HIMI Jelly Gouache Color Review #1 – Sky Blue, Swatch Chart, and Star Trek Painting Project

Recently, I posted about receiving and unboxing the 24-color HIMI gouache set. https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/03/unboxing-himi-jelly-gouache-24-color-set.html 

I am a planner, so before I opened any of the colors, I planned out a fairly involved set of swatch charts to show how the colors would look on light grounds and dark grounds, as well as on more-absorbent and less-absorbent surfaces. I used white watercolor paper as a light, highly-absorbent surface, and black bristol board (Strathmore Artagain) as a dark, less absorbent surface. Each chart actually has four pages, as I wanted to show how each color mixed with the others, but Page One, pictured, shows how the colors look in the palette before going into the mixing charts. Although you don't have to go to the lengths of making a chart to show all the mixes (and mine only shows 50/50 mixes of each color with one other color), it's recommended to at least make a basic swatch chart for your colors, as gouache tends to dry lighter or darker. 

To save time and materials, I decided to make my swatch chart concurrent with a painting project that would use a good variety of colors. A friend of mine had expressed a fanciful desire to see a Renaissance-style painting based on Star Trek characters, with Captain Kirk as a satyr, playing a pan flute, and Captain Picard as a centaur, playing the flute played by his character in an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation. This struck me as fun, so I made some sketches for the design, which would be incorporated into a birthday card design for her. I transferred the design to a kraft-paper card stock, and I plan to open each color in order as I needed it, adding it to my swatch chart and using it in my painting. 

HIMI Jelly Gouache color number 049- Sky Blue 

As you probably know if you've read my painting tutorial https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2015/09/step-by-step-painting-fantastic-mr-foxs.html , I like to start from the background and work forward. I decided to show my satyr and centaur frolicking in a pastoral setting typical of Renaissance work. Planning for a sunny meadow scene, I would first need a blue sky with some fluffy clouds. One of the colors is named Sky Blue, so that was clearly a no-brainer to open first.

It's no surprise to see it be a little messy at first; having sat for a while since it was filled up, the pigment and binder had separated a bit. However, a thorough mix brought it to a smooth, pudding-like consistency. I added it to my swatch charts, first as a whole-strength color on the “palette chart” section of the chart (that's the section on Page One that shows the colors all together as I have them arranged in my physical palette) to establish the base color and to check the opacity. Then I filled in the home slots on the color mixing section as a gradation, to check for granularity and transparency. In those sections, all the mixes will appear as gradations. 

The Sky Blue applied smoothly and mixed with water easily to create a transparent wash with very minimal granularity. So far, so good, except that this “sky blue” is far too warm to be an accurate representation of actual blue sky, except perhaps at sunrise or sunset. It's a lovely color, but it's really more of a periwinkle blue. A good, sunny sky needs something more like cerulean. Alas, I couldn't start on my painting, yet, but I found my groove with the next two colors. I'll show you next time!

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Unboxing the Artownlar 72-Piece Art Supply Set

 

I was poking around at the new closeout store, where I had promised myself not to buy anything that I did not currently need or would not use on a regular basis. Rather than pawing through the bins like other people, I just kind of held back, strolling around slowly, waiting for something to catch my eye.

Well, the word “art” caught my eye. Sticking out of a jumble was a thick box labeled “Drawing Art Set – 72 pieces- Premium- Professional Art Supplies”. The brand name, “Artownlar” sounded like one of those nonsense names Chinese companies come up with based on a realllly loose knowledge of English, but hey, the first three letters had done exactly what they were supposed to do – get me to pick the box up and look it over. No-name brands are notorious for being crap, and cheap art supplies are also notorious for being crap, but it said 72 pieces, and it had some heft to it, so for the low, low price of $10, I was willing to take a gamble. After all, not all Chinese stuff is crap - the HIMI gouache paints have been superb!

The package was sealed, so I looked at the box for some hint of what was in it. I expected a photo or at least some details on the box, but all there was on the packaging besides the cover illustration was a blurb that described the contents as a " charcoal drawing set”. well, I highly doubted there were 72 pieces of charcoal in the box. Since there was a color illustration on the lid, I figured it was probably a set of pastels. 72 pastels for 10 bucks? Yes, please! I bought it.

When I got it back to the studio and opened it up, I got my first pleasant surprise: It came in a zippered set, along with a decently-sized pad of drawing paper. I haven't opened up the paper yet to check the quality (reviews to come!), but it does say 80 lb. That's extremely heartening, since sketchbook paper is typically about 65 lb. Heck, my favorite drawing paper, Strathmore 400 series, is 80 lb, so: cool. The pad has a standard amount of pages – 60 – mostly white, but some tan and some black.

I opened the zippered case, and it's a trifold, just chock full of stuff. Not pastels, but several different kinds of pencils. And when I took photos for this article, I realized that if I had looked more closely at the bar code, I would have had a heads-up about that:

In the left-hand section, a set of charcoal pencils, some black and some white, plus three tortillons (blending stumps), a sandpaper block, a pencil sharpener, a white plastic eraser, and a kneaded eraser. That section right there is worth at least 10 bucks, as is the drawing pad (okay, maybe $8 for the pad, without knowing the quality). 

But wait, there's more! There's a set of regular colored pencils and a set of metallics, a set of watercolor pencils, and a water brush (plastic fillable brush - you squeeze a bit to let water flow through the brush part), and your basic range of drawing pencils. what a haul! Each of these three sections is worth what I paid for the whole thing, not even counting the drawing pad.

There is even some info regarding social media - and apparently some tutorial videos on YouTube - ah, cross-branding!--included. I haven't watched any videos, yet, but please feel free: 

Okay, maybe I shouldn't be so yippee about it, because I haven't tested anything, yet. Maybe the water brush leaks and the watercolor pencils are terrible; maybe the colored pencils are chalky and the paper has no tooth; maybe the charcoal pencils are actually colored pencils (that actually happened to Super Rae Dizzle when she ordered “charcoal” pencils from TEMU). Maybe the sharpener isn't sharp and the kneaded eraser isn't kneadable. But I'll bet most of the stuff is just fine. The carrying case is pretty good quality, and I can put my own stuff in there, if worse comes to absolute worst. At any rate, the set is being sold for $25 on Amazon and up to $39.99 on other sites, so I got a great deal, pricewise. I'll do a little testing and get back to you to let you know if this is a box of awesome or not.

More fun with art supplies: 

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/03/unboxing-himi-jelly-gouache-24-color-set.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2014/12/little-angels-craft-project-cheap.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2015/09/step-by-step-painting-fantastic-mr-foxs.html

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2015/09/step-by-step-painting-fantastic-mr-foxs_5.html

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