I have never been keen on watercolours, always preferring my oil paints. However, several years ago I used gouache as part of a mixed media workshop and absolutely loved it. Since then I even developed my own range of high-pigment gouache colours, that’s how impressed I was! Unlike pure watercolour, gouache is a relatively opaque medium where white is also used. That said, the ingredients to make gouache are the same as watercolour, it is simply the formulation which is different. Colours can be used in the same was as watercolour and will create relatively translucent washes, depending on the pigment. It is the pigment which determines the opacity/translucency of colour more than the binder. What I really like about gouache is the way it emulates oil colour in that you can paint opaque colours over each other and work with white to add highlights. Like watercolour it is re-wettable so washes can be blended or if you keep the second layer relatively dry, then being opaque, new colour will completely cover the underlying wash. It is also possible to add a texture medium to gouache – mine is called Artist’s Putty. Winsor & Newton make a product called Aquapasto which does much the same thing. Apart from using gouache on watercolour paper, I recently started to work on Fabriano Pastel papers (I do like painting on a coloured ground). In order to prevent buckling, I spray Display Mount Glue onto the back of the paper and stick it to a sheet of mountboard. This seems to work extremely well as a robust painting surface, ideal for those quick outdoor studies when a white sheet of paper seems far too bright. To find out more about Melanie Cambridge® Artist Gouache, visit: www.melaniecambridge.com