Can You Use Gucai Like Watercolor? Compare to Paul Rubens Watercolors Pearlescent Pans and Tubes
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- You may see Gucai sold as "watercolor" but can classical Chinese paint be used on watercolor paper? It can, but here are some quirks to know! Compare watercolors vs Gucai Classical Artist sets. - Show more -
These paints are available directly from Paul Rubens Official store on Ali Express. As they become available in other countries you may see them being listed as "watercolor" and not understand that these are not intended for the same use as their other paints. Hopefully this video will help clear up some differences between the sets. ** If you plan to use cellulose or cotton watercolor paper, instead of absorbent traditional papers like rice or mulberry, I wouldn't recommend these. **
Paul Rubens Gucai 36 pearlescent XL pan set may also be available on Amazon USA at amzn.to/3J2juyE
(I expect Amazon to go in and out of stock during the initial release, as this is a brand new product released Nov. 2021. They will be getting the tubes in the future.)
Written review with still image photos of the color charts etc. at www.kimcrick.c...
I generally found the following similar paints to provide a more enjoyable painting experience:
ShinHan Korean Color, their traditional hide glue watercolor-like paint for mulberry or rice paper - amzn.to/33sXdK3
Marie's Chinese Paint (their highest grade) - amzn.to/3q5l7mA
Boku Undo Gansai shadow sumi ink colors - amzn.to/325orWM
Boku Undo Gansai pearlescent interference mica - amzn.to/3scFGjP
Coliro arabic gold watercolor can be found individually on Jackson's UK for shipping worldwide at www.jacksonsar...
ShinHan PASS Watercolor/Gouache hybrid with similar matte opacity, but better flow in wet washes - www.jacksonsar...
Mission White Watercolor/Gouache hybrid (by the same company as Mijello Mission Gold) - amzn.to/3meS3bi
Arches 140# cold press cotton watercolor paper at Jackson's: www.jacksonsar...
Arches on Blick - often has good prices for US: shrsl.com/2d1lx
I use affiliate links to Jackson's, Blick and Amazon. I earn a small commission for any sales made through my links, but as you might be able to tell from my blunt videos this doesn't deter me from talking about the negatives of a product lol.
Ceramic / porcelain mixing palette - amzn.to/39kxi6U
Princeton Heritage round brush - sharp points for detail - amzn.to/3D87wjx
Princeton neptune round brush - soft floppy round brushes, carrry a lot of water - amzn.to/3kgfkJk
As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you :)
Pigment database, rubber stamps, color wheel palettes, ink, craft supplies, lightfast testing, swatch cards, all of my written reviews, digital download printable art and more at:
www.KimCrick.com
/ kimberlycrickart
Line art for your painting practice and high resolution color scans are available at: / kimberlycrickart
Recorded with my IPhone. Editing program = VSDC. #paulrubens #gucai #chinesepaint
These and Marie's are being sold in the USA as "watercolor". I mention this is a comparison between Gucai and Paul Rubens watercolor. *This video is not a traditional techniques demonstration for rice paper painting.* This video covers swatching, info about the paint itself, how it looks and feels compared to Rubens other sets + answers if you can use them as watercolor on watercolor paper. I am familiar with Chinese paint and absorbent papers, like xuan rice paper. I noted that I will compare Gucai to Marie's Chinese paint on rice in the future 0:19 - This video focuses on the difference to Rubens watercolor, and if you're planning to use it like watercolor, how that would look. I also warn you not to use these from dry. Happy painting :)
Even though you say these aren't designed for watercolor use, your paintings look awesome! These pans look so pretty in the box, and the stamped insignia is neat too. It's quite a shame that there seems to be some texture issues when these are used in a watercolor setting. As always, thanks for the information!
