Basic Information

Liquitex Acrylic Gouache is available in stackable 59ml bottles with large plastic caps. Inside is a bottlenose design which allows you to squeeze out a small amount or large amount depending what you need.

Each bottle is £11.05-12.25 (per millimetre that is £0.19-0.21). (Buy).

This is basically the same price as the Turner brand. I like the larger size bottles (59ml is a lot compared to other brands). It helps me feel like I can just paint my heart out and not worry about saving my precious paint. I know this is psychological but it helps!

After using the bottles for several months, sometimes I get a small clog in the tip. I use a toothpick to remove it and it works fine after that.

Swatches & Permanency

I was pleased by the opacity and results of the scrub test. Acrylic gouache dries in a permanent film, so I like to test how much it will hold up to a wet scrub. I paint a swatch and let it dry, wait a few minutes, then scrub the surface (see top left of the image below) with a damp brush. You can see a little bit lifted but I could not remove the bulk of it. And that was after a lot of scrubbing. So it’s definitely permanent.

Like most gouache, the yellow was slightly transparent, and the red as well, but once I started mixing I didn’t have issues with that. Especially when white is added, the pigment is strong and mixes bright, clean color.

Lightfast Tests

After 6 months I found the paint to be very lightfast.

All gouache lightfast results are available on my Database.

Painting Experience

The gouache itself is creamy and spreads well. It is also very opaque in mixes. My limited palette was a joy to use. The best part is that it didn’t feel like it dried out quite as fast as the other brands of acrylic gouache I’ve tried. It does dry quick if spread thinly, but my piles of paint on the palette stayed moist enough to use for the entire painting. Huge bonus.

I used it with very minimal water for the majority of the painting, just like the other brands. I also tried to dip the brush in water to spread it thinly, which didn’t seem to cause any issues. It is highly recommended by acrylic experts not to dilute your paint too much (for longevity/archival purposes). But even without much water, this paint spread quite far, as long as I had enough on my brush.

I definitely didn’t struggle as much to get consistent flow with this acrylic gouache as I did with Turner or Holbein. Those dry extremely fast and either need a lot of water, blending medium or way more paint compared to this one.

With acrylic gouache in general, I’m learning that you need to mix more than you think you need and to put enough on your brush so it doesn’t instantly dry out. So after you get used to that, you start to notice subtle differences in different brands. I found Liquitex acrylic gouache to be less “sticky” as the others. I think it’s safe to say this is the best one I’ve tried so far.*

Final Thoughts

I would highly recommend this brand for beginners who want to try acrylic gouache, as it has a nice consistency and color power. Plus the larger bottles are bonus to those of us who tend to be too precious with our paint and need encouragement to pour more onto the palette!

However, Liquitex acrylic gouache does have a noticeable odor – similar to regular acrylics. It’s enough to make me turn the fan on when I use it inside. So if you are very sensitive to smells, you might want avoid this paint unless you use it outside or with good ventilation.

Shout-out to Redgrass

Since acrylic gouache is permanent, I hesitate to use it on my normal palettes. I am very forgetful and sometimes walk away and forget to clean up. So having a glass palette is ideal for acrylics.

I’ve been using Redgrass palettes for a few years now, and they just sent me the stay wet palette which includes a glass palette insert with a gray background. I have been loving it for gouache, because it allows me to see the values in the color mixes much easier. It’s ideal for acrylic gouache because it cleans super easy. Thanks Redgrass! I’m not sponsored by them, but they did offer a small discount if you buy with my link.