MeiLiang 'Pretty Excellent' Watercolour Review

I have to be honest, I bought this set because the colour of the tin was super cute. That blue palette. somewhere between aqua and duck egg just drew me in, That, and the promise of 36 colours including turquoise (delightfully mis-labelled as Turkey) and a range of pinks and purples. I was pretty sure this set wouldn’t live up to to cuteness is promised, but I am very happy to report I was underestimating it, if anything! The palette was purchased for approx $32 from Amazon, and took a little over a week to arrive.

The palette comes in a cardboard box to protect it, and has an included colour card with the paint information ready for you to swatch onto. The half-pan sized paints are housed in a moulded plastic divider; it’s the only thing that lets this set down from feeling more premium (and makes replacing individual colours harder). As such, they’re not individually wrapped which makes opening them significantly easier! The lid of the palette has plenty of mixing space, though you’re not likely to need to mix too many colours with the inclusion of 36 shades!

I swatched the paints on the included card. I have to say, I did have a little giggle at ‘turkey blue’, but it’s a stunning turquoise shade so I was pretty chudded. Overall I really like the colour selection. Lightfastness information is included and there may be some more pigment info but I am a mere english only reader/speaker so I’m not sure. The colours were very vibrant to use, and the colour selection felt similar to my Mission Gold 36 set.

When painting my test rainbow heart on ArtSpectrum 300 GSM 60% cotton paper, I was very impressed. I found all the colours I went reaching for, the paints rewet beautifully and i felt they mixed and handled well. They maaaaybe dried a tad lighter than how they appear when wet, but I was able to build a beautiful bright piece with this. I felt the colours mixed well, dispersed well in water and handled very well for paint of this price. AND THE BLUE PALETTE MAKES ME SO HAPPYYYYYY.

If you can wait a week for postage and are looking for something decent to start you out, I’d go with this. If you’ve painted a little before and are looking for a slightly sturdier/more customizable option, I’d go the Myungo. But these watercolours really are ‘pretty excellent’ for the price! Colour me impressed.

Pros:

Great colour selection

Great quality for price, and a large number of colours

Super cute palette

Cons:

Pans are not replaceable

Shipping was not the speediest

Reeves Watercolour Pans Review

I was searching really hard for a set of paints under $50 that were easy to get in Australia and didn’t suck. And when I say easy, I mean like 90% of people could go out and buy them today kind of easy. This Reeves set, avaliable from officeworks pretty much hits the mark.

This set of paints includes 12 colours, listed as titanium white, lemon yellow, medium yellow, brilliant red, crimson, phthalo blue, ultramarine, sap green, viridian hue, yellow ochre, burnt umber and ivory black. The little blocks of paint are housed in quite a nice tin, which feels like better quality than the $20.50 price tag.

I was pleasantly surprised when I started swatching these out. They’re not too chalky, they colours are quite bright and and the colour selection was pretty much what you’d expect in any 12 colour set. There is no pigment info included in the set, and as such would never recommend these paints for work that would be exposed to any amount of sunlight.

When I started using them, I was a little less impressed. I felt like i was flighting to get them to work the way I wanted them too, and I felt the lack of a bright cool blue was more of an issue than I’d initially guessed (there is the warm ultramarine, and a shade that’s more like indigo). However, I was actually pretty surprised with how much I liked the the final painting that I was able to create with these! The colours were a little muddy, which I feel we cant really expect much better at this price point.

Honestly, this is the set I’m going to recommend to the people who ask me what paints to buy the say before an art class. Not cos they’re great, but because everyone lives near an officeworks, they’re $20, and they could be worse.

Pros

Ease of purchase

Not terrible

Cons

Still $20

Not great by any stretch

Kuratake Gansai Tambi Review

I was very interested to get my hands on a set of Kuratake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints. These Japanese watercolours are generally regarded as high quality, well priced paints but some people seem to not be massive fans. I remember seeing them when I was first looking into watercolour sets for myself, after wanting to upgrade from a low quality (hello, $10 at Kmart) set. I was initially put off by the giant pan sizes and super bright colours which reminded me of children’s paint sets. I’m very happy to say I was wrong.

Essentially, Kuratake is a brand selling ‘gansai’ paints- a specific kind of Japanese watercolour with a slightly different binder than western paints. It’s this binder that allows the paints to be applied more thickly like a gouache, and makes them dry with a slight seen if they are applied thickly.

They also come in a linen wrapped box rather than a metal or plastic palette. There is no dedicated mixing space, though the clear plastic piece that is provided to keep the pans in place during transit can definitely be repurposed for this (or just grab a plate!). It’s difficult to tell exactly how much paint comes in the pans, but they’re defiantly laid out in a different configuration. The large shallow pans are clearly made to be used with large calligraphy style brushes, but there were no issues using my preferred tiny brushes.