I was drawn in by the nice boxes and stamped paints too. I saw a couple colors that looked different in the 36 gucai set vs the pearlescent 48 half pans, so I really had hoped it was more than just two colors different though :( I was pretty bummed to keep running into texture issues, some very unexpectedly in wet washes on any type of watercolor paper I tried. Thanks for your nice comment, happy painting :)
I do traditional Chinese watercolor paintings, they are very much different. It requires not only a different type of paper you mentioned but also different techniques. Usually colors are not the main media but ink is, you would only see a small portion of colors compare to Chinese ink in a painting, other words, the ink is the main role. For a lot of times, colors are mixed with ink to give a moderate effect, you could say it's a type of painting between the balance of water, ink and colors. Also, Chinese watercolors are never meant to be stored in pans, they would become so dull but have to be used every time from the tubes. Hope this helps.
I am familiar with Chinese painting techniques, this is a comparison to watercolor only for those who would buy it to use as if it were like Paul Rubens other gum arabic watercolors. I definitely tried to make it clear that it would require both different techniques and surfaces. Hopefully this will be helpful to those who may buy it not understanding this is a different type of paint. I keep finding listings for these and Marie's Chinese paints sold as "watercolor" but with no special notes about how they should be used on our USA sales sites. It may lead to disappointment and many people might waste their paint by trying to use it dry like we find in watercolor pan sets.
Hi Jing...may I know your real name
I 2as curious about these pans and I never saw the tubes before. I think I'll skip the rotten garbage paint 😆 thanks for comparing the metallics with the half pans. Those are my absolute favorite metallic. Have a great day!
Btw your sample paintings look awesome! They have an antique vibe!
@@thefrugalcrafter Thanks Lindsay! I definitely love the Paul Rubens half pan sets so much more than these new paints, but it's good to know these exist for those interested in Chinese brush painting/traditional techniques on rice or mulberry papers. I expect we'll be getting some questions about these paints as they start popping up on Amazon globally. Happy Holidays :)
@@KimberlyCrick how do you rate rhe half pan Paul rubens to the finetec/coliro onrs? I've had people ask me how they compare but I like my PR so much I never tried the finetek. Am I missing out?
@@thefrugalcrafter Paul Rubens is so much more affordable, but only a small portion of them are comparable to Coliro/Fintec colors. PR is overall more transparent in the diluted range and quite a few of the C/F have this dark gray undertone and metal flaky granulation in wet, with less underlying color. PR seems a little more like mica + normal watercolor and that makes it a bit more versatile. I feel like over half the Coliro colors really only look good in masstone, particularly on black paper and can look really gritty/gray/streaky on white. C/F definitely have more shiny and color shifting special effects and a little better overall lightfastness.
Finetec recently started putting out "premium" sets which I'll review soon, but my general opinion is they are outrageously expensive for only minor improvements in color shift or shine. They are prone to having air pocket bubbles in their pans. Etsy sellers like Iuile and Hydracolour that make handmade mica watercolors using chinese cosmetic pigments are actually far surpassing the quality, shine and uniqueness of C/F. Some are about the same price even, so this is one instance where I think handmade may actually be worth considering when comparing outrageously expensive paints. Both Ftech premium and etsy sellers are averaging $10+ a pan, but some of the color shifting effects will blow your mind compared to Paul Rubens.
@@KimberlyCrick wow, thanks for all the info! I look forward to your review:)
Also, your artwork is exceptionally good here. I love the traditional Japanese ink techniques you have incorporated, especially into the landscape piece.
the pigment queen has returned - with super gorgeous art too!!
seeing eosin as the ingredient of one of the tubes made me do a double take, as that's one of the dyes they use for histological (tissue) staining! whilst i know it has more uses than just in the lab it surprised me, as i'm a biology student, and i wasn't expecting to see two of my interests collide like that :D
I'm a newer subscriber. I love your through reviews. I just say you Paul Reubens opera tubes review. So much great information. I don't know that I'll ever need to use specific light fastness or pigment or dye information in my own art, but it is so very enjoyable to learn about it from someone who is as knowledgeable as you are. I appreciate the time and experience it takes you to put out such an informative review :)
Also your demo illustrations are stunning (even with "unpredictable" paints)
Have a blessed day.
Thanks for reviewing these. I just recently saw them on Amazon and was curious to see how they work. Thanks for taking the time to make this video. Have a wonderful day!
