Review & demo - Boku-Undo E-Sumi Gansai Paints (aka those dark muted inky paints!)

[@micabusby6980]

With using Kuretake Gansai, I found papers below watercolor weight actually works wonderful with the paints. I decided to use random sketchbooks to practice and found the gansai mixed and layered beautifully to my drawing paper.

[@EveBolt]

That's a good tip! What is your drawing paper, if I may ask? :)

[@higherground711]

That's good to know. 👍 What about warping and buckling? Was there less or more of either of these with these paints? Thanks.

[@InLiquidColor]

I love the flower and plant paintings you did! So beautiful!

[@EveBolt]

Thanks Denise! There are so many ways to paint, so many subjects... Do you sometimes get lost in all this? XD

[@heathercatlady546]

It's so cool to see how you improved so quickly and adjusted your technique to reflect the different medium, and the end result is amazing. That's the sign of a true artist. Well done

[@EveBolt]

Oh my, thank you!! :) I was "trained" to improvise, so I'm glad it worked here ;)

[@33Jenesis]

Love your rose! This is a solid form of tinted sumi ink used in calligraphy in Japan and China. This is why there’s no layering and super easy to lift like any ink based pigment. I like the murky nature of the tinted black. It sort of fits a certain aesthetics and mood, unlike traditional watercolor paint.

[@OtoKano]

Your pronounciation of 'umezara' was so spot on! Perfect! Your rose is beautiful. Have you tried painting on rice paper with them?

[@MrsTiffanyGrey]

Moody and pretty paints, Eve! Love how you used your pretty tins you showed us from last haul/unboxing! Thanks for the review!

[@EveBolt]

Thanks Tiffany! :D I love those tins, they have animal art on them! Not just ugly packaging (looking at you, new Altoids design)...

[@elborbah3045]

Thank you so much for your video ! Especially , the writen explanation you gave with all the links etc You replied exactly to every question i was asking myself about this palette , how to work it - EXCELLENT !!!!! BRAVO

[@MDCampbell]

I have never thought to seek out the Kuretake brand of paints - until now! I must say, you work beautifully and make working with these paints look effortless. I'm very curious and a local shop carries the Gansai paints and I don't think are very expensive. Thank you for introducing the dark, inky palette. I really like that a lot! Cheers! :)

[@EveBolt]

I'd suggest starting with a few pans, or the smallest set since these are super different and could be a big hit, or a big miss. I love the size of the pans a lot though, and I'm sad I can't buy them empty, or go through them fast enough to repurpose them! The dark colors remind me of perylene green, indigo and other dark, rich watercolors. I should get around to swatching the Daniel Smith dot chart so I can reference the gansai colors to those! :)

[@higherground711]

People actually are making molds of cartridges for old video games because some people collect retro video games. Perhaps someone will start to produce empty pans of this size. It would be nice to have the option. 👍 Have you tried glazing these over western watercolors and mixing the two? You might get interesting results.

[@truthseeker4699]

I personally loved the look of the first landscape attempt. Like a smoky fog.

[@EveBolt]

Well, thank you!! :)

[@orkidbox]

These look really interesting. It is amazing how you find all these new products.

[@EveBolt]

Hehe, I spend way too much time looking at everything online ;)

[@dhservers]

Very clear explanations and descriptions of the qualities of the paints. Thanks much ✨

[@EveBolt]

Thank you very much! :) I've painted a bit more with them, and they work much better on cotton paper than cellulose paper. I used a Fluid 100 cotton pad and it came out nice and lovely! And layer-able!

[@ianjackson5834]

I do like the pan sizes of the sumi paints and the paint give an instant inky like sumi-e feel to the painting, TFS

[@EveBolt]

I agree! It's a nice balance of dark ink and a touch of color :)

[@MandyvanGoeije]

super great colors...always love darks....

[@EveBolt]

Thanks! :) These are really lovely!

[@ritawilbur7343]

Wow, I love those leaves! That was gorgeous! And I really appreciate you showing the "mistakes." Since it's seems we have to figure this out for ourselves, that's very instructional. It really does appear that layering that should be kept to a minimum, but perhaps you can vary the intensity of the color by how much water you add? Because they are so rewettable, they make some fantastic blooms! I'd love to get these, but I do have some sumi ink, so really I could mix it up myself.

