Ranking my Artist Grade Gouache

By thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich on September 16, 2024

Hi friends! I have been on a mission to try and compare as many artist-grade gouache brands as I could over the past 6 months. In this casual video, I will talk about the pros, cons, and characteristics of each brand. I went with a limited palette of colors because I'd like to be able to use it up in my lifetime. I think evaluating smaller mixing sets is more useful to someone new to the medium. I hope you find it helpful. In a future video, I will share my lightfast studio gouache palette and explain how and why I chose the colors and brands that I did.

*These are all traditional gouache, not acryl gouache.

**All brands reviewed offer their paint in sets and open stock tubes.

Gouache I mentioned (affiliate links used)

Holbein mixing set of 5: Available on Amazon, Blick, and other retailers. *This is my top pick for mixing and overall use
DaVinci Gouache: This gouache is almost like a hybrid of watercolor and gouache. It worked well for my gouache painting techniques, but if you want to use color straight out of the tube and fill an area with opaque color, this will not give the best results because many colors are shiny in mass tone. It dries down in pans better than the other gouache in the lineup, so if you want a dry, portable gouache paint, it's a good bet.
Daniel Smith Artist Gouache: Available on Amazon, Blick, and many other retailers. I really like this gouache, the mixing set gives you a warm primary palette (which pares well with the Holbein mixing set if you want a split primary palette) that is sufficient for many subjects. You will struggle to mix vibrant greens and purples though due to the warm red and warm blue. These also pan well if you like a dry palette and rewet well while still being a matte and opaque paint. This gouache is top-quality and as a line of paint would be among the best, if not the best gouache. If price is no object I'd recommend the mixing set and a few open stock tubes to make it more versatile. I rate this so highly because it is matte, vibrant, and opaque out of the tube but still pans and rewets well. If panning isn't important to you I suggest one of the more affordable options.
M Graham Gouache: This is a solid contender. I don't have many colors and I've had them for a while but they perform great, pan well, and are nice to paint with.
Winsor & Newton Designer Gouache: Available on Amazon, Blick, and many other retailers. This popular gouache performs well and is available worldwide. I like the paint but I don't recommend the mixing set because it contains a zinc white and a mixed green that isn't very useful. I'd recommend picking up open-stock tubes of the colors you like and checking pigment info if you wish to purchase only lightfast colors. Because this is a designer's gouache the line has many useful colors in the reproduction world that are fugitive for artists. *Winsor & Newton recently released a student grade set of gouache in smaller tubes, I have not tried it so I cannot comment on it, it is in a red box of 10, 12ml tubes.
Shinhan Professional Designers Gouache: This is probably the best value in gouache. The 12 set has vibrant colors that mix beautifully. There are also two 24 sets available on Amazon, set A contains the colors from the 12 set plus 12 more and Set B has 24 unique colors. Open stock is available at Jackson's art and other retailers.
Turner Design Gouache: I loved working with the 18 set of Turner gouache, it is matte, opaque, and mixes well. It does not pan well so it's best to use it right out of the tube but leftover paint can easily be reactivated and used later. It will crack and crumble when dry so making pans of this is not ideal. Prices vary for this paint, Amazon has the best price for the 18 sets of 25 ml tubes but Jerry's Artarama sells open-stock tubes if you just want to try a few colors or replace what you used from the more affordable per tube set. I think this would be ideal for illustrators.