What is Gansai | Watercolor 101

(ps- I will be having a giveaway when I get 100 subscribers, so look out for that! )

★YOU can help me make more videos!★
For behind the scenes updates, exclusive reference photos, tutorials, and secret hangouts, support my work on Patreon!

Thanks for watching!
· · · · · ·

If you have any questions or comments, leave them below! Don't forget to leave a thumbs up. :)
· · · · · ·
Materials:

Japanese Brushes

· · · · · ·
Want to keep in touch? Connect with me below!

· · · · · ·
Music:

· · · · · ·
Some of the links above may include affiliate links. If you click on them, I might receive a small commission. While this is at absolutely no additional cost to you, your support can help me to continue making videos for this channel. Thanks!

[marikoyoshidaah]

As someone whose grandmother paints etegami and whose first paint experience was with gansai, I feel this is the most accurate video about gansai i have ever seen. Gansai is misunderstood by all these great watercolor artists on YouTube and I was so frustrated. Lol So I just wanted to say thank you :) love from Japan!

[hovawart]

Had to mute the sound because of the electronic "alarm" that persisted. The photography was gorgeous.

[mypandapaints]

Omg thank you. I've been leaving comments on some of the more popular YouTube channels who have been giving out the wrong information about Gansai paints. Also, for anyone else reading this, the breakdown of the popular "Kurataki Gansai Tambi" paints are "Brand name" + "name of medium" + "brand specific naming designation for their Gansai line (such as "Cotman" or "Winton")."

Your viewers might also like to know a bit more about Etegami painting with Gansai paints. I love that you used it in the traditional way of how Gansai paints were originally made to be used.

This also brings me to something else I enjoyed about your video. Specifying "Western watercolors." While there are Asian companies who make watercolors in the Western style, they are heavily influenced by Eastern watercolors and eastern style of painting so there tends to be a few differences that come out in which a lot of people see as failures on the parts of the Asian companies. One of them is granulation. A lot of watercolorists love granulation and have staple colors they can depend on granulation. When they try out Asian companies such as Holbein or Mission Gold, they tend to complain that since their watercolors don't granulate as much, especially in colors they are used to expecting some type of granulation, they categorize the companies as "striving to be artists' grade but failing." This is because the tradition of Eastern painting is to paint without granulation in a more ink-like fashion. There are some other issues but that is the main one I see the most. This is also another reason they automatically put Gansai paints into the Eastern almost pro-watercolor school of thought when it's simply that they don't understand the medium and history of which they are working with.

Thank you again for this video which I've been thinking of making as my first video if I ever make YouTube videos. (My channel hopefully will be dedicated to art materials and debunking some popular ideas that are spread quickly through YouTube on art materials).

Also, on the mixing of the Gansai paints. I believe that historically, you don't mix Gansai paints much not because of muddying of the colors but because Etegami painting has a sense of immediacy (though not confused with urgency), so it was practiced to put paint straight onto the paper instead of spending time mixing and thinking. I'm so glad I subscribed to you. You need way more subscribers!!!

[nullavitasinemusica]

finally someone who understands what gansai is
you deserve a medal

[thefrugalcrafter]

This was great, so well done and informative. I have been using these paints in my mixed media for over a year and found that they offer some capabilities that my transparent watercolors I prefer for strait watercolor painting do not. I find they adhere over watercolor crayons and they can be used to stencil with. I really enjoyed your explanation of the chemical differences in the paint. Thank you for such a vell thought out video:)

[LauraPaints]

Really informative. I knew Japanese and Chinese watercolours were formulated differently from European colours, but nobody explained just HOW different they are so thank you very much for sharing!

[gabMV]

I wish I could’ve watched the whole video but that background music was just so grating, I made it 1:29 in before I gave up. I’m sure it would’ve been very informative.

[OtoKano]

Your video is so clear and informative! Thank you for making this video. Even as a Japanese person, I didn't have their differences this clear in my head. Really helpful. Thank you!

[muraderg]

I believe Gansai paint manufactureres now owe you a lot..

[EveBolt]

Thank you so SO much for making this video! So informative, and so important to know before reviewing Gansai paint sets... Your painting ended up looking really nice and the paints really suit the paper well (was it washi paper?).

[Flossiest]

That alarm 🚨 sound throughout made this the hardest video to struggle thru. Thanks for the headache

[FelicitasMayer]

Wow, that was soooo helpful, and my gansai paints make so much more sense now. Thanks for great content

[effullgent]

this video is older so i'm not sure if you will see this but thank you so much! I nearly bought a gansai set to learn western watercolor, i think that i still want to get it to learn more about gansai but i'm glad i won't confuse the two! You did a great job explaining and honestly just made me super curious about a whole new area of art i never knew about so thank you!

[sequinb]

Lovely review however the background sound is really distracting at the beginning. I thought it stopped but it returned.

[denisekinsley]

This was the first video I found that explicitly defined the difference between gansai and western watercolor, so it was very helpful. Thank you!

[mearis]

I took a couple of Chinese Brush Painting and Etegami classes from an instructor who learned in Asia. This is a really good video, and I like that you used rice paper to do your painting.

[claowue]

Thanks for explaining this paints so well. I wondered what they are since I had seen a first video about them.

[cathyp.]

Thank you, best video I have seen on these paints! I bought mine after seeing some really pretty paintings done with them. Now I am so glad to know the difference between different paints. I would love to see more videos from you!

[LezleyDavidson]

Thanks for the great info! Have you ever used the Holbein Irodori colours? I was reminded of them while watching your video.

Just to add to your great information - most western watercolours also have a sugar and glycerin added. Generally it's corn syrup and it acts as a humectant while the glycerin helps the gum arabic re-dissolve. M. Graham adds honey to their paints and uses it as a selling point.

Another ingredient difference from Gansai is Ox Gall. Most western watercolours have ox gall added which acts as a dispersant and makes watercolours "plume and spread" into water other colours. Holbein doesn't add ox gall to their paints which makes them very slow to blend and mix with other colours.

Sorry if that's too much - I like sharing art supply info!

[angelmansyndrom]

I referee to this video whenever I see artists and comments about misunderstanding about Gansai. You saved the internet today, Sadie <3 Love from Sweden