Both paintings look so beautiful that they rather attract people than be aware of the watercolors :D Especially I like the touches of perlecent.
And as always, thank you for the information!
LindsayW suggested I look at your review on this product. Very informative and thank you for your honest review! Beautiful mushroom painting! 🤩🙏🏾😃👍🏾
Thanks for all you do! I especially appreciate the reviews you give on Amazon. You save me money!
From your description, the paints kind of gross me out, but I am astounded at the lovely art you can make with even the worst supplies.
Thank you for your review…you made your paintings look much better than I could with these paints. I’ll stick to Paul Rubens or my M. Graham watercolor tubes.
Thank you, I try really hard with every material. I definitely enjoy working with their other watercolors more, but I wanted to give these a shot. Happy painting :)
Very interesting. Paul Rubens just sent me this set to try and now I'm really curious what I'll think of them. As always, your insight is invaluable - thank you for this video!
beautiful bird painting as always. you make the best reviews as always too! I haven't bought any watercolor sets in a while but I am interested in water soluble oil pastels. they seem fun!
Think I'd give these a miss- I have enough gouache paint to get similar effects and more reliable watercolours that I know the pigments for. That said, both pieces of art turned out absolutely lovely!
Thank you for this wonderful review/comparison. I so wish I could find these really large pans available empty!
You and me both, I've looked all over the place! I like that they aren't as deep as standard full size pans too!
If you get a few of these sets and use em up. Save the pans
Thank you so much for a review, and I can not wait for the one with a comparison to Marie's Chinese pigments :) I'm exploring now the painting on silk with them. When I talk with a lady from Paul Rubens she said that it's better to dilute it with the alum gelatin solution as you do with normal Chinese pigments. All my Chinese books about traditional painting with pigments refer to using Marie's tubes as a good alternative to powdered ones, so I'm curious to see how they compare to P Rubens.
Even with the difficulties, your paintings came out lovely. Thanks for the information. ❤️
i just bought the 36 set and i love the pretty lightly glitter effect i get i like the large pans like my tambi paints
This was super helpful, thanks!
Oh wow, yeah was definitely reminded of the gansai pans. Love the big pans, but if they are streaky like that, I'd probably choose the actual pearlescent watercolours instead The box packaging looked pretty nice though.
The box packaging is really beautiful for Gucai, I was definitely lured in by it! I'd probably stick with the pearlescent watercolor half pans too, even if I was using it on rice paper, because that formula is just so much easier to work with. They may expect the standard non-mica gucai colors, inks or extra gelatin to be mixed with the Gucai pearlescent pans when doing traditional techniques - that might reduce that streaky effect. Happy painting :)
That first set is STUNNING to look at but not so much fun to work with apparently? What you described is exactly like a few of the paints I made and do not like working with for the same reasons you said and water just soaked right thru the pan. I thought it was because I put too much mica in the mix and did not repeat the process. I guess they embraced the mess instead hahahaha
Thanks for your due diligence
I didn't even know these were out and you have already saved me time and money ;) I will skip these, I am curious about your opinion: I was thinking of mixing up some of my M. Graham paints with Pearl Ex to create my own...have you ever done anything like that, good or bad idea?
It's a great idea! I recently saved myself a shopping spree by spending time mixing my paints together, making fun mixtures for custom pan sets and adding mica powders into my pans with mission gold tube paints. I also picked up some gum arabic powder though, because if you add too much mica and not enough extra binder, there's a risk of the metallic shimmer rubbing off the page when dry. If you're mixing in only tiny amounts at once, the binder in the paints already might be enough. Be sure to mix gold with a blue paint, like phthalo blue and gold mica... such a great combo :)
@@KimberlyCrick Oooohh I will definitely try that one ;) Thank you for the encouragement !!!
This reminds me kuretake gambi tabi paint sets
Thanks as always for your honest, budget saving, reviews.
Much appreciated!
