Nikawa is the japanese word for the gelatine solution that is used in certain old chinese and japanese painting styles, namely nihonga and gong bi style. The gelatine solution is used as a binder for pigments, as well as for preparation ( sizing ) of the paper, to reduce its absorbancy. In this video I used 20 g of good quality gelatine, and 200 ml of water. You can see the process in the video below...

I started now, making such small “Notans”, finding them to be a good help in planning a picture. Even if the later painting is with colors, the tone-values have a very important rule, in how the picture impact on the viewers eyes. You can have the most beautifully colors, but the will not work, if you use no different values, and on the other hand, with a good composition of dark and lighter values, it must not be necessary to use too much colors, for the image to bound the v