Was I living under a rock when Mondo Llama gouache hit the stores?! Every time I walk through the arts and crafts section of Target, I swear there are new things. I didn’t even know that they made gouache until someone one Tiktok told me about it and asked me to review them. I was not paid for this review in any form and all of these comments are my own.
Let’s talk price point – at only $10, this is very affordable. But cheap art supplies are cheap for a reason (which I’ll explain more below).
In my video review, I go more in depth about all of my thoughts. But in this blog post, I want to summarize and expound on a few points as well.
Why cheap gouache is cheap
In general, cheap gouache is cheap because the paint formula is inferior. While it may have the correct pigments, the formula usually includes additives and filler ingredients to stretch out the pigment. These are usually synthetic fillers that don’t do anything to enhance the pigment’s color and may even dull the overall color.
You’ll notice that some cheap gouache don’t even offer pigment information (like the ones from Mondo Llama) and that’s because they can’t actually tell you what it’s made up of because it’s not quality pigments. It also means you can’t compare that color to other brands because you don’t know what’s in it.
Due to the fillers and nonsense additional ingredients, you end up using a lot more product in order to achieve the desired results. Which means that you end up needing to refill faster.
Now if you’re a complete beginner you need to ask yourself two things:
- Am I a more serious artist in general but maybe new to gouache?
- Do I care about following techniques and tutorials and achieving the “proper” results?
If your answer is yes to either of these questions, you might want to pass on cheap supplies in general because you will be frustrated from Day 1 and will have ended up wasting your money. Yeah, I said it.
If your answer is no, then there’s no harm in trying out cheaper supplies as long as you’re conscious of the disadvantages.
][Learn more about mistakes to avoid when painting with gouache][
Mondo Llama gouache highlights
Before I go into the problems with the Mondo Llama gouache, let’s look at a few of the highlights.
In the image below, I swatched the primary colors and mixed secondary colors at the bottom. As you can see, the colors are quite vibrant for the most part. When watered down, the colors get a bit more muddy. But they start out pretty strong and saturated.
In terms of opacity, several of the colors are quite opaque. Even the white is decent. It could be better, but it’s enough. The yellow ochre, cerulean, viridian, sap green, and burnt sienna in particular are all opaque and were easy to spread on the paper with just a little bit of water.
The pastel range is pretty. I think if Mondo Llama continues with its gouache line, they should come out with a pastels set. When I mixed a little bit of white into each primary and secondary color, it created a really pretty set. The paint consistency somehow was less streaky even.
Mondo Llama gouache problems
Not enough white paint
Gouache artists use A LOT of white paint. By the time I was done filming my video and playing around with the paints, I used almost half of the white tube.
Mondo Llama, if you’re seeing this, make sure you include an extra large tube of white paint! Or sell them individually.
Streaky paint texture
This photo speaks for itself. The consistency is inconsistent. You can very clearly see the paint marks. The paint was also quite goopy on my brush so laying it on the paper was difficult and frustrating.
Paint formula separating in tube
When I squeezed a few of the paint tubes, the paint came out suspended in some kind of clear or colored mucus-like substance. I have NO IDEA what it is, but it kind of grossed me out. This is frustrating because then the overall paint consistency is ruined. And you may even have paint separation on the paper as the paint dries.
Dull colors when mixing too many colors
This is probably the most difficult thing about cheap gouache paints and its disadvantage. Because there is no pigment information, mixing colors is tricky. I quickly noticed that as I was mixing citrus colors, I was not going to get bright colors. While adding the white helped lighten the color, it also dulled the vibrancy overall.
What do you think? Would you give the Mondo Llama gouache a try? Let me know your thoughts and make sure to watch the video review too since I cover some info there that I didn’t mention here.
See you next time!
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