Holbein Acrylic Gouache Five Primary Colours Set (Japan Import) 20 ml (Pack of 5)

Product Information

Relatively reactivatable: Even though once completely dry you won’t be able to rework acryla but while it is still drying, you have a chance. Pastel Colours: Designed to extend the original colour range, these unique light colours are perfect for creating clean, subtle tones in your work. Being used to normal gouache, Acryla Gouache isn’t a far stretch. I do feel the colours are much brighter than my gouache sets (Lascaux and Winsor&Newton) and they dry up in a beautiful matte way. The paints feels more dry on my brush while painting compared to regular gouache. That way you can get a dry brush effect which I like a lot. But if you dip your brush in water, you get a beautiful smooth effect without losing too much colour. If you are using it like watercolour then some of the colours may not be bound well enough to be waterproof. Traditional gouache is opaque, matte watercolour – so like watercolour it is re-soluble, not water resistant.

After almost five hours (divided over three days, mind you) I painted all 102 colour swatches. This sounds like a lot of work. Correction: this is a lot of work. But it’s worth it, trust me. But if you compare to acrylic or oil paint, acryla has less adhesion to the surface so make sure the canvas is well prepared with gesso. I’m really pleased with the end-result. The colours on the paper are still crisp and although the paints dry up plastic-y, they look really matte on paper, which I love. I applied each colour in 3 stripes that each had a different amount of water – 1. straight from the tube, 2. 1/4 water, 3. lots of water like a wash. I waited 4 days to be sure the test was dry and then rubbed a wet brush over the stripes to see if I could disturb them.Holbein Acrylic Gouache Formerly "Acryla" - Matte Paint Review, Color Chart, Lightfast Test, Pigment Info

To protect the painting made with Holbein acryla, the brand recommends using regular varnish like for acrylic paint. Toxicity Metallic Colours: A series of metallic shades which are slightly more translucent than the regular colours, giving a sense of luminance and depth to your painting. Like I wrote earlier: once the Acryla Gouache has dried up on your palette it can not be reactivated. You might be used to that because watercolours and normal gouache can be used multiple times when dried up in a palette. So, I recommend using tiny bits of paint when creating something. The pigment in these paints are magnificent so you really don’t need a lot of paint to get a vibrant result. So, what do I think? You also can’t re-activate the paint but that’s because it’s partially acrylics. I don’t mind that much because I’m a fast painter. But if you know you’re a slow painter, it’s something to take into account.

Holbein Acrylic Gouache

All in all, I’m really pleased with these paints and I am looking forward to make many more illustrations with them.