I’ve recently completed a few paintings using Turner Acryl Gouache Japanesque Colour paints, almost exclusively. In the past, I was able to achieve some pretty good results using their cousin, Turner Designer Gouache. Below, my painting of Hana Kimura is one of the first times that I’ve done any serious work using Turner’s line of Acryl Gouache.
So What is Turner Acryl Gouache Anyway?
In order to properly explain what acryl gouache is, I’ll need to explain what exactly gouache is.
Let’s learn About Traditional Gouache First
Gouache is basically opaque watercolor. It’s a combination of pigment and gum arabic. (Sometimes an opaquing agent is used.) It’s meant to be applied opaquely. This means that you can easily paint light over dark. This media can also be watered down to create washes much like watercolor. Gouache can also be re-wetted and manipulated long after it dries. It also dries to a matte finish, which makes it great for reproduction.
Describing Acryl Gouache
Acryl Gouache (also spelled as “Acrylic Gouache”) is pigment suspended in acrylic emulsion or basically matte acrylic paint. It has a large pigment load, much like traditional gouache. (Not all “acrylic gouaches” contain a high pigment load.) This is good for painting light colors over dark areas.
A lot like regular acrylic paint, acryl gouache is mostly water-resistant. (I’ll explain my observation later on in this review.) This will allow for easier layering.
As mentioned earlier, acryl gouache dries to a matte finish. And a good acrylic gouache will level out and have a smooth surface. This means little to no streaking or brushstrokes. These characteristics make Turner Acryl Gouache great for reproduction, just like gouache paint.
Much like regular acrylic paints, acryl gouache can be painted on almost any surface, including wood, glass, metal, and paper.
A Quick Note About Turner
Turner Colour Works Ltd is a well-established paint company based in Osaka, Japan. Turner first started producing paints in 1946. They make a wide variety of paints for every possible use imaginable.
First Takes on Turner Acryl Gouache
I’m the most familiar with Turner Design Gouache. It’s an affordable, high-quality gouache that performs pretty well as compared to Winsor & Newton and M. Graham. Turner Design Gouache lacks opacifiers which prevent them from having that white, milky film while wet.
I’ve experimented with Turner Acryl Gouache off and on in sketchbooks. I was disappointed that some of their colors weren’t as opaque as I liked. In fact, they were overall less opaque than their Designer Gouache cousins.
But that doesn’t make them unusable. In fact they’re far more opaque than Liquitex’s Acrylic Gouache, which are at best, semi-opaque.
Most colors are pretty bright and don’t shift, if ever. There aren’t very many single pigment colors, but they tend to mix pretty well. Pigments rarely separate while sitting in your pallet for long periods of time.
Acryl Gouache can be thinned down to create great-looking washes. This is due to the lack of filler in the paint. Japanesque variants tend to have a more granular look.
Most colors in the Turner Acryl Gouache line dry to a matte, even finish. Japaneseque Colours tend to dry with a rough, pasty surface.
How Many Colors Do You Want?
Turner’s Acryl Gouache line of paints offers 236 colors! This covers practically any color imaginable and some you wouldn’t have even considered:
Pearl – Colors with mica chips mixed in to shine like metallic colors.
Mixing Color – Translucent colors for creating purer tones.
Japaneque – Traditional Japanese colors using fine powders, creating a coarse texture when dry.
Pastels – Light/pastel colors.
Lamé – Imagine glitter paint.
Luminous – Fluorescent colors. Fluorescent paints use dyes as opposed to pigments, thus making them non-lightfast.
Metallic – Opaque metallic colors. (i.e ~ golds, silvers, coppers, etc)
Grayish – Muted, gray-downed colors.
While Doing Serious Work
As mentioned at the beginning of this review, “Hana’s Gaze” used almost exclusively Turner Design Gouache Japanesque Colors. These colors are supposed to have a coarse texture when dry. Honestly, that rougher texture isn’t all that noticeable unless you’re looking for it.
The opacity of Turner Acrylc Gouache is acceptable for the most part. Sometimes it requires a second or third layer to achieve maximum opacity. But the colors below don’t bleed through unlike cheaper brands.
Although Turner Acryl Gouache is advertised to be water-resistant when dry, they use as little acrylic emulsion as possible, so you can still pick up color and in some cases, almost remove it. This can be obnoxious whenever painting over light washes.
Due to the rapid drying time, Turner Acryl Gouache can be very difficult to blend while wet. But I tend to find that an issue with most acrylic paints. What I recommend is to mix in the color that you plan to transition too quickly, while the paint is still wet. This allows you to build your transition as you go.
You can also thin acryl gouache down to a wash. Then build up your transitions much like watercolor or ink. I used washes quite a bit in another painting, “Kimono Girl”.
Issues & Problems
Rapid Drying Time
As mentioned previously, Acryl Gouache dries very fast! Maybe faster than most lines of acrylic paint. Maybe it’s from the heat given off by my swinging-arm lamp, but its rapid drying time makes it difficult to keep an open pallet wet. Even using an “air-tight” pallet such as Masterson or Soho barely keeps acryl gouache wet for any period of time. At best, you can keep them wet for around 24 hours before having to spray your paint down with more water.
While layers are still wet or moist, I’ve noticed that Acryl Gouache starts to break up and create worn spots or holes if I’m too aggressive blending and/or scumbling. This is especially bad when your brush is loaded up with too much water.
Here’s a Pro-tip:
Mix your Acryl Gouache 2 parts paint to 1 part water. In fact, you’ll want to do this using a pallet with wells. Why does this even matter?
Cracks In My Layers Of Acryl Gouache
Because cracking is an issue with this paint. Thickly painted layers tend to crack when dry. One of the reasons for this commonly recurring issue is the fact that Acryl Gouache contains very little acrylic emulsion. This makes the surface not as flexible as your standard acrylic paints. I’ve lucked out by applying a new layer over the cracked surface. Although, that doesn’t guarantee that those cracks will be gone forever.
Is Turner Acryl Gouache for everyone?
No. Why? Because Turner Acryl Gouache isn’t as forgiving as your standard acrylic paint. Yes, it’s similar, but it’s not.
You can’t just use it straight out of the tube. You’ll need to add some water unless you love that crackling effect.
You can paint Acryl Gouache on virtually any surface, just as long as it’s not flexible enough to crack the surface. Dried acryl gouache isn’t as physically flexible as regular dried acrylic paint. Regular acrylic paint tends to peel off a pallet like a sheet of plastic or latex. In contrast, you’ll have to chip dry acryl gouache off the surface of a pallet. It’s hard and shatters to pieces. So you will have to resort to a canvas panel, as opposed to a regular canvas.
But if you’re willing to embrace this medium, you can achieve some unique results in your work. You’ll also get to work with a paint that has substantial covering power, colors that don’t shift, and a matte surface that’s easy to digitize. If you’re mistake-prone, boo-boos are easy to cover up due to acryl gouache’s pigment load.
Want to give Turner Acryl Gouache a try? My recommendation is to try out the 12 color set from Amazon. [Amazon] Buying using the Amazon link on this page helps to support this website and keeps me motivated to continue to produce more free content.
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