I watched You Tube videos on Art Whale watercolors. They came highly recommended so I bought the tubes. There blend really well, and the colors are beautiful. You get a nice selection and the tubes are a great size. They are very smooth. I went back and ordered the pallet set so I could refill it with these paints. The quality is professional and I’m hoping for good light fastness.
12/16/24If you can get these on sale they do make a pretty good starter set. What I’ve noticed is that there are enough single pigment colors that are saturated enough to justify the cost (on sale). The mixed colors are still fine to start with. I reach for this pallet much more so than meiliang & use alongside a mix of mostly mission gold, and some Daniel smith, WN professional and Miameri blu thrown in. I have been buying additional tubes here and there as I find the need for them. The 24 set of mission gold pure pigments May have been unnecessary- many colors overlap.——Update: 10/2/2024- I still don’t know how I feel about these. I have a whole 24 set of pure pigments from Mission Gold that I bought for 72$. These are very comparable to them. The only difference is that these do not have as many single pigments. These seem to be more concentrated than the mission gold. They work best if you mix with honey before drying, one drop per half pan is enough. They not only crack less, but they also retain more of their vibrancy when drying. I haven’t decided if I’ll purchase again. The more I use them and buy other brands- the more I appreciate artwhale. I bought a tube of Daniel smith and Maimeri blu. Artwhale is more concentrated. However there’s quite a few colors in artwhale that I don’t like- lemon yellow for one- it’s very light. All the dark browns have black added. A couple blues have white added. Vandyke brown is more concentrated after I poured another pan of it (binder must have separated and did not mix well when I tried to with a toothpick). If artwhale would remove the black and white from the mixes and add better pinks and a Chinese white this set would be amazing.——-Update: Artwhale stands behind their product and refunded the paints.——-Original:These are definitely student grade/ budget. Possibly a couple colors are a little better than student but it’s a stretch (and they aren’t the colors I really need).Artwhale is on the bottom swatch card (top and bottom row; middle row are from some cotman pans)Meilang is the top swatch card.I agree with a previous review. Some of the colors are okay, others not so much. Lemon yellow is a total waste. Very little pigment load.I didn’t think I liked the vandyke brown. It has very little pigment and is gummy (lots of binder). However I find it helpful when you need a light warm grey color in landscapes. Still could be much better.Sap green has low pigment load, and has lots of binder. Layering just makes it chalky. There’s a few other colors that are not all that great.If you tend to do more landscapes, less floral, this set may be better suited than meilang. Meilang is super bright (most likely from dyes). I don’t think there are dyes in these paints, so it has a softer feel.Overall- I don’t plan to purchase again because for the same amount I could get a few tubes of professional grade to replace any colors I use regularly. The quality of these colors vary so much- and are student grade at best.
These are in general very nice and there are a lot of color that are bright, transparent and pop off the page. The things I don’t like are the cool yellow is kind of dull. And the earth colors are lacking as they all have black mixed in, so they’re a bit dull.
One complaint - the tube labeled AZO yellow medium was filled with permanent red light. The manufacturer will not respond to my emails as I was hoping to have the tube replaced. It’s sad because there is not another warm yellow in the set so it’s what i would consider a necessary color to have. I don’t want to reorder the entire set. As far as the paint goes These are pigmented and overall lovely to work with. They are an affordable option for beginners and professionals alike. Ive worked with DS, windsor and newton, Rosa gallery, and other budget brands such as koi and kuretake. I REALLY like this and rank them highly. You get a ton of paint for the price I’ve created several palettes from them. I haven’t really tested the lightfastness yet so I’m not sure I would use these for commissions but for practice they are fine. Super disappointed to be missing a color though.
Vibrant, beautiful colors but some tubes were about half full of air instead of pigment. I believe, based on several loose tube lids, that these were used and returned, not new. As the colors dry in a palette I see major binder separation in the yellows, but not as much in the other colors after they leave the tubes. It's possible to stir the paints a bit in the tubes (shaking them didn't work for me). These are not pro quality, but you can make some good paintings with these. There are some opaque colors, so be sure to read the back of the tubes. I suggest pre-paintings with scrap paper to make sure they are the colors you want and that you can layer them. I found the reds, yellows, and orange to be quite opaque and layering with them doesn't seem to lift the dry paint. Finally, there are some benefits to trying these, or using them to paint a preliminary art work before using your fancy pro paints.