I am pondering which colours to buy for my first gouache set up.
In one of the lessons it said that primary yellow/blue/red were used.
Now I am listening to the live lesson on colour mixing and there are basically cool and warm primaries respectively. So now I wondered if the class uses warm or cool primaries or if it’s up to me to decide, or if primary red refers to a certain red hue, because at my place I can get primary magenta which is completely different from alizarin crimson or cadmium red?
As for color. Mat does not expect you to use the exact color he used. You can use substitutes that are close to his if you would like. But you are the artists. You use what you feel. Matt always says that.
1 Like
I’m just confused about the different primaries and what to buy in the first place before even building an opinion. Watching the video on mixing I found huge differences and I believe that buying Magenta instead of crimson will be even more off.
Plus, I don’t have a feeling for gouache yet, no preferences, nothing… just a lot of questions 
I got the primaries first. Later on I got a full set of paint that includes the primaries. I use gouache. Matt uses both. He also mixes aint to get different colors, which is usually done with the primary colors, but also can be done with other colors as well. I hope this helps.
If you already familiar with mixing watercolors, gouach works the same. When you are not sure which primairies to buy, i’d suggest you take a quick google search with the term “split primairy pallete”. In the images you can see the colors made with warm and cool colors and with which color you get clean mixes.
And when in doubt you can always look up whether a red/yellow/blue is warm or cold.
On my watercolor palette i have a primairy set with non traditional colors (opera pink, quin gold and indanthrene blue) and it works wonders.
2 Likes
My mom loves her quin gold as well, uses it all the time. I will try to buy both warm and cold primaries just in case. I love mixing but just starting out, so I guess I will have to see what works for me