Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A method of painting with opaque watercolors mixed with a preparation of gum.
  • noun An opaque pigment used when painting in this way.
  • noun A painting executed in this manner.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A method of painting with water-colors mixed and modified with white, so as to be opaque and to present a dead surface.
  • noun Work painted according to this method.—
  • noun A pigment used in such painting.
  • Noting the method of painting known as gouache, or a work executed by that method.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A method of painting with opaque colors, which have been ground in water and mingled with a preparation of gum; also, a picture thus painted.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun art A thick, opaque watercolour paint made with gum containing an inert white pigment to make it opaque
  • noun art A painting made with this paint

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an opaque watercolor prepared with gum
  • noun a watercolor executed with opaque watercolors mixed with gum

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Italian guazzo, from Latin aquātiō, watering, from aquātus, past participle of aquārī, to fetch water, from aqua, water; see akw-ā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from French.

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Examples

  • The standout image, though, was an 11 by 14 inch painting in gouache by Brian Floca from his "Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11."

    Sammy Perlmutter: 'Drawn In Brooklyn' At The Brooklyn Public Library: Picture Book Authors Talk About Inspiration Sammy Perlmutter 2010

  • Illustrator Stephanie Buscema has that perfect “retro cute” thing going on with paintings of children, skillfully rendered in gouache.

    Avalanche of Cuteness : Scrubbles.net 2009

  • New Yorker Nancy Stahl, whose specialty is WPA-style mock-heroic illustrations (like the image at right), says the fragility of her traditional medium -- the opaque watercolor known as gouache -- used to drive her crazy.

    Throw Out The Brushes 2008

  • For S. Paolo, in Verona, Francesco painted a panel-picture in gouache, which is very beautiful, and another, also most beautiful, for the

    Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects Vol. 06 (of 10) Fra Giocondo to Niccolo Soggi Giorgio Vasari 1542

  • In this case, it's probably watercolor from his palette mixed with Chinese white and gouache, which is watercolor that has an opacifier, typically chalk, added.

    American Artist 2008

  • Here she is working with both bodycolor and watercolor, in particular gouache, which is watercolor made opaque through the addition of an opacifier -- typically chalk -- which allows it to cover whatever is painted underneath.

    American Artist 2008

  • Here she is working with both bodycolor and watercolor, in particular gouache, which is watercolor made opaque through the addition of an opacifier -- typically chalk -- which allows it to cover whatever is painted underneath.

    American Artist 2008

  • Here she is working with both bodycolor and watercolor, in particular gouache, which is watercolor made opaque through the addition of an opacifier -- typically chalk -- which allows it to cover whatever is painted underneath.

    American Artist 2008

  • They sell Holbein gouache which is very good paint as is Schmincke Horadam.

    Paint Brand Poll Results James Gurney 2008

  • Old Masters - a way of working that was then common in commercial art, before being superseded by more modest media such as gouache, watercolour and digital image-making.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2010

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