My experience with these polarizing paints
Hi friends! I am late to the game, but I finally tried Kuretake Gansai Tambi. I purchased the 36 set first, followed by the much loved Art Nouveau set of 24, and color set II of 12. Some people love these, some people don’t, so I went in with zero expectations. If you have not tried them and are curious how they work, this is a review you will want to read.
Don’t have time to read this in-depth review in its entirety? Scroll to the bottom for Summary of Kuretake Gansai Tambi Review.
What Is Gansai Tambi?
Kuretake Gansai Tambi is a traditional Japanese water-based paint. It can be used as gouache or watered down as watercolour, and is lightfast. It comes in 100 colours and I have 72 so far.
The pan size is larger than your typical western watercolour full pan, so if you hate those half pans that ruin your bigger brushes, you will love these.
In addition, under the box cover you get a label you can swatch all the corresponding colours. Each pan has a printed shade colour name and number as well, in case you take them out.
Gansai Tambi is made in Japan. Though we think it is inexpensive here, it is even cheaper if you buy it in Japan. We are paying double here! In Japan, especially at the art store Sekaido, you can get Gansai Tambi in open stock which costs a bit over CAD$1.50 each, or less than 200 Yen. Crazy, eh? I cannot believe how cheap these are.
By the way, if you wonder why I bought this many colours instead of mixing from a limited palette, we will get into that in this Kuretake Gansai Tambi review.
How Each Gansai Tambi Set Arrives
Each set comes in a beautiful cardboard box like this, inside a clear plastic bag. There is also a protective clear plastic cover to protect the paints.
Swatches
Even though each box included a label to swatch the colours, two of the labels are glossy and the paints did not go on evenly. The set of 12 I bought had a paper label that fared better with the paints, but I prefer swatching them on actual watercolour paper. I used my Painter’s Color Diary and split into two pages for all 72 shades.
Set of 36 Swatches
Art Nouveau and Color Set II Swatches
These swatched beautifully. The set of 36 contains essential basic colours, while the Art Nouveau set of 24 has a mostly muted palette with more of a white base in most of the shades. I am personally very fond of either a very vibrant palette to do my galaxy style animal paintings, or a very muted palette for loose florals, so with these 72 shades I think I am well covered.
Mixing Colours
I am used to working with a more limited palette, but I ended up buying 72 shades of Gansai Tambi. If you have worked with Gansai Tambi you might understand the need to buy this many colours. These are not the best for mixing, because they can turn very cloudy. These are not transparent watercolours like traditional watercolour paints, so if you mix too many shades they can turn milky and chalky. So this is the reason why I bought 3 sets.
Kuretake Gansai Tambi Review: Wet on Wet
This was the first painting I did with Gansai Tambi, my galaxy cat. I ended up using a bit of Meiliang because very quickly I learned that this is why some people didn’t like these paints; I could be wrong but Gansai Tambi doesn’t contain ox gall, so the paints don’t spread/flow like traditional watercolour. When I drop the paints into the wet paper they just sort of stayed put, so I realized these paints won’t work for my galaxy style painting.
Moreover, if used more concentrated like the splatters, they dried a bit glossy too, almost like a lacquered finish, not good for splattering. To make the paints flow a bit I wet the paper more but that led to a chalky finish when dried.
In this portrait above, I wanted to show how Gansai Tambi works on wet surface. It may be a con if you want the paint to move more, but when you want a slightly out of focus background, it actually works well. However, when diluted like this wet on wet it can dry very chalky.
Again, the wet on wet background above dried very chalky and splotchy. Due to the paints not flowing/spreading, you can’t use them like traditional watercolour. However, in both portraits the foreground turned out fine using wet on dry.
Glazing/Layering
One of the major differences between Gansai Tambi and traditional watercolour is that Gansai Tambi can be lifted and blended even after it’s dried, which makes it easy to fix mistakes. You can simply rewet the paint and blend it out, avoiding blooms and hard edges if you wish. This is a pro and a con; the con being that I find it harder to glaze or layer. If you put down a base layer, let dry and put another layer, it simply lifts and blends away the bottom one.
When it comes to animal portraits I find the ability to rewet and blend a good thing. It is a bit more forgiving if you make a mistake. However, I tend to overwork a painting so this is something to keep in mind if you are like me.
Vibrancy of Pigments
The set of 36 has much more vivid colours than the Art Nouveau or Colour Set II. If you don’t dilute too much you can get fairly vibrant colours. Generally I find Gansai Tambi more muted when dried compared to traditional watercolour.
Used As Gouache
I also tried to use Gansai Tambi as gouache. I didn’t find it opaque enough, but it worked better when I layered it than layering as watercolour. For the background, I used 3 layers to achieve opacity. By the way, as gouache, Gansai Tambi dried a bit glossy, not matte like traditional gouache, so if you don’t like that sheen, beware!
Do I Love These?
I bought 3 sets and not at the same time, so that tells you I do like Gansai Tambi. I was stuck in a rut for a bit, and trying out new paints brought me out of that rut. However, these do take some learning curve, particularly the paint not flowing and the colours being more muted when dried. I think I had more trouble initially with the paints lifting so easily. Now, I turned it into a good thing, so I can rework parts that may be too harsh. A bit of water and you can soften edges and blend away.
With that said, you can definitely overwork your paintings very easily because of the nature of these paints.
What Gansai Tambi is Good For?
- Loose florals or paintings that don’t require too many layers
- As background, out of focus but still has some definition
- Use more like gouache especially when layering
- If you like mixing your colours directly on paper or if you don’t like mixing, just use the shades as they are
- Cardmaking and papercrafts
- Calligraphy
Summary of Kuretake Gansai Tambi Review
Pros:
- Large range of beautiful colours (100)
- Elegant packaging and large pan size
- Easy to use and rewet
- Lightfast (claimed)
- Can be used as gouache or watercolour
- Great for mixing directly on paper
- Inexpensive
- Open stock available
- Shade names printed on each pans
- Blends easily even after drying
- Lifts easily
Cons:
- Bulky and takes up a lot of space; not travel friendly
- Colours dry more muted in some white-based shades
- Lifts easily, hard to glaze/layer
- Not great for mixing too many colours
- Can dry very chalky and splotchy wet on wet
- Paints don’t flow wet on wet
- Dries glossy if used with less water
I hope this review is helpful, especially if you have not taken the plunge to try Gansai Tambi yet. It is not for everyone but I personally quite enjoy using it. 🙂
