We had our Christmas with my Mother-in-law and Brother-in-law today, and I was gifted a set of the Holbein Gouache, Traditional Colors of Japan – Summer. I have had these on my wishlist since last fall when I first tried out some of the autumn color gouache in my Sketchbox. That was my first time using Gouache and I really enjoyed the medium.

Tonight I just wanted to try out and get a feel for the colors in this set. My painting has everything but the black and white in this collection. This is my version of swatching, but painting squares bores me. This is no masterpiece but it was fun and I may cut it up and use it in another project some day. I really like the seaweed things with the three shades of green.

I definitely need to practice my gouache techniques so I may need to find some good tutorials on youtube. I tend to use them more like watercolors, and would love to try different ways to use them. They seem to be an interesting blend of watercolor and acrylic properties and I find the potential fascinating.

Have you used gouache before? Do you have any tips or tricks to share with this novice?