M. Graham & Co. 2-Ounce Tube Gouache Paint, Titanium White

it’s important these days to understand the difference between “fine art gouache” and “designer’s gouache.” historically, gouache was used primarily by graphic designers, product designers, illustrators, etc. to create concepts and illustrations that were meant to be photographed or scanned. gouache offered a very flat, matte finish that wouldn’t cause glare, and made it very suitable for this purpose. generally, the original drawing was either stored away, or thrown away. they weren’t displayed on a wall, and as a result, designer’s gouache was typically not very lightfast. the same is true for designer’s gouache today. many of them have chalk and other opacifiers added to the pigment in order to increase that flat, matte finish that we all know and love. unfortunately, this is one of the main causes as to why there are drying shifts (darker colors drying lighter, and lighter colors drying darker) and it’s also why many gouache brands (winsor and newton, and holbein particularly) crack, crumble, and refuse to stay in their palette once dry. another important distinction between the two is lightfastness. fine art gouache tends to use much higher quality pigments, and much more of them, resulting in vibrant work that will last when put on display. designer’s gouache was never intended for display or archival purposes and typically uses lesser quality pigments, and more of those opacifiers and fillers previously mentioned. enter m. graham’s gouache. since they formulate their gouache with honey, their paints stick very well to a palette once dried out. they will crack, as seen in the picture below, but this has no effect on their performance. the paint reconstitutes incredibly well with just a light spray of water, and they’re extremely creamy. another thing that is most often noted about m. graham’s gouache is that some of their colors don’t have the same level of opacity as other brands (or even other colors from their same line.) this is because they don’t add white, chalk, or opacifiers to their pigments; each color is as opaque as the pigment used. (if you look at arteza’s gouache line, nearly all of their pigments contain PW3, or PW6) — yellow ochre will always be a bit more opaque than prussian blue just because of the inherent nature of the pigment itself. a lot of people think that opacity in gouache is an indicator of quality in the paint, and that’s simply not true. in m. graham’s case, if you’re looking to build more opacity, you can either continue to layer your colors until the color is opaque. or you can add a bit of zinc white to increase the opacity gradually. titanium white can also be used, but bear in mind that it’s extremely opaque and will quickly turn your colors pastel if too much is used. ultimately, i think m. graham has created an amazingly pure product in their gouache line, and i would recommend this to anyone that’s looking for a higher quality paint.

I use to recapture highlights on my watercolor paintings.

This 5 color gouache set from M. Graham is excellent, just like the watercolor and oil paints they make! Very good quality, vibrant colors, and reasonable price. Thanks to the Hyatts store for the excellent packaging and fast (and free) shipping. Very pleased!

Excellent middle yellow; Im also a huge fan of M. Grahams watercolor paint in the same shade. A warm yellow is also useful and common in traditional palettes, but a middle yellow is more versatile for making clean mixes. It can be cooled down with greens or warmed up with reds, and sometimes its beautiful just by itself as well. If I had to choose only one yellow, Id pick a middle yellow such as this one. Note that gouache tends to be more abrasive on brushes than regular watercolor paints, so Id advise setting aside a separate set of synthetic watercolor brushes to be abused by gouache, if it wont break the bank.

*Some technical bits below! in second paragraph* Ive been using M. Graham gouache since 2019 with a few other artists/professional grade brands of gouache, and I trusted the gouache enough to purchase their 2oz/59ml tube of Zinc White. The fact that the company offers a large tube of this pigment for a really good price is great, I tend to use more Zinc White than Titanium White, so this was definitely a great purchase. Although Zinc White naturally tends to be hard, this Zinc White from M. Graham is easy to reconstitute! Its an amazing Zinc White, especially since its made of PW4 Zinc Oxide, not PW5 Lithopone (a compound mixture of Barium Sulfate and Zinc Sulfide). I think its worth checking whether a brands Zinc White is made of PW4 or PW5, because Zinc Sulfide, without cobalt dopants, can darken and grey to even a blackish color. I dont trust that other gouache manufacturers make sure that their PW5 is doped with cobalt salts, not do I want to do a lot of research to find out. However, I find that it is my responsibility to make sure that my gouache paintings are as lightfast as possible, so I prefer to do some research to find out whether the pigments Im using are stable in even strong light. All in all, this was a great product, and this is a wonderful product. I will be sure to buy this Zinc White from M. Graham again!

My son loves it.

BOUGHT MY DAUGHTER BASE COLORS TO MIX HER OWN COLORS, IT DOES NOT BLEND WELL! THE PAINT SEEMS OF GOOD QUALITY THOUGH.

The colors are very vibrant. Have mostly just swatched so far. Have tried a few small paintings, and the problems with them are because of my inexperience with gouache. The paints will be lovely when I learn how to use them.

Very pigmented. Only complain is the packaging. The box it comes in is fairly too large.

Great product.