Gouache to acrylic or oil paints in that it is normally used in an opaque painting style and it can form a superficial layer. Many manufacturers of watercolor paints also produce gouache and the two can easily be used together. Gouache paint is similar to watercolor, however modified to make it opaque. Just as in watercolor, the binding agent has traditionally been gum arabic but since the late nineteenth century cheaper varieties use yellow dextrin. When the paint is sold as a paste, e.g. in tubes, the dextrin has usually been mixed with an equal volume of water. To improve the
Gum arabic gum arabic is now produced throughout the African Sahel, it is still harvested and used in the Middle East. Gum arabic was defined by the 31st Codex Committee for Food Additives, held at The Hague, The Netherlands, from 19–23 March 1999, as the dried exudate from the trunks and branches of "Acacia senegal" or "Vachellia (Acacia) seyal" in the family Leguminosae (Fabaceae)”. A 2017 safety re-evaluation by the Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said that the term "gum arabic" does not indicate a particular botanical source; in a few cases so‐called