Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. For today's video, I'm going to be reviewing the Reeves Gwash set. I'm going to be painting blue gold fishes that have been my recent obsession. I've been sketching them and today I wanted to see if I can paint them with some gouache. So I went down to my local Michaels and I found this 18-piece Reeves Gwash set. They also had, I believe, a 10-piece but I wanted to get as many colors as possible. The retail price for this was about $14.99 but with a coupon, I was able to bring it down to $10. Looking at all the colors, I was able to see that they had a pretty good selection. I have a stillman and burn watercolor sketchbook that I will be using today. I have my Prisma color 4H pencil that I am using to sketch out the three gold fishes. In my sketchbook, I have them drawn in curly race, Prisma curly race pencils, but I found in past attempts with other gouache brands that even in acrylic and oil paintings as well, that the Prisma color collie race do tend to mix with the paints and I don't really like that especially since some of them are pink and if you're using different colors, they tend to muddy up especially with white paints. It comes out as hot pink so I wanted to make sure that the paint wouldn't mix with any of the pencil drawing which is why I used the 4H. So all three of the fishes I either got from Google or Pinterest and I had sketched them out and my usual sketchbook was just a regular cotton's wood art sketchbook that I got at a convention. So I got a regular white plate. It's a small one that I picked up at the Dollar Tree. Really easy to pick up. The colors that I picked up were a burnt sienna, a lot of white, this fleshy pink color, a bright red, an orange and then a deep yellow. I also had an assortment of different types of brushes from my favorite number 8 brush, a number 6 brush and then some travel brushes as well as a script brush which is just really a long brush that's really good for making lines. I did an initial layer of really thinned out gouache, almost like watercolor just to have a base of kind of where I wanted everything to go. I was going for a more graphic look rather than realistic. I had actually a pretty okay time with these. I was expecting them to be really patchy when making layers. If you've ever worked with gouache then you know that you have to try and make even layers and sometimes with cheaper gouache it can end up really streaky or patchy and as I started to build the layers I was worried that I will experience some of this patchiness but surprisingly I didn't which I thought was amazing. I do own Windsor Newton gouache and some whole-bind gouache but because those gouaches are pretty pricey for comparison like I said I got this set for $10 for $18 to whereas a Windsor Newton professional gouache to buy itself is about $11 that my goals. The whole-bind ones can usually range depending on the color. Certain colors are more expensive than others but they're pricey compared to the Windsor Newton gouache. So I did want to try a cheaper alternative that I can use in my sketchbook and to practice with and to get better at gouache instead of using my expensive gouache that I can use for commissions or for final pieces. So with the fish that has a giant red thing on it's head that looks kind of like I don't even know what it looks like but out of all the fishes that I worked on today that one was probably my least favorite but that was more of a design fault rather than a painting mistake I believe. I just think I shaded it and highlighted it in a way to make it look really bumpy rather than just slightly textured it kind of looks like a weird pimple on its head but I've been obsessing over cold fishes for some very odd reason. I just like I think they're cute especially the ones that have like the ginormous eyes on the side of the head those are my favorite. Out of the three my favorite and that it being the one the orange one I thought that that one looked super cute and kind of had the style that I was going for not very blended more graphic and flat washes of color rather than blending and shading. If you've ever worked with gouache then you know that as you layer there is a chance of reactivating the layer underneath and instead of adding paint it kind of ends up taking away paint. I get that a lot with my Windsor noon if I put too thick of a layer as my base layer and then add another layer I end up reactivating the layer underneath because gouache does reactivate it's one of the many reasons that people like using it so I do recommend using light washes kind of like watercolor at first and then work your way to a thicker thicker layer because if not it will end up just being a muddy mess. For the most part I actually really like the Reeve gouache for the little fish drawing I did in my sketchbook depending on what you want to use this gouache for will determine if you like it or not. I haven't tried it in more of a blending style like realistic or landscapes before this kind of fun graphic or more sticker like style I absolutely loved it. I will be using it again to kind of play around my sketchbook and then hopefully I can get some techniques down so when it's time to switch over to more professional gouache I feel more confident in them. But that's basically all I have for today I hope you guys enjoyed this video and enjoyed watching me paint these little fishies I hope you guys try out the Reeve gouache they're really cheap and if you're a beginner artist that wants to switch over to a different medium I highly recommend them. I have not tried any of the other Reeve paints I know they sell oil watercolor and acrylic if you guys want to see me review those because I do have professional oils, professional acrylics and watercolors I can see if those are a really good fit for those that want to start out. I hope you guys enjoyed this video don't forget to comment like and subscribe and I will see you guys in my next video. Bye!