AdurArt

Watercolour Paint Review

watercolour paints

Watercolour is a medium that rewards patience, spontaneity, and control in equal measure. The quality of your paint affects everything — from how it flows on paper to how light shines through your finished work.

Each watercolour paint review explores flow characteristics, transparency, mixing potential, and paper compatibility.

Table of Contents

Tom’s Review — Semi-Professional Watercolourist

Product: Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour Half Pan Set (12 Colours)
Reviewer: Tom Ellery — Semi-Professional Watercolourist
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary:
Tom favours Winsor & Newton’s Professional Watercolours for their pigment clarity and flow control. This 12-colour half-pan set offers a balanced palette ideal for sketching, plein air painting, or refined studio work.

Verdict:

“A beautiful, reliable set for serious watercolourists who want dependable quality in a portable form. Every colour behaves exactly as you expect it to.”

The Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour Half Pan Set (12 Colours) is a highly respected and industry-standard choice for artists. It is considered a premium set that offers exceptional quality, making it a favorite for studio use, travel, and plein air painting.

Here is a comprehensive review of the set:

 

Overall Quality and Positioning

 

  • Artist/Professional Grade: This set features Winsor & Newton’s top-tier watercolour line. It is manufactured to the highest standards, using the finest pigments and traditional formulation.
  • Quality of Pigment: The paints are known for their extremely high pigment load, resulting in brilliant, intense, and rich colours. This high concentration means the colours go a long way and maintain their vibrancy even when heavily diluted.
  • Lightfastness: A significant strength of the Professional range is its permanence. The majority of colours have the highest possible archival rating (A or AA), ensuring your artwork will resist fading over time.
  • Handling: The pans re-wet instantly and easily, offering smooth, reliable lifting and layering properties essential for complex watercolour techniques.

 

Key Features of the 12-Pan Set

 

  • Convenience: The half-pan format is compact and perfect for portability. It typically comes in a sturdy metal or plastic box that doubles as a mixing palette, making it an excellent travel or outdoor sketching kit.
  • Colour Selection: The 12-colour set is carefully curated to provide a balanced and versatile primary and secondary palette capable of mixing a vast range of hues. A typical selection includes:

 

    • Yellows: Lemon Yellow, Winsor Yellow
    • Reds: Winsor Red, Alizarin Crimson
    • Blues: Winsor Blue (Green Shade), French Ultramarine
    • Greens: Permanent Sap Green
    • Earth Tones: Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna
    • Neutrals: Ivory Black, Chinese White (often debated in professional sets, as most artists prefer to use the white of the paper)

 

  • Uniformity: Winsor & Newton is celebrated for the consistent quality and flow of its entire Professional range.

 

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • High Pigment Load for brilliant, rich colour.
  • Excellent Lightfastness (archival quality)
  • Instant Re-wetting for smooth and easy activation.
  • Balanced Starter Palette in a highly portable case.

Cons:

  • Higher Cost compared to student-grade sets (like W&N Cotman).
  • Pan vs. Tube Debate: Some artists find the pan formula slightly different from the tubes, though the quality is still professional.
  • Small Volume: Half pans can run out quickly if you paint large, solid washes often.
  • The included small brush in some travel sets may be lower quality than desired for serious work.

 

Who Is It For?

  • Experienced Artists: Professionals appreciate the quality, reliability, and lightfastness for commission work and gallery pieces.
  • Serious Students: An excellent “step-up” set for students who have outgrown their initial beginner paints and are ready to invest in lasting quality.
  • Travel and Plein Air Painters: The compact, all-in-one design is ideal for painting on location.

 

Summary:

The Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour 12 Half Pan Set is a benchmark for quality. While it is an investment, you are paying for intensely pigmented, archival, and reliable paint that will significantly enhance your watercolour painting experience.
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Clara’s Review — Professional Artist 

Product: Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolour Set (6 Tubes)
Reviewer: Clara Wren — Professional Oil Painter
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Summary:
Although Clara works mainly in oils, she uses Daniel Smith watercolours for sketching and tonal studies. Their renowned pigmentation and subtle granulation give each wash a professional finish.

Verdict:

“These paints behave like a premium medium should — expressive, rich, and consistent. Perfect for artists moving from oils or acrylics into watercolour.”

The Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolour Set (6 Tubes), often referred to as the Essentials Set, is highly regarded as one of the best introductory palettes for artists looking to invest in professional-grade watercolours.

