issues and ease matter to you that you switch out to Schmincke Gouache when your budget allows. Your satisfaction level, the mixes you'll be able to achieve, and the brush handling will all be instantly improved. While DaVinci Gouache does have a smooth buttery consistency straight out of the tube, and it retains its softness for quite some time on the palette there is a tackiness that over the long haul is annoying. Schmincke Gouache (and M. Graham) both have a smooth buttery consistency without that tackiness (M. Graham is a little more tacky than Schmincke because of its formulation) and I think most people will find it easier to control water/paint levels to get the results they want with either of those other two brands.

Playing with the new Strathmore toned paper journal

I have a journal I use almost exclusively for writing, and decided I needed to try the new Strathmore hardbound journal when I ran out of my faves.

It's nice! Smooth surface, a pleasure to write in, tempting mid-tan color, and fun to do some art in, taking advantage of that middleground tone.

This is a Prismacolor dark grey pencil with touches of white...

Whee, more colored pencil and ink!

Pilot Penmanship pen with water-soluble ink, plus white Prismacolor and gouache.

And a female bluebird in gouache.  The paper really buckles VERY little, and it's just plain fun!

It was just a very quick pencil sketch...the gouache brings her to life!

I'd definitely recommend these...I'm having a ball trying out different mediums in addition to my daily journaling!

Caran d'Ache opaque watercolors/gouache

Hi all!  You may remember we've discussed the Caran d'Ache opaque watercolors/gouache set in this post: http://artistsjournalworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/07/gouache-again.html 
and did a comparison with other brands and types.  It fared well, as you can read in the post and in the comments!

(If you want more gouache-inspiration, check out the labels in the sidebar at right...14 posts on gouache!)

I just had to try these, and quite honestly I think they're extremely nice...they re-wet well, they're smooth, they're nice and dense...but as some of you know, I'm needing to simplify my studio and my life, so I'm passing along some of my art supplies to people who actually WILL use them!  (I'd originally thought to transfer the cakes to a smaller metal box, but I gave that one to my youngest godchild!)

The only problem with this set, for me, is that it IS very sturdy, and just too big and heavy for field work, given my arthritis, and I already have a palette of gouache I use at home.  Sooooo...if you're interested, there's a great bargain on eBay right now! :-D