Hey, I saw you use nicker poster colour. I have been thinking about ordering some, and wondering how it compares with gouache. I hear its what Studio Ghibli use and I love their backgrounds. I never can get quite the same effect as them with other mediums, and I was wondering whether its properties would help in achieving that (might be also my skill though) .
i do, sometimes! i haven’t used it in a while.
nicker poster color and gouache are pretty much the same thing, nicker just being a cheaper/thinner version of gouache. they both reactivate with water and dry matte. nicker is about half the price of gouache ($5 a tube vs $10 a tube), and is even a smidge cheaper than acryla gouache ($7 a tube). the cost really comes in with shipping fees from japan! but jetpens sells tube sets and some individual tubes for a good price.
i took a workshop at concept design academy about 2 years ago, hosted by yohichi nishikawa, a ghibli bg painter. they gave us all the same or similar supplies that ghibli bg painters use, and we learned their technique, which is deceptively easy lol. basically you HAVE to master gradients, and you can’t move on as a trainee until you can do a beautiful gradient every single time. if you can paint a gradient then you can paint anything on top (a sky, a field, a house, etc). it’s an insanely challenging way of painting so don’t be discouraged if you don’t pick it up right away. here are some gradients i painted during the workshop:
and the only decent painting i managed to do over the course of the 2 days lol
getting the right materials helps. studio ghibli uses tmk poster paper, which you can buy here (this item used to ship internationally idk if it does anymore sorryyy). this type is slightly different than the actual type they use, which you can apparently only get from sekaido in shinjuku and have to special order lol. same brand though.
the NUMBER ONE TIP is to completely wet BOTH sides of the paper, and let the water soak in until the paper has a “glass like” surface (wait about 5 mins). then, as you paint, you want to keep the paper moist so that the paint blends easily. at ghibli they use humidifiers. we didnt have those at the workshop so i just worked really fast lol. only sharp details are put on after the entire painting has dried.
you will also need a square brush, like this, for painting gradients/big areas, and a round brush, like this for details. you can find something similar outside of japan by searching for calligraphy brushes.
the secret weapon of painting gradients is this guy, a hake brush. this brush is always kept clean and dry, and you use it by gently feathering it in diagonally strokes over a gradient to smooth out the edges where the paint is changing color. this is the hardest part but also my favorite, hehe. very intense.
a short tutorial by the official nicker poster color channel that shows the technique of wetting both sides of the paper and keeping the surface wet while you paint.
from the same channel, a BEAUTIFUL sky being painted. this one shows how to use the hake brush, and gives a better example how to paint a gradient. they make it look easy. it’s ludicrously hard hahaha.
from the man kazuo oga himself. his technique is a little different in this video, because he uses the poster color VERY thinned down (normally you dont have to add much water at all), and applies them almost like watercolor with opague paint on top. i luv it. his book is also very helpful too. it’s in japanese but there are pictures of his process.
of course there are tons of other methods besides the one i’ve outlined here :) for instance, tekkonkinkreet and ponyo were both painted with poster color and then used colored pencil/pastels on top to add texture.
BASICALLY, poster color is much cheaper than gouache if you cut out the shipping cost. (when i was in japan, i went to sekaido and the 40ml pots were only $4 dfhksdhfsjdhfdf). it’s also thinner and way more finnicky. gouache has a “creamier” and thicker consistency, and you usually need to thin it with water. poster color also dries a biiiiiit lighter than gouache, especially if you apply thin paint over thick, dried paint.
overall, i would recommend giving poster color a try if you can find a set that’s in your budget! they’re super fun, but challenging, to use. i prefer gouache on the regular, because i like having more control over my paint.
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