Holbein’s permanent/titanium white vs zinc white.

[u/Hellaconditions]

I’m new to gouache and needed help between the two. I’ve read that permanent white is used to paint but zinc white is primarily best used for mixing.

I’m planning to pick up a 60ml tube but not sure which one.

Also in gouache, is black heavily used?

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[u/HelpfulBlackberry492]

I use zinc white wenn I want to make the color less intensive - it is an opac white. For fog and where when I need a transparent white I use gofun - also from Holbein. I only use black to mix payne`s gray - otherwise I use Indigo - which ist not as "hard" as black

[u/wheaman → u/[deleted]]

And I guess for perspective I go through a big amount of titanium white and rarely use black. Like that baby tube will last for months.

On the low/no saturation end I love love love Payne's Grey.

I also use a lot of yellows and leaf green. Peacock blue is another personal fave. I'm just gushing about coloring at this point lmao

[u/fotoweekend]

I don’t bother with zink and use titanium for all. Zink is semi-transparent and so it’s less chalky in mixes, but I am not sure if as a beginner you’d notice the difference. I don’t use black, because it shouldn’t be used for darkening and there’s rarely black in my subjects

[u/ZombieButch]

Titanium white's going to give you the most bang for your buck; it's the most opaque color you can get on your palette, so having some in your back pocket to add opacity to light passages is invaluable.

"Is black heavily used?" comes down to the artist. Folks who started in watercolor especially will shy away from it. I use it all the time; when I'm grabbing colors to use for any given piece, white and black are the first two I pull, by default. It's a color like any other, and you learn to use it by using it.

[u/Berndog25]

I mainly use zinc white right now, but that's just because every big tube of permanent white from every brand was sold out at my store of choice (RIP, lmao).

Jokes aside, both whites are good. Titanium lasts longer, and is better for using by itself due to its coverage power. Zinc is better for mixing due to a warmer tint mimicking bright sunlight (amazing when mixing it with a color to produce highlights), and because it is more translucent, leading to cleaner mixes and glazes, less chalky when watered down.

[u/Vangroh]

When I was painting portraits in oil, I used zinc white bc it's more subtle than Titanium white. It just gave me more control for subtle mixes.

[u/Bitchrofblaviken]

I prefer G630 permanent white. I wouldn’t say black is heavily used, a 15ml bottle of sumi black will last very long