I have the Art Whale 48 half pan set, 24 half pan set, and tube set (this one).The Art Whale tubes and pans are completely different paints. Different pigments, different color names, different characteristics.The TUBE watercolors are more transparent overall, but they crack and crumble when you pour them into pans and let them dry. They're really nice if you just plan to use them straight out of the tube and then toss your palette, as you might do when teaching a class.
For someone trying to use a decent a quality of watercolor paint as beginner this palette is a small enough variety that you aren't overwhelmed with it and can learn about color mixing. The quality is decent with sufficient pigment that the colors come through. My instructor who is professional gives this a good grade for the price. See the frugalcrafter you tube channel. She is wonderful.
I no longer need to trade food for paint because of the affordability and quality of this paint set. Amazing quality for the price and the 12-piece set has enough variety for you to not spend a lot of time mixing colors but not so many so that you don't get super confused as to what colors to use. Worth the buy.
I really like these watercolors. The pigment colors are what I expected and a little bit of paint goes a very long way. They blend and mix really well. Most watercolor tubes are pretty expensive right now but these are surprisingly affordable and good quality. This set includes a good combination of colors for a core watercolor set that be added onto.*** Helpful? I rely on customer reviews for all my online purchases, so I hope so! ***
As a mixed-media artist who also works with oil, acrylic, and ink, it can be somewhat disorienting when switching between mediums. Each piece has a different feeling, and thus, a different medium. Lately, I've been enjoying black watercolor paper- but my watercolor paint is pretty thin and doesn't show up too well without thickening the paint up or adding more color/volume to it. This is expected when working with black paper, or black canvases in general, but when I got these watercolor paints, this was no longer an issue.These watercolors were impressively visible and vibrant even on the first coat. For the black background, I did use a little less water to dilute the color, but I was still pleasantly surprised at how thick this paint is, and how easy it is to work with. This is definitely worth mentioning in a cautionary sense, as I've personally never worked with watercolor paint that was this thick- but for my use, it's absolutely PERFECT. Will DEFINITELY be purchasing from Art Whale again. Thank you!