M. Graham 1/2-Ounce Tube Gouache Paint, Viridian

The picture doesn’t even begin to do these justice. Absolutely gorgeous colors with a luminous quality that has to be seen in person! 😻 These are the perfect mix of transparency and opacity in my opinion, exactly what I was hoping for with gouache. I bought a set of 18 Holbein colors first and did not care for them AT ALL 😐. They were super neon and garish colors that just don’t suit my taste. I was having to mix 3 or 4 colors to even achieve hues that I could kind of use, as there was only one color I liked on its own. Also the consistency of Holbein was super thick and I found that I was always accidentally using and wasting WAY too much paint and couldn’t get the right amount of water to make it smooth easily. The colors I got from M. Graham are just as vibrant as Holbein with a much nicer and smooth consistency. Some people complain that they are not opaque enough but you can very easily make these as creamy as you like with just a touch of Titanium white. I also noticed that these don’t dry out as fast on my ceramic palette and rewet much nicer than Holbein. I got Viridian, Prussian Blue, Quinacridone Rose and Quinacridone Red to start. I picked these colors to mix specifically because I love them and they are non-toxic. There seems to be a lack of yellow color options in gouache that aren’t toxic so I mixed my own using M. Graham Titanium white and Daniel Smith Hansa Yellow Deep. Mixed some lovely pastel colors using the white as well. So happy with these! 👏🏼🎉

Good quality paint. Get the 2 fl oz if you plan on using a lot. The 1/2 oz is fine for smaller project.

good quality paint

The best gouache I have ever used. Great covering, true tones. Rich

This set is a significant upgrade from reeves. The colors dry more evenly, more opaquely, and more vibrantly. This paint also rewets incredibly easily on the pallete. The paint's mix well without muddying up, and have a lovely creamy consistency. It's ability to be rewetted can be dangerous when painting over other layers, but for the most part I haven't had too much of a problem and it makes the paint much less frustrating, as the dried puddles of color from 10 minutes ago can just be rewet like new. This gouache is so rewettable that I'm positive it could just be poured right into a pan and have no problem with opacity or creaminess. Great set, and I plan on expanding my M Graham color selection!

This is my first set of gouache paints I've ever owned, so I don't have much experience with them. Before I purchased these I researched a bit and found from other sources that this was a decent brand so I went ahead and bought them. The consistency in 4 out of 5 of these paints is beautiful, but I found that the Cobalt Blue had a very watery consistency from the rest of the paints. These are very opaque and thick paints and once watered down they have a beautiful wash to them, but the blue didn't quite hit the mark for me. I made a pretty quick example photo of all the colors at their most opaque (dry brush) and their most watered down, and as far as the blue goes there's no change in consistency. I also noticed that the Ivory Black tube had leaked paint and sticky residue from the bottom and seeped through the packaging. The Napthol Red was almost overflowing with paint as soon as I had opening the cap and I had to clean up some extra paint that poured out. They work great on different types of papers which I'm happy with though! As far as purchasing this goes, maybe it is a good choice to get a small set like this and build from there, but I'm not sure if I'll be purchasing from this brand again due to my first time experiences and considering I paid $35+ for it to turn out inconsistent and leaky.

*Some technical bits below! in second paragraph* I've 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! It's 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 it's worth checking whether a brand's Zinc White is made of PW4 or PW5, because Zinc Sulfide, without cobalt dopants, can darken and grey to even a blackish color. I don't 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 I'm 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!

I love how easily M. Graham gouache flows and rewets. My favorite brand

I love this gouache! It’s very easy to control and use. You can apply it thinly or very thick and opaque without it clumping on your paintbrush. You can make the thinnest of lines with it and gradually build it to get the most realistic highlights! I used to use a white gel pen and I absolutely loathed it—it was clumpy, hard to control the application correctly and it would not apply in a predictable way on the painting or drawing and leave a textured mess. This gouache is matte and as opaque as you want it to be without adding a texture to your painting or drawing. I highly recommend it!

Highly pigmented, bright colours

This is one of the best watercolour painting brand. Wonderful pigmented, smooth , bright colour. As it is honey based texture is so smooth and colour comes out so bright on paper. I have used many other best brands but this one is beyond them all. Bit pricey but worth the price. I am so happy with the product .

Very good product.

Its just one of the best colors, period.