If you water the paints down like a normal watercolour, they move, flow and dry just like quality western watercolour paints. I got an 18 colour selection, which is a nice middle ground of not too expensive but included some colours I liked which were missing in the smaller set.  I did feel like the set was designed for floral painting- why else would you need three greens- and the colour choices defiantly are a bit different to what you’d see in a western set of 18 paints. That said, I love the inclusion of indigo, violet and a pink and the turquoise is a colour I would regularly need to mix if it wasn’t included.

During the standard test paint, I was really pleased with these paints. They’re very creamy and it can be easy to overload the brush and use them like a gouache (even if you don’t mean to!) but if you water them down appropriately I see no reason why they should be drying with a satin finish.

Pros:

Bright colours

Well priced

Many set sizes to choose from

Big pans would be great for large washes

Cons:

Odd colour inclusions

Less sturdy box, compared to palette set up

Minimal mixing space

Can dry shiny if heavily applied

Micador For Artists Brilliant Watercolour Review

The  Micador For Artists Brilliant Watercolour Disc sets are super easy to come by in art, craft and office supply stores in Australia. Given their affordable price point and their ubiquitousness, I had to give them a go.

I expected these paints to be awful, I have to be honest. They look super cakey in their little plastic rounds, and I was immediately transported back to the awful paints of primary school in the late 1990s. These paints were not at all what I expected.

When I started swatching them out, I was amazed by the clarity and vibrancy of colour. They do what they say on the tin- providing ‘brilliant’ in colour. But where they started to fall down was when I actually went to paint my usual test picture, a rainbow heart.

I could immediately tell that thee paints just don’t handle the same way as other watercolours, they flow waaayyy too much- and indeed they’re actually dye based paints. I spent the entire time working with these paints struggling against their overly flowiness and near insane intensity. Maybe they work better with a less wet-in-wet technique, but that’s one of the things I love most about watercolour, the way the paints bloom and interact when they’re damp!!

 I don’t hate these, and for a child or teen, or a crafter/scrapbooker looking for a way to add bright touches to things, these would be great. But for an artist looking to get into watercolour painting, I wouldn’t be working with these for long. The main reason I say that is that these aren’t light fast so if you’re ever looking to sell or hang your work, you can’t really.  Your painting style would be so influenced by these super weird paints that you would have difficulty moving to a more traditional setup.

I also found there was some odd patchiness on cotton containing paper, and the paints seemed to do better on cellulose paper. That should pretty much NEVER happen with real watercolours. It’s all super odd. Worth $13 for a 12 colour set? For craft project or a one-off project, sure. But I’m honestly not convinced they can be counted as watercolours.

Pros:

Cheap as chips

Easy to find

Super bright, clear colours

Cons:

Dye based paint

Does not handle like usual watercolour

Mungyo Professional Half Pan Watercolour review

When I set out to trial watercolour sets, I had a pretty set criteria of things I was looking for. I wanted a set you could get in your hot little (Australian) hands in a relatively short time period, that was inexpensive, and would help budding watercolour artists succeed in painting, rather than battling poor quality paints. Bonus points if I could get it with 24 colours under $50AUD.

Guys, this one does. It. All.

I ordered the Mungyo Professional 24 Half Pan set from Amazon, and I had it open on my desk in less than a week. The half pans are housed in a lovely metal tin, and can easily be switched out when empty (or for other colors of your preference). There is also a extendable mixing palette which flips out. The paints come individually wrapped with paint information on each pan.

The range of colours in the 24 pan set is decent. A few inclusions are odd (Naples yellow? OK….), the is there is the ever present (and still just as useless) white, and I’m mildly perplexed by the lack of ultramarine. But on the whole, there are a great selection to choose from and there are a good range of pinks and a decent violet. I keep banging on about these because they’re so crucial to making really vibrant multicolour pieces.

These paints really came into their own when I started swatching. Mungyo is a korean brand, the same as my go-to Mijello Mission Gold. I could hardly tell the difference between these, and my considerably more expensive paints. They’re so vibrant and pigmented, they re-wet perfectly and there is not a scrap of chalkiness to them! They mix and flow beautifully with water.

The only downside to these paints I can see is that they maaayyybe are a tad muddier than my Mission Gold paints in my heart painting test (on my standard Art Spectrum 60% cotton 300GSM paper). But honestly, look at this thing. It’s so bright. The colours are so clear. THESE ARE $50 PAINTS!! AND THEY COME WITH A METAL PALETTE!!

Um. I like these. Can you tell?

Pros:

Brilliantly pigmented and not chalky

Great value for money

Really decent palette

Honestly, these are on the low end of Artist quality - for $50!!

