Watercolor, Gouache, and Acrylic, and How I Use Each One

As a painting major, I have spent a large amount of time painting with different mediums for different projects. While I might not know the exact science behind the types of painting mediums, I understand the basics of how they differ and use each of them for various types of projects.

Bluejay

For this painting of a Bluejay, I used watercolor to create a soft, realistic illustration. As the name suggests, watercolor requires an amount of water to activate the paint. The paint becomes less and less pigmented depending on the amount of water added. Watercolor looks best when painted in layers so that the painting has more visual depth. Traditionally, white highlights are achieved by leaving negative space unpainted rather than using a white paint. I personally have found that I prefer to use watercolor paint when I'm painting more illustrative animals, specifically when I want the painting to have a softer look to it.

Weather in the Garden - Altered Book

For this altered book, I used gouache to paint the scenery. Gouache is very similar to watercolor in the way that it can be mixed with water to achieve varying levels of pigmentation. However, gouache is more opaque than watercolor, meaning that lighter colors can be layered on top of darker ones, unlike watercolor and similar to acrylic. This worked well for this project specifically because the paint was able to make the text of the book less noticeable without completely covering it. I love the vibrancy that gouache offers while still being able to use it like watercolor. I appreciate that gouache can be painted to show different textures such as the tree leaves and grass in the above painting.

Life in a Cup

Lastly, acrylic was used in this painting to create a more crisp and defined still life painting of this plant. Acrylic paint is much more versatile in my opinion as it can be used on many different surfaces (as long as they are primed properly), it also is rather forgiving as it tends to allow the user to paint over mistakes or repaint certain sections without the previous painting showing through. I tend to use acrylic when I'm wanting to be more creative or experiment with different styles of painting since I know that I can paint over anything that doesn't feel right. The above painting was partly experimental to see if I could recreate a photo by only using the five paint colors in the CMYK color scheme (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, and white).

While the different types of paint can be used to create similar things, they each leave their own unique feel to a painting. Overall, it is fun to play around with and explore the different ways they can be used and which subject matters suit them best!