Does Himi Miya Gouache Dry Up? Affordable Jelly Gouache Paint Review After 6 Months ✰ Paint with Me

Hi there! Welcome back to my channel, my name is Sophia Mitropoulos, I’m an artist
and a designer and today we’re gonna be
testing out the Himi Miya gouache set
from Amazon and answering a really big
important question which is:
do these jelly cups dry out?
This is a highly
sought after paint set in the YouTube
art world which is where I found out
about it. Basically, it’s got two major
appeals one: the paint is in jelly cups
instead of in tubes which makes it
really easy to access and also it’s just
kind of weirdly fun to use. For many
people, myself included, it’s the first kind of
paint like this that I’ve ever used and
and two: it’s really affordable. This set that
I have with the brushes, right now costs
about $39. If you were to buy just
the paint it would be $24, but when I
purchased it six months ago I think I
paid $23 for the set and it was $17 for
just the paint so there has been some
price inflation on Amazon since then.
I’ve been using this palette for about
six months and I really want to make a
video to answer a question

that I myself
had which was how does this palette age
and what does it look like six months
down the line? Do these jelly cups dry
out? Are they still usable? Are they gonna
crack and fall off? Like, what’s gonna
happen? There’s not a lot of information
about this gouache set online but the
general consensus does seem to be that
it is student grade quality which means
they’re not guaranteed to be light fast
and they might fade with time. Although I
haven’t experienced any fading with my
own work, it is always a risk with
student quality materials. If you’re not
familiar with gouache it’s really
similar to watercolor in the sense that
it’s a water-based medium but the
pigment is a lot more opaque and less
transparent. My experience with gouache
started in design 101 in undergrad we
used the gouache to create really matte
and flat color swatches that we then cut
up and used in our color theory lesson.
We weren’t really using gouache as a
painting medium but more as a design
tool so when the collective student body
hatred of gouache days happened, I was
right there with them and I thought that
this was a useless medium and I really
didn’t enjoy working with it. It wasn’t
until a couple years later when I had an
art day and I decided that I was going
to test myself to use all the materials
that I never do, when my college gouache
came out! As I used it that day I
realized how much I really actually do
love the medium as far as the Himi
gouache set itself, I will say I thought
it was gonna be a lot more portable even
holding it upright I worry about the
paint spilling out and I’m definitely
not entirely convinced that jostling
around in your backpack or being flipped
upside down it’s gonna keep all the
paint in their cups. That being said I
have seen some comments on YouTube videos
where people suggest that they don’t
peel the lids all the way off of the
jelly cups, which I think would be a
really useful way
to make it more portable. But I did what
I saw every other YouTube video doing
which was peeled lids all the way off.
Today I’m just gonna do a quick speed
paint in my sketchbook with the brushes
that I purchased in this set that I have
never used and I’m gonna show you how
the gouache has aged and let you know
what I think about it so, let’s go!
This is the Himi Miya Gouache set. It has 18
colors, let’s open it up
personally I don’t usually store the
palette in the case, I keep it with the
rest of my palettes but for the sake of
the video I figured I’d put it back in.
I got this set in December so I’ve been
using it for a few months now. There are
two whites, one is a titanium white and
one is a zinc white. As you can see these
are a little dried out but that’s why I
have the pipette, so I can re-wet them
which I will demonstrate here.. so you can
see this one’s a little dry and then I
usually just drop a little bit of water
into it and I don’t even really bother
mixing it, I just use the part that gets
wet. But if I wanted to and if I was
really particular I would probably take
a palette knife and mix it all in there-
but I would clean it first *laughs*. So as you can
see these are a little dried out but
once I start working with them they will
re-wet. Anyway, I’m gonna add some
water to all of these. Ok- do the Himi gouaches dry out? And the answer is yes, but
they are always reusable, this is the
first one that I’ve had that has started to
crack, but I also started working with
them closed while I’m painting.
Also mine for some reason doesn’t always
clamp all the way closed so I was a
little bit concerned about it. So this is
the brush set that it comes with it. It’s really
adorable it’s got this little bird on it.
And then these are the brushes.
Personally, I don’t actually use these
brushes very often because they’re a
little long for my taste but they’re
really cute. This I could see using in a
larger painting if I really needed a
brush this size, but they are really
tough bristles which I tend to use a
little softer bristles.
These are the tips of all the brushes that the set
comes with the handles are really long
for my liking but it is a really nice
set of brushes to have.
So this is the final piece. It’s a goofy
one, I think they’re all goofy, I’ll
probably say that about everything but. I
don’t know how long it took me. I think I
definitely could have gone a little bit
darker with some of the shading and
cleaned it up a little bit but for the
most part I’m pretty happy with it. It’s
just my sketchbook and at this point I’m
trying to fill the sketchbook. I have
seven pages left after this. And I
sometimes work I often work both sides,
so depending on what the medium is and
whether it’s gonna affect the next page
or the previous page, or if I might want
to tear it out, but usually most of this
book is double-sided. I am really
excited to finish that, so this was just
another sketch in my sketchbook so that
I could finish those pages and then show
you guys how I use the Himi Gouache. At
first I was really hesitant to use the
brushes because the bristles are really
hard I started drawing and I was using a
reference and then almost immediately I
hated it and I didn’t want anything to
do with the reference at all, so I
covered it up and I decided to let the
medium guide my drawing. I used the
brushes and I let the brushes dictate
the kinds of marks that I was making
which were a lot looser. And then I just
went on and I created the portrait
without a reference so it was a little
bit more organic. I haven’t used these
brushes at all, this was my first time
using them and I think they were
actually worth using because they forced
me to adapt to them rather than working
with tools that I’m typically
comfortable with. I do like to try
and expand as much as possible and learn
as much as possible and try new mediums
and stuff. Usually, I would probably try
to salvage this but there actually is
such little amount of goache on this
palette that I think it’ll be okay.
So I will wash this off and put it away,
but I have been known in past to leave
my palettes as they are for a couple of
weeks at max. I don’t load them up
continuously, I like to clean them off
intermittently but I try to use as much
of the paint that’s already on there
before I clean them off. The one thing
about this gouache is that if it dries
thicker than this it will start to crack
and crumble off, so once it has
solidified to the point where it’s
cracked on your palette if it hasn’t
fallen off it’s probably still usable
but if it starts to fall off I usually
just try to throw those pieces away
because then you just get stuck with
really dense pieces of paint that your
brush just can’t really pick up from and
so the bristles will splay over, it it’s
really not worth it.
Usually it’s just worth cleaning your
palate and starting again. So that’s my
review of the Himi gouache set! I’m
glad I got do this because I haven’t pulled
them out in a while, so it was nice to
use them again, and I’m sure I will do
more videos in the future where I’m
using the gouache set since it is in my
regular rotation. It’s a great tool to
learn from since the pots are so deep
and I personally I’m really stingy with
my paint. I try to use as little as
possible which is a horrible habit that
I’m trying to break, so this is a great
way for me to do that, for me to allow
myself to use more paint and get a
little messier and not have to worry
about salvaging so much of my paint.
So, thank you so much for watching! My name
is Sophia Mitropoulos, this has been
another video on my channel baby! We put
out 2 now. So if you’ve made it this far
thank you so much for watching, please
give this video a like and subscribe to
my channel if you’re new here which I’m
sure you are since this channel is brand
new and this is only my second video. I
appreciate your time I hope you enjoyed
this painting and I hope you join me and
watch me make more YouTube videos thanks, haha, bye!

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