Here is a detailed review focusing on its quality and usefulness:

 

Overall Quality and Brand Reputation

 

  • Professional Grade: Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolours are considered top-tier. They are known for their very high pigment load, superb lightfastness, and vast selection of unique pigments (including the famous PrimaTek line).
  • High Pigment Concentration: The colours are intense and vibrant. A small amount of paint goes a long way, making the 5ml tubes (though small) last a surprising amount of time when squeezed into a palette.
  • Lightfastness: All colours in the Extra Fine line are formulated to meet and exceed the highest industry standards for lightfastness, ensuring your artwork will not fade over time.

 

The Essentials Palette (6 Colours)

 

The beauty of this set is in its carefully curated selection of a warm and a cool shade for each primary colour (Red, Yellow, Blue). This configuration allows artists to mix an expansive and controlled range of secondary and tertiary colours.

Here are the colours typically included and their role:

  • Hansa Yellow Light: This is the cool yellow. It’s very clean, has a high tinting strength, and mixes bright, clear greens.
  • New Gamboge: This is the warm yellow. It has a beautiful golden hue, mixing excellent oranges and rich, earthy greens.
  • Quinacridone Rose (PV19): This acts as the cool red (magenta). It’s a bright, bluish-pink/red that is perfect for mixing stunning purples with the blues.
  • Pyrrol Scarlet: This is the warm red. It’s a vibrant, intense orange-red that mixes vivid oranges when combined with the yellows.
  • Phthalo Blue (Green Shade): This is the cool blue. It is a powerful, staining colour, making it excellent for mixing bright greens.
  • French Ultramarine: This is the warm blue. It is a granulating colour that creates beautiful violets and deep, rich shadow mixes.

 

Review Highlights

 

  • Versatile Mixing: The set is praised as an ideal starting point because it allows you to mix a huge range of secondary and tertiary colours. By having a warm and a cool of each primary (Red, Yellow, Blue), you can control the saturation of your mixes.
  • Excellent Value (as a Starter): While the paint is premium, this small set offers a cost-effective way to get a taste of Daniel Smith’s quality without buying a large, expensive set.
  • Re-wetting: The tube paint, once squeezed out and dried in a palette, generally re-wets easily, which is crucial for studio and travel use.
  • Tube Size: The tubes are only 5ml, which is smaller than the standard 15ml tube. This is a common point of feedback; artists should be aware they are mini tubes, but given the high concentration, they still provide a lot of paint.

 

Who Is It For?

 

  • Beginners/Students: This is the perfect set for someone who has grasped basic colour theory and wants to upgrade from student-grade paint to professional quality. It teaches them to mix instead of relying on pre-mixed colours.
  • Experienced Artists: It serves as an excellent travel palette or a foundation set for an artist looking to test the Daniel Smith brand before committing to a larger collection.

 

Summary:

The Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolour Essentials Set of 6 tubes is widely considered one of the best initial purchases in professional watercolour. Its carefully selected colours offer unparalleled mixing potential and the signature Daniel Smith quality, making it a highly recommended choice.

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Maya’s Review — Amateur Watercolour Hobbyist

Product: Castle Art Supplies Watercolour Set (24 Tubes)
Reviewer: Maya Brooks — Amateur Acrylic & Watercolour Painter
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Summary:
Maya wanted an easy, affordable set for experimenting with watercolour without worrying about waste. This Castle Art set offers bright, blendable colours in squeezable tubes — ideal for sketchbooks and mixed-media work.

Verdict:

“A fun, forgiving set for anyone starting with watercolour. It makes experimenting easy and enjoyable.”

The Castle Art Supplies Watercolour Set (24 Tubes) is generally categorized as a student-to-intermediate grade paint set. It is widely known for being an excellent budget-friendly option and a popular choice for beginners and hobbyists.

Here is a review based on common feedback and the product’s positioning in the art market:

 

1. Target Audience and Positioning

 

  • Beginners and Hobbyists: This set is very popular for those new to watercolour or artists who paint purely for enjoyment and are looking for a comprehensive palette without a high price tag.
  • Student Grade Quality (with a Premium Feel): Castle Art Supplies often markets its products as “artist quality” but the price point and general performance place them firmly above a basic craft paint, but below a professional-grade brand (like Daniel Smith or Winsor & Newton Professional).
  • Good Value: For the number of colours (24) and the generous 12ml tube size, the set offers excellent value for money.

