Watercolor Paints Explained | Should You Get Pans, Tubes, or Bottles?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
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Watercolor paints come in a variety of different forms, which can be overwhelming when you're just getting started. There are pan watercolors, paint tubes, and liquid watercolors widely available. So which one is right for you?
In this video, I break down the differences between these paints, explain the pros and cons of each, and some tips to get the best out of each type.
By the time you're done with this video, you'll have a stronger understanding of what watercolor paint might suit your skill level, style, and budget.
Below I will try to list the materials I mentioned in the video, but you can also head to my Watercolor Supplies for Beginners post to see my full list of recommendations:
littlecoffeefox.com/best-wate...
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🎨 Pan Watercolors --
Prang Pan Watercolors: amzn.to/3oMeHqz
Colirocolor Gold Watercolors: amzn.to/3rBVjOQ
Winsor & Newton Travel Palette: amzn.to/2XFH2D5
🎨 Tube Watercolors --
Sennelier French Watercolors: amzn.to/2LUpaBC
Daniel Smith fine watercolors: amzn.to/3aO6gXG
🎨 Liquid Watercolors --
Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus Liquid Watercolors: amzn.to/39BYY76
Ecoline Liquid Watercolors: amzn.to/2XTgIFT
🎨 Paper --
Strathmore Watercolor Paper: amzn.to/2XEy8pB
Canson Watercolor Paper: amzn.to/3qmI1Ve
Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook: amzn.to/39zRaCS
🎨 Palette --
6 Well Palette: amzn.to/3oR84Uc
I couldn't find the exact plastic palette I referenced, but here's a very similar one: amzn.to/39C4XZC
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Love the line "the only watercolor wasted is the watercolor left in the tube". You gave great encouragement to create crap until get what you want. Great video.
Once you are able to comfortably make terrible art, you will find that you make some pretty amazing stuff!
Thank you so much for this video. As a total newbie (and recovering perfectionist), I was going crazy trying to decide on the "perfect" brand of paints and "perfect" set!
Great video, thank you for making it. 👌🙂
I've just got myself into watercolors a few months ago (thanks to Covid 🙄) and I would recommend to everyone to watch as many videos on the topic as they can before purchasing anything, so one can avoid wasting money on bad quality products.
Some things I was missing from this video:
1. Grading watercolors. There are watercolor sets made for children. Chalky, bright colors, sometimes using dye and not pigments. They fade quickly and although they can be good for practicing brush strokes, they are not always sufficient for mixing. I would not recommend them for someone who wants to get into watercolors. They are for children.
"Adult watercolors": student grade & professional/artist grade. Student grade is designed for learning for a reason. A decent student grade brand with pigment information helps the learning process the best and is not wasting expensive, often toxic, highly pigmented watercolor for practice. Imo professional watercolors are for those who sell or exhibit their art. Student grade is for beginners to learn.
2. Difference between tubes and pans:
Not all watercolor in tubes work well when they dry out. Some literally crumbles to powder and cannot be used again. (E.g. Arteza)
You say at 4:18 that pans have "rather limited colors". Idk what do you mean by that, but Van Gogh student grade has 72 colors at the moment, available both in tubes and half pans. I don't consider that limited. 😉 The Van Gogh line is student grade, yet, they have proper pigment information available and they supposed to last a hundred years under museum conditions, so perfectly suitable for even selling or exhibiting artworks. They are also very affordable.
Learning how to mix colors is very important and many artists say a beginner should only buy a limited palette first to learn the basics. I would say you can buy the biggest palette you can afford and still limit yourself to certain colors and learn the mixing basics. Having the premixed colors at hand may even be helping that process, since you have them for comparison. But that's just my opinion of course. 😉
Tube paints are usually more economical regarding the value you get for the price; a standard half pan is 2 ml (when it is filled to the brim) so an 8 ml tube could refill a half pan 3-4 times, depending on how much the paint shrinks while drying out. I have bought Van Gogh half pans in a set, and when I will run out of paint I will buy their tube version for refill. They print the ID number on the pans, which will probably be very useful in long term. 😂
You mention pigment concentration at 7:21. Imo, that strongly depends on the brand and not necessary on the form. E.g. Van Gogh has the same concentration as far as I can tell. (I have two tubes atm.) What I have seen in the tons of videos I watched, professional paints are just as concentrated in pans as in their tube version, but sure, I can be wrong, I didn't buy Daniel Smith pans and tubes to compare them myself, I have just watched lots of people swatching and using them under very different conditions. I have, though, watercolors in pans which have higher pigment concentration than other paints I have in tubes.
At 7:55 you say that from tubes one can mix their own colors. That also depends on the quality of the paint. You can buy cheap, bad quality watercolor in tubes with no pigment info. Good luck with mixing those. You will only get muted, dull colors. 😣(E.g. Daler Rowney "Simply" watercolors in tubes - waste of money. Their Aquafine line is nice, though.)
You mention at 9:05 that tubes are limited in colors when it's not "higher end". Sure, in comparison there are always limitations, but I have already mentioned Van Gogh's 72 colors. I would not call that a big limitation. 😂 Just have checked a few lines, Rembrant has 120 both tubes and half pans, Mijello 105, Winsor&Newton 109. Okay. But as a beginner, even a set of 24 colors could be distracting. I'd say Van Gogh's ~70 colors are more than I wish to use in the next 10 years. 😎 If there's an interesting color in the professional range, one can always buy colors individually.
I was quite happy you mentioned the paper at the end, because no matter how good the paint is if the paper is not sufficient for watercolors the end result will certainly be discouraging for a beginner.
