I love using gouache and have been using it for my personal work for many years but have never used it with my students. Last summer, I took a workshop for art teachers. One of the instructors, Britt Curley, shared this project, painting kingfisher birds in gouache. I was so excited about the possibilities of using gouache in my classroom and have really been looking forward to doing this project with my students.

Gouache is similar to watercolor but is more opaque. It can be layered and reactivated with water. This can make it challenging but in many ways more forgiving than watercolor. I found this set of student grade gouache on Amazon, if you would like to purchase some for home use.

Most of my classes this session ended up with a wide variety of ages, so I decided to try this out with all of them, ages 4-13. Normally, I would not use this medium with 4-6 year olds. But, I was pleasantly surprised with the results.