 

2. Key Strengths (Pros)

 

  • Vibrant Colours: Users frequently praise the colours for being bright, clear, and rich, especially for their price point.
  • Good Consistency: The paint comes out of the tube with a silky-smooth texture and is easy to work with, both straight from the tube or after being dried in a palette and re-wetted.
  • Large Colour Selection: The 24-colour set offers a wide variety of hues, which is perfect for beginners who haven’t yet mastered colour mixing and want a colour for almost everything.
  • Tube Size: The 12ml tubes are a good size for the price and will last a long time for a casual painter.
  • Lightfastness (Recent Update): Recent updates to the formula by Castle Art Supplies have reportedly included lightfast-rated pigments, which is a significant improvement and an important feature for any artist concerned about their finished work fading over time.

 

3. Considerations (Cons/Areas to Note)

 

  • Pigment Concentration: While the colours are vibrant, they typically contain more fillers or extenders than a true professional-grade paint. This means you may need to use more paint to achieve the deepest, most saturated washes compared to premium brands.
  • Transparency and Granulation: The paint may be less consistently transparent across the whole range compared to professional paints. You may also find it lacks the distinct pigment characteristics (like strong granulation or staining properties) that characterize very expensive single-pigment colours.
  • Long-Term Archival: While the company claims lightfast ratings (especially in newer sets), professional artists who sell high-value work may still prefer brands with a long, established history of published, specific pigment lightfast data.

 

Conclusion

 

The Castle Art Supplies Watercolour Set (24 Tubes) is an excellent, high-quality choice for the price-conscious artist.

It is ideal for:

  • Experimenting with watercolour techniques.
  • Casual painting, illustration, and art journaling.
  • Building a comprehensive palette without significant investment.

If you are a beginner or a hobbyist, this set provides a beautiful range of colours and a great painting experience that is a significant step up from cheap student paints. If you are a professional producing gallery work, you will likely still prefer to invest in a smaller set of single-pigment, artist-grade tubes.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Which watercolour paints are best for beginners?

For beginners, student-grade sets like Winsor & Newton Cotman are ideal. They’re affordable, easy to use, and offer vibrant colours without overwhelming you with too many options. Starting with a 12–24 colour set is usually enough to learn basic techniques.

2. What is the difference between student-grade and professional-grade watercolours?

Student-grade paints have less pigment concentration and may be less lightfast than professional paints, but they’re perfect for learning and experimenting. Professional-grade paints, like Daniel Smith or Schmincke, have high pigment load, superior blendability, and long-lasting vibrancy.

3. How many colours do I need in a set?

A 12–24 colour set covers most basic painting needs. Beginners can mix secondary and tertiary colours from a limited palette. Professional artists often prefer larger sets (24–48 colours) for more precise work and special pigments.

4. Are tube paints better than pan paints?

It depends on your painting style. Tube paints are great for large washes or mixing large amounts of colour, while pan paints are compact, portable, and ideal for travel or smaller projects. Many artists use a combination of both.

5. How can I tell if watercolours are lightfast?

Lightfastness indicates how long a colour maintains its vibrancy when exposed to light. Most reputable brands label their paints with a lightfast rating. Professional-grade paints usually have excellent lightfastness, which is important if you plan to sell or display your artwork.

6. Which brushes work best with watercolours?

Synthetic or natural sable brushes work well. Round brushes in sizes 6–12 are versatile, while flat brushes are useful for washes. Always choose brushes that feel comfortable in your hand and hold enough water and pigment.

7. Can watercolour paints be used outdoors or for travel?

Yes! Compact pan sets like Schmincke Horadam Half Pans are perfect for plein air painting. Tube sets can also work, but pans are easier to transport and less likely to spill.

8. How should I store watercolour paints?

Keep your paints in a cool, dry place, and close the caps tightly on tubes or keep pans covered. This prevents drying out and extends their lifespan. Pans that dry can often be reactivated with a few drops of water.

9. Are professional watercolours worth the extra money?

Professional paints are richer in pigment, more durable, and offer better lightfastness. If you’re serious about your art or plan to sell your work, investing in a quality set like Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolours is worthwhile.

10. What papers are best for watercolour painting?

Use 100% cotton watercolour paper with 200–300 gsm for best results. Cold-pressed paper is versatile and works well for beginners and professionals alike. Avoid thin or low-quality paper, which can buckle or tear easily.