Miya HIMI Jelly Gouache Color Review #5: Earth Yellow and Burnt Umber

 

This is the fifth in a series of reviews of the individual colors from the Miya HIMI brand 24-color “jelly” gouache paint set. This review will concentrate on the Miya HIMI Earth Yellow and Burnt Umber jelly gouache paint colors and will also include updates on my Star Trek painting and how my swatch chart is coming along.

Miya HIMI Jelly Gouache color Earth Yellow

With the background finished, it was time to start on my figures. Animal bits aside, this was still Kirk and Picard, so I needed to ensure they were recognizable. The easiest way to do that was by including their uniform jackets. Despite the whole green/gold controversy surrounding Kirk's uniform, I always saw it as gold, so I needed a yellow ochre-ish color. The HIMI set has a color called Earth Yellow that is the right shade, so I busted that out and swatched it, then painted the base color of Kirk's jacket. It was a very straightforward match – no color-mixing necessary. 

As you can see from the swatches, Earth Yellow has a strong opacity with some marked granularity, typical of earth tones.

Miya HIMI Jelly Gouache color Burnt Umber

Next, I needed a brown color for Kirk's goaty lower body. I also needed to mix a shadow color for his jacket and some brown for his hair. Burnt Umber, a slightly cool, dark brown, blended well with the Earth Yellow gouache to create a neutral, mid-range brown to create the shading on Kirk's jacket and his brown hair. 

Then I flipped the script and used the Earth Yellow to create highlighted areas on Kirk's satyr legs and hair. The colors mix very well and application was smooth, as with the prior colors. 

The Burnt Umber was a lovely chocolate pudding color – very tempting! As with its fellow earth color, Earth Yellow, the Burnt Umber had strong opacity and granularity. These are also probably the most lightfast hues in the collection, another feature of earth tones.

A look at the swatch chart shows several of the color mixes as well as the comparison of the lighter and darker and warmer and cooler colors. I've only done a few 50/50 mixes so far, as I was focusing more on getting the painting done for my friend's birthday, but I did swatch a mix of the Earth Yellow and Burt Umber, which appears halfway down the right edge, where the two colors converge on the grid. As you can see, it makes a lovely golden brown. 

The birthday card was starting to take shape - as you can see above, I filled in the lettering, since the background was complete. 

For the original post describing the unboxing of the Miya HIMI jelly gouache paint set, go here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/03/unboxing-himi-jelly-gouache-24-color-set.html

For the first review in the series and an explanation of the painting and its very particular subject matter, go here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/06/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-1-sky.html

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