ShinHan Poster Paint - Part 2 (of 3) "My Review of the Paint."

"Having fun with Zinaida Serebriakova"
2014. Poster Paint

ShinHan Poster Paint - Part 2 (of 3)  "My Review of the Paint." 

So here is post two, my review of ShinHan's poster paint.

ASTOUNDING COLORS
When I first received  my set of Shinhan Poster Colours in the mail,  I pulled each color out of the sturdy case, stared at it, and then put it back.  After completing this, I did it again.  The colors are astounding and mesmerizing in the jar, and even more on paper.

The set I received had 24 colors, and I feel that it is more than enough to what I do.  Honestly the hardest part of painting with them is trying to tone done the pure vibrancy!

Below is what Shinhan has on their website for the selection of colors :

Decent selection of vibrant colors!
(http://www.shinhanart.co.kr/eng/product/product_poster.php)

USING THE PAINTS

My first thoughts when painting with Shinhan Poster Paints was...it was like painting with liquid gold. pure, beautiful colors, that paint on so smoothly.

I hardly noticed the difference between Nicker Poster Colour (What Kazuo Oga and Ghibli uses) to Shinhan Poster Colour.  They are both high quality and are extremely EASY to use.  Easy that is, once you learn the basic rules... (as explained below).

LEARNING THE RULES
My experience wasn't immediately easy. In the past I had succeeded using poster paints, because the paintings had been small (small to conserve paint...since the only way to get Poster paint in america was to fly to Japan or Korea and physically bring it back), but with a full set in hand and prospects of having a US based supplier, I wanted to work LARGE (well larger than 4x5).

Unfortunately, if I had learned anything in school, it is that working larger is also harder as it shows how much you know, or don't know.  So, I tried to treat the paint like acrylics or watercolors (which is my specialty for wet mediums), and then I tried Gouache, but found myself getting frustrated, and the paintings not turning out.

That's where the videos below came into play... After watching them I almost felt like a PRO (now mind you I can't understand what he is saying, but his actions speak louder than words for me. Note how he mixes, paints with the poster paint, and how he sets his studio up, and so on):

After watching the videos I quickly found myself producing better paintings with Poster paint then I ever got with acrylic (and to some extent digital.)


STRONG POINTS:

• I would say one of the strongest points of the paint, is its vibrant colors and mix-ability.  The color options are limitless, while at the same time is also easy to get what you had previously.  If the paint on your palette dries, you can go back in and bring it to life, or add another color to get a variant, etc.
• Another strong point is that it is very opaque and you can go layer  after layer over iteself.   Be warned however, you can use too many layers (see 4th Weaknesses below).
• Another strong point is that it has defined edges. This is great for  trees, buildings, basically anything with hard edges. I love using hard edges on everything, so this really speaks to me.
• It scans REALLY well. Matte finish, and color transferred decently with my Epson V600 scanner. (I only had to  use a few photoshop options.)
• The paint is very fluid.
• ...etc. I could go on.

WEAKNESSES(not very many in my book):

• It is not very good at SMOOTH shifts of value or color.  The paint tends to give everthing a hard edge (as you can tell on the picture above, on her skin.) I was able to get a little scumbling in (look at the background), which is a dry-brush technique, but the paper has to be bone dry and the brush with hardly any paint or water.
• Another thing it is not good for is glazing.  At several points on a recent painting, I wanted to slightly darken a whole area, but the moment the dried paint is wet, it reactivates the paint and smears and you lose all the details you worked on.  You can do glazing, but once again the paper has to be bone dry and your brush shouldn't have alot of water or paint.
• Preservation?  I'm not sure the lasting value of using Poster paint. I  know Ghibli puts many of their backgronds on display, so maybe it is ok as long as the pictures are properly framed and humidity leves are kept in check? One thing is it would be good for illustration. Quick paintings that might or might not need to last.
• Finally, be careful about using too much paint, because this happens:

Previous:

Part 1- "The Journey." 

Next time: 

Part 3- "Using the Paint"

Keywords: Hayao Miyazaki, Ghibli, Poster paint, Color, Kazua Oga, animated movies, japan, anime