Summer Japanese Gansai Watercolor Set
One of the possible byproducts of the situation we find ourselves in is a renewed heightened awareness of nature. The song of birds, the silence of the sky, the passing of the seasons have filled the emptiness of time with a welcome rekindling of earth's motherhood and all the meaning that entails, thanks Nature!
Details
Color Breakdown:
213 - Komugi-iro - Wheat
4 - Aka-daidai - Red-orange
43 - Sango-iro - Coral
13 - Yamabuki - Named after the Japanese yellow rose which blooms from April to May.
66 - Paaru Midori - Pearlescent green
205 - Tanryoku - Light green
5 - Hana-haku-midori - Light green flower
21 - Byakugun - Light blue; in Japanese this colour traditionally describes the pigment made from crushed azurite.
32 - Kikusa - This literally translates to ‘yellow grass’ despite being very much green.
19 - Kawagane - Iron skin; when a Japanese sword is made the more flexible interior metal, shingane, is coated in far stronger metal coating - kawagane.
30 - Kurikawa-cha - Chestnut leather, or skin, tea
217 - Kujaku-ao - Peacock blue
51 - Komidori - Deep green
209 - Kujaku-midori - Peacock green
116 - Kurenai - Crimson
29 - Koubai - Japanese Apricot - also known as Japanese plum, this colour is named after much a blossom which is a beloved subject matter for painting and poetry in East Asia.
212 - Shinbashi - This is the name of a district of Tokyo where, at the end of the Meiji era, this blue colour was popular with geishas.
46 - Sora-iro - Sky Blue
17 - Asagi - A blue green that shares its name with an ancient breed of Koi which is characterised by striking blue scales.
Choosing Keeping presents 4 palettes depicting each season, having picked out (in a way by no means prescriptive or exhaustive) some colours of leaves, trees, flowers, and feelings propriertary to winter, spring, summer and winter. There is no overlap in terms of colours between the 4 season sets, each set includes 20 distinct colours. Also consider Swiss painter Johannes Itten's (1888 – 1967) seasonal colour theory - four colour palettes for four types of people each under the sun of a different season - a sort of painter's Yin and Yang if you will.
Included is a blank letterpress swatch card featuring each individual colour name to be painted in for colour referencing. This can come in handy as appearances can be deceiving and each colour is only revealed once wet and set to paper!