Kuretake Gansai Tambi GRAPHITE COLORS, 6 colors set, Made in Japan

I heard about these paints on YouTube. I bought the 48 set and was hooked! The colors are brilliant like gauche but perform like watercolors! This graphite set has great neutral colors that complement their other paints. Don't expect them to look like watercolor, although with enough water they do. The colors are almost opaque with a little water. I like the versatility of these, but if you want "delicate" looking paints these aren't for you. I love the striking colors! This graphite set is more neutral, but still striking!

Love these watercolors! They are semi-opaque, but you can control the opacity depending on how much water you use. They provide a really lovely, smokey vib to your painting, with colors that are rich but understated. I've attached a photo of a recent mixed media piece I created with the kuretake graphite colors as the star.

I love these. I usually do bright paintings and mix any darks I need but when I want moody I go to this set. Every color looks well with others in set They lift fairly well and respond to salt and Epson's salts beautifully. But for all these good points the best is that the pans are ready in seconds after you add water. I don’t have to wait 5 minutes for the paint in the pan to be usable. Add a few drops of water and a portion (equal to the water) of the pan liquifys within seconds. It’s juicy and ready to move to the mixing area of my palette or directly to the painting surface. It’s like from the tube fresh, vibrant, and rich. I emphasize rich. Lots of pigment ,right there ,right NOW !! LOVE THEM !!!!

Love the muted colors. Nice addition to my watercolor collection. I would purchase again. Recommend.

Paint quality is great and the colors are beautiful.

Nice smooth paint not intensely colored. This was an excellent choice to play with the unknown however it would be nice to know if these colors are available in other forms for example tubes or pans.

These are pretty good paints, at a good price. Used the graphite colors an a few other Gansai colors and got decent results first try. The gansai paint isn't hugely different from other above average water colors from what I see so far, but less expensive, nicely packaged with the big movable pans, etc. and worked well. I ordered more colors, including the 48 color set and art nouveau sets, so I like them at least that much. And it is nice to able to just paint right off without unwrapping them from paper and having to do much color mixing -- very convenient. One who is starting out WC painting could do much worse than buying these, and so could one who is experienced but doesn't always need the much more expensive top quality professional grade. Pigment content is available at the Kuretake web site too. So yeah -- go for it.

Good for shading

I fell in love with the graphite and granulating paints immediately. They are so versatile and lend themselves to any colorway and genre. Exceptional quality, large pan size for large or small brushes (as do all Kuretaki paints) very affordable. I cannot find fault whether professional, hobby or student artist they will take pride of place in your gallery.

Setet med färger i monokrom färgskala, både opaka och mer transparenta. Kommer mest till rätta på blank, slätt kartong, torkar för snabbt på premium akvarellpapper.

Pigments are brilliant. Deep and rich.

Ho voluto provare ad acquistare questi acquerelli per la loro particolare tonalità. Sono un acquerellista esperta e posso tranquillamente affermare che la qualità di questi colori è di livello professionale. Sono molto morbidi e pastosi. Si sciolgono facilmente. Sono molto pigmentati, pur non essendo tonalità squillanti. La grafite crea un piacevole effetto granulazione, specie se si usa un foglio ruvido e molta acqua. Consiglio l'uso di una tavolozza, per diluire adeguatamente il colore, che altrimenti rischia di diventare molto carico. Ogni colore consente un'ampia gamma di sfumature a seconda di quanto viene diluito: da molto chiara, trasparente e velata (in cui predomina il colore), fin quasi a raggiungere il nero (in cui predomina la grafite). Asciugandosi il colore diventa più spento di un tono, leggermente più chiaro e risulta opaco (tranne nei punti in cui la grafite gli conferisce un effetto metallico). Personalmente sono molto soddisfatta e penso mi ci divertirò! 😊

Read my full review under (Paint Set 36)