Basic Information
I bought the primary set of Schmincke Akademie Gouache to review since I’ve had so many requests about it. If you’ve read my other reviews you know I LOVE Schmincke Horadam gouache, in fact I consider it the best I’ve ever tried. But I don’t love how expensive that is or that it includes ox gall. So the Akademie was always on my mind and I finally got my hands on the primary set.
The set includes 5 colors of 20ml tubes, which is average size (or slightly more). The company claims the paint is vegan. At a price of £3.56 (approx $4.47) it’s one of the more expensive student gouaches on my database.
EDIT: After posting this, I heard back from Schmincke about the binder. They said it’s “based on polyvinyl alcohol as binder, a modern water-soluble and biodegradable polymer (not acrylic based).”
The primary set includes:
- 5100 White Opaque (PW6)
- 205 Primary Yellow (PY3, PY74)
- 315 Primary Magenta (PR122)
- 410 Primary Cyan (PW6, PB15:3)
- 750 Deep Black (PBk11, PBk7)
Performance
The first thing I noticed about the Akademie gouache is how “goopy” it is. It felt like acrylics. Unfortunately I could immediately see how transparent the yellow and white were, so I had to use a lot more of it to achieve the effect I wanted.
To make sure I wasn’t just having an ‘off’ day, I painted another scene. This time it was an Edgar Payne master study (one of my favorite artists). I focused on copying it as closely as I could. It was extremely frustrating, because of how transparent the gouache was. For landscapes, yellow and white are essential, and unfortunately the Akademie couldn’t reach any sense of opacity.
This is what the white looks like at full strength:
The blue and pink were strong enough to make the trees opaque, but the rest was a disaster.
Unfortunately I did not enjoy the experience of using the Akademie gouache. Could you make it work? Sure. But the thing that scares me is if a beginner uses it they might not have a good time and blame themselves for the poor performance.
I’m currently running lightfast tests on the gouache, and I’ll share those on the database when it’s ready.
I love your gouache reviews! Have you ever tried the ones from Crawford and Black? They’re pretty cheap. I wonder how they compare to the professional brands
Never heard of it!
Regarding gouache Windsor & newton is a good quality affordable gouache i also like jackman uk made gouache shinhan gouache is reasonable price and acrylic gouahe is quite good and is a reasonable price check out Sarah’s gouache videos there the best source of in depth information and you will learn a great deal from them with her honest straightforward reviewed an tests great information
As always sarah great stuff your lovely young lady our little miss sunshine brilliant tutorial regards Steve