Watercolor vs. Gouache: whats the difference?

Summary

Key Points

• Watercolor is transparent, meaning underlying layers will always show through, making it difficult to lighten colors by painting over them. 0:34
• Gouache is opaque, allowing artists to paint over previous layers to correct mistakes or achieve desired effects, similar to oils or acrylics. 1:25
• The general advice for watercolor is to paint from light to dark, while gouache offers more flexibility to paint from dark to light or vice versa. 1:33
• Both mediums can achieve rich, dark colors, and stylistic choices often depend more on the artist's technique than the medium itself. 2:14
• Layering colors in watercolor can create beautiful, unexpected color combinations due to its transparency. 3:48
• Gouache, when applied thickly, covers underlying colors, offering less opportunity for accidental harmonious color mixing but more control. 5:24
• Watercolor and gouache share similar material requirements (brushes, paper) and can even be mixed together. 5:51
• Gouache dries to a matte finish and can lose color saturation and value depth more noticeably than watercolor as it dries. 6:29
• Both mediums change as they dry, with the amount of water used significantly impacting the final color and value. 9:33
• Watercolor paint becomes darker as more paint is added without water, while gouache maintains its opacity and color value more consistently when mixed thickly. 10:20