As a closing for my long tl;dr comment here, I'd like to share my own experience. Maybe it'll be useful for someone else too:
Royal Talens Van Gogh is a perfect student grade paint for beginners. Affordable price, huge color range.
Pretty Excellent (MeiLiang) 36 color set is also nice to play with, very affordable but no pigment info is available. Colors are bright and I had no issues with mixing so far. (That paint is said to be Paul Rubens' student grade quality.) All cheap watercolors I bought in the beginning was a waste of money. I wish I've never spent my time with them.
As a beginner it is a good investment to watch as many videos as possible on color theory, color mixing, brush control, water control, paint reviews and paper reviews, and most importantly other artists painting and teaching. One can learn a lot from them, even from hobby painters who do things in their own way (right or wrong). (Especially from the comparisons, how people do certain things differently. 😎)
I've bought Canson XL watercolor and mixmedia paper too. Latter is okay for glazing but can be tricky. Certain paints tend to float on the top of mixmedia paper and for a beginner, just learning water control, it is a great source of frustration when you can literally toss the pigments with the brush and it is very difficult to achieve a flat wash. I've also bought some A5 size "proper" Fabriano and Hahnemühle (100% cotton, cold pressed) blocks, but - just as you have mentioned - I didn't dare to touch them yet. They are "too expensive to waste on my bad paintings yet". 😂
Thanks for all this great information!
@@Foxsy_Official Sure. I hope it will be useful for someone. 😊
Great video, you explain so clearly! Thanks 😊
My pleasure! I hope you feel more confident to try new watercolors now!
This is SO helpful! I've been stressing because my pan colors are not vibrant and I can't replicate tutorials that are using liquid paint! I love how you explain everything. You are a great artist and teacher. :)
Thank you so much for your great explanation 🙏 I just started learning to paint and this was one thing that I was wondering about. I also wonder if you can mix dry palet paint with tube paint to create new colors or you have to stick with dry with dry and tube with tube 😊 These kind of videos is what beginners need, I never expected so many questions would arise when you start 😂
Very helpful look at watercolour paints, thanks. With cheaper paints, if a painting works well enough to sell, the issue of fugitive paints may arise. Thanks for sharing your knowledge in such a lively and friendly way.
You are absolutely right! If you're ever looking to sell your paints, student grade or higher paints is the right option. I was approaching this as more of an intro for people who want to pick up painting as a total beginner, but the matter of making work to sell definitely changes what type of paint you want to get.
Thank you for making this video. As a beginner to watercolor this is the content I need.
I'm so happy you found it helpful, thanks for watching!
omg! How are you getting shapes so sharp and clean?! i'm amazed by your perfect edges!
This was wonderful. I am not an artist, but I like to play with color. I like how watercolors blend, although I also know how hard it is to get the blended effect I am trying to do. The information you presented about the different forms of watercolor and how to use them. I actually took a watercolor class and they never mention about how you put the tub watercolors in a container, let them dry and then use them. I hope you have other videos which show how to paint. How to decide what you want to create then make it happen. A video to "paint a picture together". I love flowers and that's what I would really like to be able to do well. I appreciate you pointing out that in order to do that I do need to practice. I need to create bad art, and then learn how to improve it.
Thanks for a GREAT video.
Thank you so much for this lovely comment, Pam! I'm so happy that you found this video helpful. Also, I just want to say that even if you don't think of yourself as an artist, you absolutely are an artist! If you make art, no matter what level that art may be, you are an artist. Art is a passion of the heart, not a profession ❤️
Awesome video. Thank you! Fellow procrastinator who appreciates your suggestions and a journal fan who loves to do crappy "art". It's a gift. LOL
Haha thanks so much! Allowing yourself to make crappy art is such a release ❤️ it allows you to get to the good stuff!
great
So, pans would probably be the best choice for "on the go". But what about brushes? Which one would be best to create art outdoors, water brushes or travel pocket brushes?
I personally have only used water brushes, but I've seen plenty of people sing praises for pocket brushes too! I think it depends on how you want to handle the water while on the go.
@Foxsy_Official Thank you kindly for sharing your personal experience. ❤️
I don't know if you ever found this out, but p.h.martins had known issues with colors settling and changing like you describe and have since corrected it. I think other artists said you could contact them for a replacement possibly?
No way! I'll have to look into it, I've had several bottles become crumbly and unusable since even this video came out. Thank you for the heads up!
Thank you for this video explanation. It really helped me as a beginner. I'm still at the point of trying to figure out how much water versus paint is needed on paper. 🤣🤣 I don't know if I'm painting too thick or too thin?? BTW I love your hair color 💜💜
Thanks so much, Tiffany! I'm sure you'll figure out the right water to paint ratio, it just takes some experimentation and tweaking. If you're ever unsure, I'd say go thinner and build up! You can always add more layers, but you can't easily remove them.
@@Foxsy_Official thanks for this tip!
what about water colour pens?
Oh, that would make a great video all on its own! I personally love watercolor pens for lettering, but I haven't used them much for making paintings and such. So I don't have a full review of them yet!
Interesting! Am I safe to say that; whatever you can do with watercolor, gouache can do the same (when diluted enough).. But whatever you can do with gouache you cannot do with watercolor..
I'm no gouache expert, but from my fiddling with it, I think that's a pretty accurate statement. I doubt gouache can achieve the exact same look as watercolor in terms of its unique texture and whatnot, but it can get pretty close! But gouache definitely has more beefy pigments when it comes to opacity.