[@chrissie4452]

I love your flowers and plants drawings !

[@EveBolt]

Merci!!! :D ♥

[@chrissie4452]

So Japanese !!! I have the pan set and it's a nice idea to find a metal box ....I found one, an old watch box where I can fit them in. I just love them !

[@EveBolt]

I love how the disposable (?) paper packaging they came in was still super pretty and well made. :)

[@SpookyRooster135]

OO haven't seen the lovely flower pallette one. Isn't that nice. Love the paints. Was hoping to get them for Christmas but I never, will just have to be patient and wait a little longer.

[@EveBolt]

I hope you can get them soon! They are nice, moody paints and I love how reusable the palette is!

[@lisathaviu1154]

Great video. I often use watercolors in connection with graphite or watercolor pencils. I would bet that these would combine really well with the Derwent Graphitint pencils.

[@EveBolt]

Thanks! :) You're right, they have very similar color palettes!

[@Becktastic01]

Beautiful, and I had never heard of these before. You taught me something new! I looked up the paints and every agrees that you can't layer them, and the binder is usually animal based like glue made from collagen. So they are not like western watercolours at all. But that just means people need to think of a different way to use them, and you showed very nice examples of this.

[@DrawingWithFire]

Great video Eve! 😁 I really like that flower palette & the muted colors. I'm not into travel palettes to much, so that isn't an issue for me. TFS!! 😃

[@EveBolt]

Thanks Val! :D I really like the flower palette too! I wish I had the desk space to display it (but then again it'd end up full of cat hairs lol)

[@DrawingWithFire]

Eve Bolt - Bolt's Vault lol! 😂 I agree about the pet hair. Our doggies don't come into my studio because of fur getting into everything. But their fur still ends up in there, especially our white great Pyrenees fur. 😆

[@MarcosG000]

Yeyyy! I saw this paints on aliexpress a while ago and I was super curious about them, but I couldn't find more info. This video is exactly what I needed, thank you so much! ^_^

[@EveBolt]

Oh!! Awesome!! I love Aliexpress, so many new things to peruse over there :)

[@FurorGale]

Just got these in the mail the other day off Amazon(box set). I rather like them so far, If you mix enough water with the blue black and the purple black you can get the colors to separate allowing the blue and purple to come through...

[@EveBolt]

Ooooo, interesting! I love colors that separate, they bring such a pretty random element to art pieces :)

[@KarijnsWatercolors]

So nice... I love the palette and possibly all the effect you could get with such dark colours. :D 've been looking at Boku-Undo sets on eBay and I discovered there are a lot! You have the metallics, the pearls, the aurora (pastels), the aquatic blue, one for forests, another set focused on yellows and reds... I think this one is the more balanced in terms of colour range, even though all the colours are dark, all the other sets seem focused on a specific subject.

[@EveBolt]

I agree! I have a few more in the pile to review eventually (including a set of pearly colors). I'll happily send you the set I have in pans, if you want. I don't see any reason to keep both the flower palette AND the pans set... I have a couple more videos planned about gansai paints and while I love the Japanese aesthetic and the palettes, I definitely don't paint enough in a fitting style to warrant hoarding ALL of these XD

[@KarijnsWatercolors]

Haha, thank you so much for the kind offer, but I'm afraid it would be just a thing I'd try and then probably use very little of (plus I've been struggling with art block lately), so perhaps do a giveaway if you don't want to keep both? Giveaways are always nice. :D

[@EveBolt]

They are! I'll think about it ;)

[@vanessarottencandy4044]

These are so beautiful. I had to check amazon and eBay right away😬 but I need to wait until next month

[@EveBolt]

They are not rare, so I think you're safe waiting. Who knows, you might get them at an even better price than they are right now :)

[@tracylynnw]

I just ordered the box set of this, golly gosh, had I known it was the same paint in a ceramic dish, I would have ordered that one. Gheese, oh well ima gonna enjoy this paint anyways. Cheers!

[@laurap4415]

These are really neat!

[@niteycat]

This reminds me of the Derwent Graphtint palette. I love moody colors. p.s I am so addicted to Newman’s Own mints. Especially the ginger. Lol

[@EveBolt]

Hehe! I don't think I've seen those mints around here, but if I ever do I'll give the ginger a try! ♥ ginger! And you're right, these colors are very much like the Graphitint palette.

