Etchr is one of the few companies who have a set of brushes marketed towards gouache painters. Are they any good? And how do they compare to Etchr’s watercolor brush set? Let’s discuss!

My first impressions were that the gouache brush hairs are very fine and very soft, and not as densely packed as the watercolor brushes. This means that the hairs can bend from root to tip, and that does make a difference in gouache application. It means you can layer wet gouache on top of wet gouache without reactivating the under-color. See this example:

Top layer test: I put wet blue gouache on the paper, then immediately touched yellow blobs of color on top. You can see the watercolor brush blobs are much more green, meaning as I applied the yellow gouache, it picked up and blended into the blue gouache almost immediately. Whereas the gouache brush allowed me to gently place the pure yellow gouache on top of the wet blue gouache without blending.

Bottom Squares Gradient test: You can see that the watercolor brush leaves a tiny bit more streaking and dry brush effect, because the hairs are stiffer.

Want to see more?

Watch the brushes in action and hear my thoughts while painting: