Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor No.69 HORIZON BLUE

Horizon Blue (No. 69) is a muted, cloudy sky blue from Kuretake's Gansai Tambi series – a traditional Japanese watercolour in pan form, built on over 100 years of sumi ink craftsmanship. The colour contains pigments PW6 (titanium white) and PB15:3 (phthalo blue), creating a characteristically pastel, slightly broken blue tone: saturated enough for rich washes, gentle enough for atmospheric glazes. When dissolved, the consistency sits creamy and velvet-soft on the brush and activates quickly.

Features

• Semi-opaque coverage: Gansai Tambi sits tonally between transparent Western watercolour and gouache. Horizon Blue shows clearly on dark paper – even on black watercolour board you can work without the ground bleeding through.
• Water-controlled transparency: With minimal water, you get a dense, saturated colour lay-down. More water opens the tone to a light, hazy-soft glaze – ideal for skies, water or soft colour transitions.
• Large pan format (48 × 28 mm): The pan is significantly larger than Western watercolour sets. Wide brushes, flat brushes or large round brushes load directly without fuss.
• Quick activation: The colour dissolves readily even with a dry brush – no lengthy pre-soaking needed, making spontaneous sketching on the go much easier.
• Pigment-based formulation: The colour body consists of PW6 (titanium white) and PB15:3 (phthalo blue). Phthalo blue is a synthetic copper phthalocyanine pigment with good colour strength and permanence.
• Water-based, non-toxic: The colour meets international safety standards and carries the AP seal from ASTM.
• Refillable: The individual pan fits into Gansai Tambi palettes and can be used as a refill.

Use & Tips

• Illustration & Urban Sketching: Horizon Blue works beautifully for sky areas, water reflections, soft shadows on white facades or atmospheric depth in landscapes – the broken, pastel tone never feels garish.
• Calligraphy & Brush Lettering: With a well-loaded brush and reduced water, the colour can also be used for brush writing. On ink-resistant paper it dries with a slightly silky sheen.
• Combining with other Gansai colours: Horizon Blue can be deepened with Cobalt Blue (No. 60) into a richer sky blue or broken with Natural Beige (No. 11) into a dusty grey tone – both colours are also available individually.
• Paper choice: Best on watercolour paper from 300 g/m² (cold-pressed) or Japanese washi. Thanks to its semi-opaque quality, the colour also performs reliably on lighter mixed-media paper without excessive buckling.
• Dark grounds: Horizon Blue covers well on black or dark grey paper – an interesting option for night or dusk scenes with bright sky areas.
• Wet-on-dry preferred: The colour shows its best qualities on already dry paper. For wet-on-wet techniques, water quantity should be carefully controlled, as the colour flow behaves differently from Western watercolours.

For Gansai Enthusiasts

The name combines two Japanese terms: Gansai (顔彩) refers to a solid colour body pressed from pigments, Tambi (淡美) means something like aesthetics or quiet beauty. Kuretake's binder formulation is based on the company's sumi ink tradition, manufacturing ink and colour bodies for over 100 years – the characteristic creamy-viscous colour flow and slightly lustrous drying finish are direct results of this heritage. Horizon Blue (No. 69) belongs to the so-called pastel or soft colours of the Gansai Tambi range and is part of several official sets. The pigment combination PW6 + PB15:3 delivers a mixed colour that appears dense and saturated in masstone, yet develops the characteristic, almost atmospheric light blue veil when diluted – particularly effective for sky and water subjects.

Technical Specifications