Cons:

Not available in stores, though shipping was fast

Lots of blended pigment colours, so slightly muddier when mixed

Are these 100% perfect? No. there are a few odd colour inclusions and some colour exclusions that make me scratch my head. Are these absolutely brilliant for the price? Yup. A solid beginner set that will make you pleased as punch and keen to crack them out at any opportunity.

Mont Marte Premium Half-Pan review

Mont Marte is an affordable art brand in Australia, and it’s often been my first stop for cheap supplies when I want to try out a new medium. I’ve never been particularly impressed with their watercolour offerings, but when I saw a set touted as ‘premium’ and ‘for artists', I had to give them a try!

The Mont Marte Premium Watercolour Half Pan set comes in 18, 24 or 36 shades, with an included palette and waterbrush. I’m not a fan of waterbrushes in general, so I won’t be reviewing that. The palette is quite sizable with two extra fold out mixing areas, and a small ceramic dish (presumable for preparing large washes). I bought the 24 colour set, which seems to retain in Australia for a little under $40 in a wide range of art, craft and variety stores.

The biggest misgiving I have about this set is the complete lack of included paint information. I’m talking NONE, not even colour names. The pains come unwrapped in their pans which is great for less waste and a quick set up, but nothing about this set read ‘premium’ to me.

I swatched them out, and pretty quickly realised that the colours were laid out in a way that made no sense to me. Once I had a good idea of the shades I was working with, I removed them all from the palette and re-ordered them in a manner that didn’t drive me bonkers.

I then set to testing them in my standard paint test, a multicolour heart on my usual paper (Art Spectrum 60% cotton 300GSM). And I was actually pleasantly surprised! These are by far the best Mont Marte paints i’ve ever used, and I feel like you get a lot for your money.

The paints benefit from a good wet down with a water sprayer before use, but then you can build up some surprising intensity with the colour. I appreciated the included pinks and purples, though I did feel the violet shade separated and I wouldn’t trust it much. There were also some very pretty turquoise shades, and I could mix a decent Payne’s grey which was a pleasant surprise. I’m not sure these would hold up well to heavy colour mixing, as I suspect they’re already a pretty heavy pigment mix.

Pros:

Cheap

Easily available from stores in Australia

Large number of colours included

Good palette

A beginner set that will allow you to achieve some watercolour techniques

Not too chalky

Cons:

Literally no paint info

Violet seems a bit dodgy

Definitely not ‘premium’ or ‘for artists’

I actually quite like these as a set for beginner artists that want to get the feel of watercolour before saving up for a more expensive set. You won’t feel too bad about making mistakes with a set like this, and I really appreciate having a set that you’re likely to be able to get your hands on more easily in a shop or with domestic shipping. They’re far from premium, but they’re worth your $40 for a starter set.

Windsor And Newton Cotman Review

Windsor and Newton are a leader in the watercolour world, and their Cotman series of student paints are touted as being a great beginner set. I got my hands on the 12 half pan Sketcher’s Pocket Box to test them out.

Most reviews rave about this as being a very well priced set for some decent beginner paints. However, these seems to be a huge markup in Australia on the entire Windsor and Newton brand. I purchased my set from Amazon for approximately $35 AUD, but the same set appears to retail for more than double the price in most Australian art stores!

The twelve half pans come in a cute, compact white palette and a small brush (with bristle cover!) is included. It’s the perfect size and weight to slip into a pocket for travel or on-the-go painting trips. All the pans are individually wrapped, with pigment information included. Annoyingly, they’ve elected to include a Chinese White (WHHHYYYYYYY WOULD YOU INCLUDED WHITE IN A 12 PAN SET??) which I immediately removed and refilled the pan with my own tube of indigo, which I will actually use. The pigments included are  very heavy on ‘hues’, which is to be expected in a student set. Colours included are Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Cadmium Red Pale Hue, Alizarin Crimson Hue, Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue Hue, Sap Green, Viridian Hue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and Chinese White. I’ve swatched them out below for you.

I tested these out to paint a pretty standart rainbow heart on my usual watercolour paper (Art Spectrum 60% cotton, 300GSM). The paint pans reactivate nicely and the paint loads up well onto the brush. It flows nicely enough, though I do feel it does supper from the problem many ‘student grade’ paints do, and has a bit of a chalky feel. The colors mixwell and blend nicely on the page. I really struggle to mix a good range of purples from the include colours, but that may well be more related to me than the paints. On the plus side, a nice Payne’s grey colour can be mixed from the shades included in the set (using Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna) .

Pros:

Reputable brand

Comes with a cute brush

Compact and portable

Paints interact nicely for watercolour effects

Cons:

Generally overpriced in Australia

No included purple shades

White is included, essentially making it an 11 shade set

My final thoughts are that this is a solid beginner set from a reputable brand, but there is no way I would pay the Australian in store retail price for this. For $35 you’re onto a winner, for $80 or more, your money is better spent elsewhere.