Thank you for the thorough, excellent review with no detail left unexamined! It is recognizable that these strange pains behave weirdly; however, there is a tactile quality to them that I find visually desirable. Is it worth the stinky smell to achieve these gorgeous results? Or is it just your unique gift to work with any paint and make magic happen? :-)
Thank you, I try really hard with any supply and in general I think if you're determined you could make a masterpiece with any poor quality supply - the real problem is how difficult it will be. Poor quality supplies or paints that aren't used for their intended purpose won't make the process easy. They also may end up being fugitive and fade over time. I could have done similar art with less textural hiccups or unexpected results if I had used gouache or a hybrid meant for watercolor paper :)
Thank you so much, I was really wondering about this paint. So I guess I'll pass it up!
Now that you already have these paints, have you considered getting rice or mulberry paper to try them with? These paintings turned out so nice even with the extra work and manipulation you had to put in to get there! I don’t have any idea how hard it is to find that paper and I’m guessing it’s costly, but it might be an interesting experiment. Love the Asian influence landscape!
Yes, I actually ordered several other types of traditional animal glue paints to compare these to, like Marie's, as well as some rice paper to find out just how different they are to our more talked about gum arabic watercolors. I felt like it was a good idea to really understand the pros and cons of these products and their intended uses for fair evaluations :)
@@KimberlyCrick 😆 I should have known! You’re always so meticulous and thorough with your research. Did you like them any better on the rice paper ? I’m not planning on trying these paints, just interested for the sake of curiosity.
@@sambabird7 I think that anyone used to working on watercolor paper doing a lot of wet in wet blending, transparent layering, glazing or building up depth with tons of details on top of each other will really struggle with these types of paints on rice paper. It requires a much different approach, some techniques are very different. Such as using opaque colors on the wrong side of the transparent thin rice paper, or one stroke painting type gestures (a little more common with acrylics if you've seen multi-color loaded brushes for a single stroke of blending). Overall I think this type of product only suits certain art styles, one I'm not sure I'll ever master :)
I hate to say it, but you are using it wrongly. Traditional Chinese painting are done on raw rice paper which is extremely water absorbent. Therefore often very little water is used. Colors are directly taken from the tubes, quickly mixed (if needed), and applied to the rice paper - with deliberate strokes. You have to try rice paper in order to understand these paints... I wouldn't use them for wet wash or wet in wet.
I am familiar with Chinese painting techniques. I think you may have missed me talking about this in the video? This is a comparison between gucai and paul rubens other watercolor paints... not a demonstration of their use on rice paper. I talk about this immediately, starting at video time 0:19
Thank you for the comparison. Your artwork is gorgeous.
Once again your artwork belies any criticism of the product!!! Do baaaaaaad paintings if product not so good! Yeah, I know, forgive the facetiousness! Its inherent! Love your artwork! Appreciate your videos, have a great Christmas - despite these uncertain civic times. Happy Christmas 😀
Interesting though, this is one of the nicest paintings you have done.
I must say these colors ( appart from the smell) look really interesting to me.
Yes, they are very gouache-like and some of them remind me of my granulating M.Graham or Winsor and Newton gouaches using textural pigments like cobalts/cerulean, ultramarine, umbers etc. The smell was quite bad, but I think the animal glue likely helps them adhere and absorb into rice papers differently than other paints so I still look forward to playing with them for their intended purpose in the future.
so shiny 😀 i want to try this paint, but i think i will stick to the boring basics for now lol
Lol, well even the boring basics can be fun! Besides, I'm pretty sure even with all the shiny color options I am inclined to only reach for the gold 99% of the time anyway :D
Too true! 😮
Thanks for this, as always 🌺
Wow, subscribing right now
Yeah, I have decided not to invest in things that are not easy to replace, can't not replace individual colors and things I can't just replace by going to art stores or to their online sites like Blicks but I still found this interesting and always love the paintings. By easy to replace I understand stock shortages are occurring and am not including that in my definition. I can wait for stock but ordering overseas can be a big issue.
Do you always paint small? I do a lot of small work but not always. Sometimes I just go crazy, lol.