[@Jacklynofalltrades]

Very nice! I ordered a set.

[@EveBolt]

Thanks! I hope you'll enjoy the paints! :)

[@yuame]

Ahh, the flower palette set looks so nice! I like the muted colour selection, too. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on them, gonna put it in my wishlist :)

[@EveBolt]

It can be a good inspiration, too, if you find an empty flower palette for cheap and fill it with your favorite colors, handmade or not. :)

[@christianecarson4321]

Gorgeous colours, and your paintings are stunning!!! please could you tell me what make/type/size of brush you are using (not the waterpen)Thank you so much for this review - truly inspirational

[@EveBolt]

Thank you!! :) The flat brush I use in the first part is a synthetic size 1/2 flat brush by Nobel, the one for the flowers and leaves is a Snap! white taklon round brush by Princeton size 12.

[@Penciledbykay]

I love the dark inky colors! I just order them to try them out. Have you done any more art pieces using them?

[@bevroberts8440]

I just found this video...uh, oh...I am very intrigued by these products much to my surprise, lol!

[@EveBolt]

Hehe! That's a good thing, right? :) I love discovering new supplies!

[@bevroberts8440]

It's good, but it would be Great if they handed them out for free, lol! I am suddenly very intrigued by Japanese still flower paintings and I want so much to use one of those huge sumi brushes to make foliage.

[@gabriellaritaart]

Hi, I use the Kuretake palette, which is my favorite and is confirmed to be vegan. I'm thinking about buying these as well, but i'm concerned about the binder. Do you have any information on that? Thank you in advance

[@EveBolt]

Hi! I don't have any information on the binder for these, I'm sorry!

[@lw-gc3kd]

I love the color selection such a shame you can't layer them:/ Are there similiar colors from other brands? Btw I loved the video

[@katf3836]

I have the boku-undo coming this week. I'm excited to try them. I love how they dry too. Do you still use these at all?

[@sueallen952]

Just had a look on ebay the flower palette is thirty od pounds plus fifteen postage, way to expensive for what they are in my opinion

[@franswey2]

I found the flower pallet on Ebay.

[@estellelace3402]

Beautiful

[@hollyzessin2886]

I thought I discovered a new item..I do have 2 different dark color set and 1 pastel set.

[@firecloud6503]

Those dark colours really look nice. I tried finding them in a online store but I wasn`t lucky so far. How compareable are those gansai paints to gouache?

[@EveBolt]

Gansai and gouache are two very different things. Gansai paints are closer to watercolor paints, but even then they aren't like the watercolors we are used to. These dark muted colors have very little in common with gouache, aside from being reactivated by water. If you haven't checked it out and have a moment to spare, check Sade's video about gansai paints, she explains super well how gansai are not like gouache at all :)

[@firecloud6503]

I have seen it, but I`m more interested in the way they behave. I`ve seen people using them on coloured paper and they kind of looked like gouache but I`ve also seen people using them more like watercolours in a more transparent way. And I`ve also seen people using gouache in those two ways. So I wanted to know if they are compareable in their behaviour while painting.

[@EveBolt]

Oh! I see! Mh, I didn't try them on dark paper... Since they are pretty dark, I don't think a lot would show up. I'll check it out and come back with the info :)

[@firecloud6503]

Thank you :)

[@EveBolt]

Hi again! :) So I tried them on black paper and they don't show much. The Yellowish and Brownish show up a bit more, but it's not super striking. All paints have a matte finish, for some of them that's the only way I can spot them on the black paper ;) Not sure if that helps but let me know if you want me to test something else XD

[@gsfs8208]

Love it But 8:26 you used the wrong to. It should have been too

[@StephenMarkTurner]

Do you know the pigment info?

[@EveBolt]

I do not, sorry! Pigment infos for gansai paints are, in general, pretty hard to find (unfortunately!).

[@toadie2929]

I've never tried any gansai paints before. They're really pretty but the opacity does not suit my style of painting.

[@EveBolt]

They are not opaque per se, but they have a very different formula than Western watercolors. It's possible to get similar dark colors with watercolors, which is a pretty neat option, too :)