Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor No.502 BILLIARD GREEN

Billiard Green (No. 502) is a rich, deep green watercolour from Kuretake's Gansai Tambi line – traditional Japanese watercolour in an oversized pan. The colour is based on water-soluble pigment and can be used opaquely like gouache or transparently like classical watercolour, depending on how much water you add. Behind it stands over a hundred years of experience in Japanese ink and paint manufacturing.

Features

• High pigment concentration: The colour sits intensely and richly on paper – even with minimal pigment, you achieve vibrant coverage. Diluted with more water, it reveals transparent, luminous glazes.
• Dual application: As a compact pan, No. 502 combines the opacity of gouache with the transparency of watercolour. The difference lies solely in the amount of water.
• Creamy, soft consistency: The pigment dissolves quickly and evenly with the brush, mixes well with other Gansai Tambi colours, and flows controllably across the paper.
• Large pan (48 × 28 mm): The wide format allows for larger brushes – ideal for backgrounds, broad areas, and fluid brushwork.
• Lightfast and non-toxic: The pigment-based formula is lightfast (with moderate water dilution) and ACMI-certified non-toxic.
• Handcrafted in Japan: Each colour is produced using Japan's traditional paint manufacturing – the pan pressing process is done by hand.

Use & Tips

• Botanical illustration: Billiard Green works as a base colour for foliage, stems, and shadow areas – applied opaquely it creates deep dark zones; heavily diluted it renders pale leaf veins.
• Sumi-e and East Asian painting techniques: The pan can be used directly in classical ink and brush drawing, where green tones serve for bamboo, pine needles, or stone.
• Illustrations on washi and rice paper: Gansai Tambi colours adhere well to washi and other Japanese papers; the higher pigment content forgives the lower absorbency of these grounds better than Western watercolours.
• Layering: When layering: allow the first layer to dry completely before applying the second – moist Gansai Tambi can lift dried layers easily.
• Mixing palette: No. 502 Billiard Green can be mixed with Cobalt Blue (No. 603) to create a deep blue-green, or lightened with yellow tones; the protective film in the set doubles as a mixing surface.
• Paper recommendation: Watercolour paper from 300 g/m² (140 lb) upwards prevents buckling and accepts pigment cleanly; washi and mixed-media paper are also suitable.

For Watercolour Enthusiasts

Gansai Tambi colours are positioned chromatically between Western watercolour and gouache: higher pigment concentration than transparent watercolours, but less opacity than true gouache. Due to the slightly different binder ratio, the colours flow characteristically – they sit on the paper rather than sinking in, making wet techniques like wet-on-wet manageable, though not quite as open as Western watercolours. For calligraphy projects combining coloured backgrounds with ink, the dense, creamy pigment of No. 502 is particularly useful: it covers even on dark-toned surfaces and can be used as an underpainting for black sumi lines.

Technical Specifications