Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor No.72 MAROON

Gansai Tambi is the traditional Japanese watercolour paint by Kuretake – handcrafted, water-based and pressed into large, flat pans. No. 72 Maroon is a dark, earthy red-brown with a cool blue undertone, mixed from organic red and inorganic iron oxide pigments. The colour sits characteristically between transparent watercolour and opaque gouache: silky-matte, pigment-rich, yet creamy-soft in application.

Features

• Creamy-soft consistency: The pan dissolves evenly with minimal water. The pigment mass is dense enough to be picked up directly with a damp brush – no lengthy soaking required.
• Adjustable opacity: With little water, it produces a rich, nearly opaque application like gouache; heavily diluted, Maroon becomes transparent, warm glazes with a reddish-brown shimmer. The colour retains a subtle silky sheen throughout.
• Pigment blend with depth: No. 72 contains PR48:3 (Permanent Red), PY42 (Yellow Iron Oxide), PR101 (Red Iron Oxide) and PBk11 (Mars Black). This combination creates a multi-layered, slightly cool dark red that shifts towards terracotta and rust-brown when diluted.
• Large pan size: The pan measures approximately 48 × 28 mm – generous enough for broad brushes and large areas in illustrations or watercolour sketches.
• Available as a single pan: The pan fits directly into Kuretake's Gansai Tambi colour palettes as a replacement.
• Made in Japan: Handcrafted. Minor surface irregularities on the pan are due to the manufacturing process and have no impact on the paint's properties.

Use & Tips

• Illustration & Urban Sketching: Maroon is ideal for shadows in skin tones, brickwork, wood textures and autumn plant motifs – heavily diluted as an underpainting, undiluted for high-contrast accents.
• Calligraphy & Lettering: The creamy consistency flows well with round brushes and brush pens. On smooth, calendered paper, Maroon displays its full silky sheen.
• Mixing: Combined with No. 71 Indian Red or earthy yellows, it creates warm umber and sienna tones. With blue components (Prussian Blue, Indigo), the tone can shift towards dark, almost neutral browns.
• Sumi-e & Asian painting techniques: The higher opacity compared to Western watercolours is typical of Gansai paints and supports the direct, linear brushstroke of classical East Asian techniques.
• Paper: Works on watercolour paper (cold press and hot press), on smooth, ink-resistant paper and on sketch paper with a minimum weight of 90 gsm.

For Watercolour Enthusiasts

The pigment base of No. 72 Maroon combines the organic PR48:3 (strontium salt from the BONA pigment series, slightly blue-shifted compared to other PR48 variants) with the inorganic iron oxides PY42 and PR101 plus Mars Black PBk11. Iron oxide pigments are considered lightfast and chemically stable; PR48:3 contributes to colour brilliance and ink strength, but has a medium tinting strength – making the Maroon pleasantly controllable when mixing without immediately dominating other colours. The combination explains its characteristic behaviour: opaque and strong when diluted minimally, warm-transparent with plenty of water, with a reddish-brown undertone that shifts between wine red and rust-brown depending on the light.

Technical Specifications