Welcome to The Calligraphy Supply’s review on Holbein Acryla Gouache! Please be aware that we may receive a commission from purchases made through links on this site.
I used the Titanium White (PW6) for this review. Holbein offers a 5-piece Mixing Set set available on Amazon. You can also find individual tubes (links below). Gouache is a super easy medium for mixing and creating custom colours. Because of this, buying a set is more economical than buying individual tubes. Having a variety of colours on-hand makes it easy to create the perfect colour and shade for your projects. If you’re just getting started with dip pen calligraphy take a look at my calligraphy checklist.
Company background for Holbein
Holbein is a Japanese art materials manufacturer founded in 1900. The Osaka-based company is dedicated to the highest degree of quality control and manufacturing professional-grade products.
Product details for Holbein Acryla Gouache
This product is designed to have the same deep, matte finish of traditional watercolor gouache made with gum arabic binders. Unlike traditional gouache, the Holbein Acryla Gouache is waterproof once dry. Acrylic paints are created by binding pigments with acrylic polymer emulsion instead of traditional ingredients like gum arabic (Wikipedia). While wet, they are water soluble, but are waterproof once dry.
D151 Titanium White
The particular product reviewed below is the D151 Titanium White (PW6). Holbein’s color chart notes this product as “absolutely permanent.” The Titanium White does include a California Prop 65 warning, but this is not the case for the Primary White which meets AP standards by the ACMI (https://acmiart.org/productlist).
| Criteria | Review |
|---|---|
| Opacity | This gouache had high opacity when tested on 4 different types of paper. Even very thin lines were visible on dark papers. |
| Flow | Holbein Acryla Gouache was easy to dilute in order to achieve a great flow for dip pen calligraphy. It flowed smoothly through the nib and was easy to control, like traditional gouache. |
| Finish quality | On 4 paper types, this gouache dried with a lovely, matte finish. |
| Drying speed | This gouache dried pretty quickly compared to traditional gouaches. In a little over a minute most areas had dried. |
| Gumminess | There was no gumminess experienced with this product. |
| Water resistance | Once this gouache it was completely waterproof. If your project is going to be exposed to the elements, you may want to consider using this instead of a traditional gouache. |
| Colour wet close to colour dry | This pigment dried exactly the colour that it was when mixing it. The whole line of Acryla Gouache is created to have no colour shift from wet to dry, which makes it easy to mix custom customs. |
| Ease to clean | It was easy to clean this with some water, however; it’s bets to avoid allowing it to dry on the nib. Keep some water and a paper towel on-hand. |