I find that I only have time to paint small or it severely limits my ability to move on to new reviews, subjects, types of paint testing etc. For me, my main focus is testing materials more so than art, so I rarely find myself wanting to work on a piece for more than a day or two. College might have been partially to blame for that lol, I used to be forced to make giant poster size art that took 70+ hours per piece and got reallllly frustrated with it! Happy painting :)
Show, muito obrigada.
I'm in the market for a few metallic watercolors (gold, silver, bronze, etc) for a project. If I recall one of the only brands that were lightfast were Van Gogh... are there others you are aware of?
Yeah I really love the Van Gogh metallic and interference pocket box, but of course if the interference ones aren't what you need the individual tubes at blick are pretty good too. The coliro or finetec sets of 6 pans with a gradient of gold to pearl (including "arabic gold", my favorite) were all lightfast. I found all the metallics from Daniel Smith and Schmincke to be disappointingly dull and expensive in comparison.
@@KimberlyCrick Thank you. Unfortunately the pocket box doesn't include silver so I'll be grabbing the single tubes. It's for a stylized "floral" featuring dried foliage so I might consider the green or blue interference for "eucalyptus". I forgot about the finetec/coliro for some reason I see the packaging and just automatically think "junk".. but they have a ton of colors available.
@@KimberlyCrick I wound up getting the Finetec bronze to silver palette and a single of Hazelnut. Also saw they have a new "transparent watercolor" in traditional colors... have you heard anything about those? They are pretty inexpensive. FYI I found out Pigma micron pens come in two shades of grey now, light and dark, sizes 01, 05, and 10. Grabbed a dark 01, fingers crossed it's lightfast (I know some of the colors are not, in particular the red).
@@waymire01 They are old, but when Royal Talens took over distribution last year they redid the outer packaging appearance. It's a terrible product to wield the Finetec name. It's the same hard chalky tablets like tums antacid style that are in many kids bargain watercolor sets. They are the same standard/non-mica colors in transparent and opaque watercolor sets of 12 or 24 round pans as "Talens" version. Like a China factory replicating "Superior" knock off copies, a german kids art supply company provides the same product to be rebranded not just for talens and their finetec and angora versions, but also for Lukas as "terzia gouache", Pelikan, Grumbacher and others. Now the same style is popping up under arteza and pheonix, but those two are likely to be Chinese copies. All are cheap, chalky, no pigment codes.
i've always been curious about these kinds of paints so your video was super helpful. That said, I already now have a great collection of watercolours and there is a beautiful little set of Schmincke Horodom Gouache under the tree just waiting for me. I have a question though.
Is there a binder or additive one can add to traditional gouache to make it into an acryla gouache? I hesitated between the traditional paint but realized that I may want to paint on other surfaces like wood or slate and thought that the acryla gouache might work better.
Merry Christmas to you Kim and I hope 2022 is filled with vibrant health and creative adventure for you and your loved ones.
Schmincke makes such nice gouache! You have a couple options for permanent waterproof painting with them. If the surface is porous/absorbent at all, you may be able to paint as normal and apply an acrylic spray sealer afterwards. If the surface is non-porous/plastic/glass etc. I would be pretty hesitant even to use most acrylic or acrya gouache on it since some paints may chip or crack that aren't designed for that, especially any that haven't been prepped with a gesso type primer meant for slick surfaces. I have been experimenting with mixing gouache with acrylic airbrush medium though, and this does increase its water resistance to make it more durable. When mixing it with thicker mediums/matte medium, the paint consistency became too sludgy and harder to apply thinly (a bit of a waste of the amazing pigment load). I'll definitely make a video about that topic if I nail the right mixture, so far liquitex or golden airbrush medium has been a good start.
There's always the option of getting cheap acrylic paints and mixing calcium carbonate powder into them (for a chalky matte finish). I'm not sure what options are in your area, but we have deco art, jo sonja, apple barrel or similar "matte" acrylics where a primary trio would cost even less than the clear airbrush medium and be better suited for weirder surfaces. I hope you have a blast with your painting adventures! Happy holidays :)
@@KimberlyCrick thanks for your quick reply! I figured you’d have already been playing around with this idea. I can easily get airbrush medium and I also have quite a few acrylics so might try adding the calcium carbonate to it. Interesting idea! Thanks again.
