Miya HIMI Jelly Gouache Color Review #6: Deep Red and Ponceau

This is the sixth 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 Deep Red and Ponceau 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 Deep Red

Last time, I painted Captain Kirk's yellow uniform jacket, and now it was time to do Captain Picard's tunic. Judging the colors by how they showed through the unopened containers, I thought the color called Ponceau was too light and orangey for Picard's uniform, so I opened Deep Red to see what I could see. As you'd imagine from the name, it's somewhat dark, but it's also a very cool red that I would liken to Alizarin Crimson.

To me, Picard's jacket is a very neutral red, neither extremely warm nor cool. Since lightening a cool red gives a rosy pink, I was definitely going to need Ponceau, as well. Cool colors are nice for shadows, though, so I used the Deep Red for the darker areas on Picard's uniform jacket.

As you can see from the white swatch chart, the granularity of this color is quite high, and the opacity ain't no great shakes.

Miya HIMI Jelly Gouache color Ponceau

Ponceau is a color name that I have never heard before, but this one would go in the Cadmium Red (warm red) slot in your color palette. It's very warm, but not quite as orange-y as I'd feared. It made a good foil to the Deep Red and kept Picard's tunic very balanced, overall.

As with the Deep Red, the granularity was high and opacity was pretty wimpy. That said, I didn't feel like I had to glob it on to get sufficient coverage for the painting. I might be singing a different tune if I weren't working on a medium-value brown background, though.

One more review to go to have this Renaissance/Classical Mythology/Star Trek extravaganza finished. Stay tuned!

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, go here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/06/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-1-sky.html

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

HIMI Jelly Gouache Color Review #4: Jade Green, Grass Green, and Yellow Green

 

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

Setting aside the mint green grass debacle (see the review of HIMI Gouache color 005 – Pale Green for that https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/09/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-3-pale.html) for a while, I turned back to working on the background of the painting. I needed a line of trees in the background, and so I was looking for a green that was darker but very cool, since cool colors recede.

HIMI Jelly Gouache color no 002 – Jade Green

There was a color in the collection called Jade Green - this is HIMI gouache color 002. It is a very dark color with a very cool cast, kind of like the green version of the Acid Blue that I discussed in a previous post (https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/07/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-white.html). 

As with the other colors, it was very creamy in consistency once I had given it a good stir to get it well-blended. It was very dark, but gouache is easily lightened by diluting it with water or by mixing it with white or lighter colors. Since this was for the background and it's best to work thin-to-thick, I chose to simply dilute with water for the lighter bits. It made a good color for the background trees, so I went ahead and painted in the treeline and then added the Jade Green to my swatch charts.

HIMI Jelly Gouache color no 072 – Grass Green

Now that the trees were established in the background, I went back to working on the grass to complete the background of the picture. The obvious choice at this point was Grass Green, at which I had turned up my nose before. Not surprisingly, it ended up being an appropriate color for the grass, as you can see in this picture.

HIMI Jelly Gouache color no 018 – Yellow Green

I also added the color Yellow Green to highlight the areas where the sun would naturally be striking the grass, so that I could have a nice sunny meadow to compliment my bright blue sky. As you can see from the swatch chart at the top of the page, the Grass Green and the Yellow Green are extremely warm - that is, they have a lot of yellow in them - in contrast to the Jade Green and the Pale Green colors, which are extremely cool, meaning that they have a very blue undertone.

Now the background of the picture is pretty much complete, and I can move along to painting my characters!

For the original post describing the unboxing of the 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, go here: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/06/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-1-sky.html

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart

HIMI Jelly Gouache Color Review #3: Pale Green

 

This is the third in a series of reviews of the individual colors from the HIMI brand 24-color “jelly” gouache paint set. This review will concentrate on the Pale Green jelly gouache color and will also include updates on my Star Trek painting and how my swatch chart is coming along and how the gouache set is holding up.

In previous reviews, I described my swatch charts and how I would be reviewing the HIMI gouache colors as I opened each one up to use in a small painting with a mythology/Star Trek theme done on a birthday card for a friend. The painting is an outdoor scene, and I paint back-to-front, so the first order of business would be establishing the thing that is ultimately the most background-y thing in a landscape: the sky. After HIMI's Sky Blue color turned out not to be what seemed like a softball (here's that experience: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/06/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-1-sky.html), I was able to make a decent sky out of Acid Blue (who knew?) and, of course, white. Details here, if you haven't seen that one: https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2023/07/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-white.html

Now, the search is on for an appropriate color for the grassy meadow. There is literally a color in the set called Grass Green, but I wasn't going to be fooled again. In my wisdom (or maybe just cynicism), I started with Pale Green, a much less intense color. What the heck, I figured – it's easy enough to paint over. The swatch chart is not gonna fill itself.

HIMI Jelly Gouache color number 005- Pale Green

So, Pale Green is EXACTLY AS ADVERTISED. It's pale green. It's actually pretty much – at least it appears on the brown kraft-paper card – a mint green. Lovely color; not very grassy. Anyway, I painted the whole meadow anyway, so that when I painted over it, the color would be consistent. This ain't my first rodeo, y'all.

I swatched out Pale Green on my black and white charts by itself and also mixed 50/50 with White, Sky Blue and Acid Blue. 

It makes a nice emerald color when mixed with the Acid Blue. The Sky Blue didn't affect it much other than cooling it a bit. The White, predictably, just made it very minty. The opacity of this color is very impressive, and the granularity is very low. It's a smooth color, just not very grassy. Oh, well! Live and learn.

Here are the first four colors as I have them arranged in my set (picture was taken before swatching).

The Acid Blue is still a bit creamy, but the Sky Blue and the White have dried out a bit. Never fear! These paints aren't like acrylics – they don't dry waterproof. All it takes to revive them is a bit of water. You can drip clean water off your paintbrush, or if you would like to revive several, or all, of them, a little spray bottle does the trick nicely. I got this one from the dollar store. It works well, and it's super cute!

Next up, we'll see if Grass Green wasn't lying to me like Sky Blue did. 

https://allsortsartbyali.blogspot.com/2024/04/himi-jelly-gouache-color-review-4-jade.html

Here is the first article regarding the unboxing and the overall quality and appearance of the 24-color HIMI jelly gouache set:

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

For regular shenanigans, please follow my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/allsortsofart