Gouache

Hi Matt, It is best just to experiment. Play with wet into wet. Try not to mix more than 2 colours at a time, otherwise you get mud. Always have a spare piece of paper to test your colours on. I would even contact any artist from the gallery, who you think has done it well. I suggest Paul Scott, who posted a cracker of a painting today.

Gouache (sometimes called Designers' Gouache) is what we used to use in graphics before we went digital. It's not really suitable for that kind of very free on-canvas mixing. Also of course though the colour names may be the same or similar, the pigments will not, so you will have to establish which particular pigments to use as your primaries. A first step might be to look on the W&N website and see which colurs they advise for primaries. Some will mix more cleanly than others.

Matt have you considered using acrylic? I know your question is about gouache but working the way you do maybe you would have more success with acrylic. Another thought , depending on what you are allergic to in the oil paints what about water mixable oil paints? Also by W N. I find gouache "a flat" medium with a limited and different use. It has its own special qualities but not trying to use it like oil.

If you want to find Paul Scott's gouache, that I previously mentioned, then look for the portrait of Salvador Dali in the gallery, entitled "The Master". Below that is Jim's portrait of glen Miller. Below that is Paul's brilliant portrait of a pirate in gouache. But gouache is a medium for paper. If you want to carry on using canvas and just reduce the amount of oil paint you come into contact with, I would recommend underpainting in acrylic and glazing with oil. You can use Zest-it (non toxic) to dilute the paint and avoid noxious fumes. You haven't told us much about your allergy, but if it is contact with your skin that you want to avoid, then you can always use surgical gloves. There are many to skin a cat as they say.

A stay-wet palette WILL stay moist - it shouldn't be dripping wet anyway - if you buy the right one and follow the instructions. Don't know which one you're using, but try Masterson's, with which I have experience. If you look on the acrylic thread, you'll find a few posts on this subject. You can buy (here's the snag,it all costs money!) interactive acrylics if you find your regular acrylics dry too fast - but try more glazing rather than direct colour mixing, because mixing regular acrylic on a canvas isn't easy; presumably it's easier with the interactives (which can be reactivated) but I've never used them and have no particular inclination to at the moment. Or buy your acrylics in pots - they're more fluid that way; this could be a case for Chromacolour UK - good range of lightfast colours in pots, no allergy problems, and they do stay workable in this form for rather longer than most acrylics (available only by post/onlilne, I think); I also find System 3 colours by Daler Rowney retain their moistness for much longer than many other tube brands. Gouache - I've seen some superb work in gouache, and you show some up above. I think probably the flesh tones are mixed on a palette, in separate batches, rather than mixed on the support: and canvas is very far from being the ideal support for them anyway - are you actually trying to paint with gouache on canvas? If so, I wouldn't - it's almost impossible to work with them on such a flexible support, with an obvious texture, and they'd be highly likely to crack into smithereens if you did succeed. Watercolour paper (I know that's flexible too, but it's not when it's mounted and behind glass or at least framed) or one of the Ampersand boards you can now get in this country are far better supports. I'm somewhat dubious about water-miscible oils, but if they're all you can use they're better than nothing: see if you can find Murray Ince (Murray William Cole Ince, to give him his full monicker). He paints in water-miscible oil, his choice is the Artisan range by Winsor & Newton, and he runs classes in this country and abroad; he's also written a book on the subject - it had gone out of print last time I looked, but may be back now. What do your allergies consist of, though? Is it the fumes, or the effect of paint and solvents/oils on your skin? If it's the oil, then you have a problem - but you can cut right back on solvents; you can try different ones; you can wear latex gloves; you can try wearing a gauze mask: and of course, we should all work in well-ventilated spaces. In your place (and maybe you're way ahead of me here and have tried the lot) I'd go to great lengths to find out if I could manage my problem by these prophylactic measures. It must be very frustrating to be prevented from working in your favoured medium by your body reacting against it - it's a problem I've never had (nice to know there are some problems I haven't had!) and I hope you can find a way of coping with it.

The natural switch would have been to try out the water miscible oils that are available, alternatively acrylic!

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