So are the new shadow colors in the tubes chinese style watercolors too ? Or regular watercolors ?
The new SHI YUN I and II sets of 6 tubes each are all regular watercolors (gum arabic based mostly transparent and granulating).
Thanks for reviewing the metallics! Some of those textures look very sad and disappointing lol. I'll pass!
I got the Gucai tubes a couple of months ago and watching these videos helped me a lot:
czcams.com/video/aBtAfSrt1WA/video.html
czcams.com/video/6ozf1zjimEU/video.html
Maybe you already watched them.
After watching it, I understood why I faced some issues while treating them like watercolours and I was able to paint a couple of simpler things without struggling, they were pleasing to create. As you mentioned, the style was more like boku undo and traditional Chinese art with big brushes.
Yeah I'm familiar with Chinese brush painting, these are definitely not made for the same purpose as the most popular gum arabic watercolors we're used to working with. I wanted to touch on some of those differences and talk about how these should not be expected to work the same as Paul Rubens other sets. These, like Marie's paints, will end up being sold as "watercolor" here in the USA - no doubt leading to poor expectations and comparisons to brands like Daniel Smith.
@@KimberlyCrick I'd love to see a video about that from you because you always explain things very clearly and do extensive research so that would be definitely beneficial for the watercolour community.
Unfortunately, I have seen these being sold as western watercolour in Europe and as you said I'm afraid it will generate unfair expectations.
All I really want to know is if I should buy the 48 half pan set or the 24 half pan set, the metallic ones
When I did an overview of just the 48 half pan set I circled all the colors that were in that set exclusively, versus which could be found in the 24. I'd pick the 24 only if you don't fall in love with the colors only in the 48 czcams.com/video/N8AXTN814LY/video.html one of the things I didn't like about the 48 was there's an entire row of red/pinks - great for florals but a bit excessive if you don't think you'll use them all!
@@KimberlyCrick
I don't think I'd use a lot of reds and pinks. Honestly, I want the finetec/colero paints but they're so expensive for what I'd use then for which is accents and little pops of color. Thanks.
If you are still interesting in reviewing "amazon" paints they have a new handmade metallic watercolor that I'm terribly curious about.. they are very inexpensive in comparisons to others. I think they are called CSY? Have you heard anything?
I plan to review CSY's more unique sets, like neons and chameleon mica (their more "premium" expensive color shifting ones). The normal mica metallic ones are not special at all and the price is actually really high, it probably just appeared low price because of the smaller sets. The 6 half pans for $11 small tins are really quite pricey compared to all the other made in china metallics. They have a 30 color set for $20 but it is only quarter pans, so over a $1 per half pan. Those are about the same quality as superior/artsy/tinge and nearly identical to the cheaper 36 half pan sets like this - www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089D33SMK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
@@KimberlyCrick TY! The only thing I was aware of to compare them to were the ones I had seen on Etsy, which are $$$. Looking forward to seeing the chameleon set.
How does this compare to Kuretake Gansai paint?
They do not behave the same way at all, because Kuretake Gansai is a modern take on gansai made with starch and sugar glues instead of animal glue binder. Kuretake also does not use rare natural minerals or organic traditional pigments like Paul Rubens does (malachite, azurite, plant dyes etc.). So overall Kuretake works more like normal watercolors just a little more gummy and easier to lift since it's not just standard gum arabic.
COVID not civil !!!! Sheeesh! Technology beats me again.....
lol, to be fair Covid seems like a Civil problem most days with all the arguing going on about how to deal with it. Wishing you a safe holiday season :)
Merry Christmas, Kimberly!
Here is a video just for you
czcams.com/video/apUfhf_l66Q/video.html
In kindred spirit
Eliza
Australia x
Be interesting to know if this is child labour mica or not.