Heart Art Color Chart

Check out my latest heart art! Isn't it pretty?

Each of the colors I used for the project is in its particular place for a reason. I didn't choose the colors, nor where I placed them. Why? My heart art is actually color swatches from my newest paint set, Kuretake Gansai Tambi (affiliate links here and below). The hearts are the first four rows of paints, in order. The background squares are the next four rows of paints, in order. (For this project, I didn't swatch the last row, which is white and three metallics.) 

Gansai is a type of Japanese watercolors. It comes in large pans (perfect for the large brushes used in Japanese painting) and is designed to work well with Japanese rice papers. There is a wide range of colors so that the artist doesn't need to mix their own. Although they are water-based, gansai don't behave like other watercolors. They require very little water and are designed to stay in place instead of flowing on the paper. There are different brands of gansai, just like there are different brands of western watercolors. Kuretake's brand name combines the word gansai (watercolor paint) with the word tambi (aesthetics).

I had never tried gansai before, so I thought this project would be a fun way to experiment with my new paint set. I started by using 1/4" painter's tape to create a grid on a 9" square of watercolor paper. You can eyeball it, but using a centering ruler makes it really quick and easy to get perfect squares. Be sure your painter's tape is pressed firmly to the paper so no pigment sneaks underneath and spoils your white lines. 

Now fill in the squares with the paints in rows 5-8. So pretty!

While the base is drying, use a heart squeeze punch to make 16 hearts from watercolor paper. 

Paint the hearts with the colors in rows 1-4. Beautiful!

When the paint is completely dry, glue the hearts onto the background. 

I plan to hang my project on the wall so I can both enjoy it and use it when I need paint swatches. But first, I put it onto the floor and dropped two large sequins onto it. 

Why? I'll tell you tomorrow.