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