Prima Marketing 584252 Watercolor Confections: The Classics

They are amazing love them

I'm a beginner watercolor painter, & would like to continue this new hobby. A friend (whose been painting for years) recommended these paints & they worked great for my novice creations! Paint quality, color, & blendability seemed very good!

Lots of color! This is my first paint pan set and I was shocked to see how tiny it is. Each paint pan in wrapped and you have to unwrap each one and put it back into its place in the tin. These are called half-pans. I thought it was extraordinarily tiny sized pans.Once I started painting, I can see this is going to last a long, long time. The colors are so concentrated that a tiny bit goes a long way. I barely put any paint on the tip of the brush and it spreads to cover a large area. I made the mistake to dip out of the pan and paint, wow, deep color...I since learned to dip in the pan then mix on the tin so it's sheer. I am impressed with the density of color.I was using colored pencils but my RA in my hands make it difficult to color more than a small area. I thought to try paint and am happy to say I can now color a large area without difficulty or pain in my hands. I use a water pen and am set to go. Love this compact size and the colors mix amazingly well to make many different variations and shades from the basic mix.

These watercolors are the best! It is quite small but I love the size (plus it's a traveling pallet). I don't know if they are good by artist standards but I love to watercolor as a hobby and these are perfect for that! The portable features make for an easy clean up and quick painting session. I tend to paint for about 15 min or less and this along with some watercolor brush pens make for a very quick clean up! The pans are small but you barely need to touch the surface to pick up the pigment. It comes with a swatch sheet for you to fill out if you want to see how each color comes out on paper. The colors are pretty bright and vibrant, so these are perfect for someone (like me) with that kind of taste. The tin is also very handy and compact. I absolutely adore the portability, style, and brightness of the colors. I am planning on getting more of the watercolor confections pallets!

I wasn't sure about this paint at first. I got the metallic one first, and then the others one by one. I think its important to have the whole set.The colors all go well together, and there are no duplicated colors.It says artist quality. I think they go down, more like student grade paints, however the paint is highly pigmented, like artist grade. If you are very used to traditional watercolor paints, you may not like this brand at first. It takes some getting used to, so I hope you give it a chance.The tins they come on are excellent qulity, and I like them better than the tin cases that come with much more expensive paints.There is good granulation, and mixing colors goes very well.Most colors are not transparent, but slightly opaque, unless you use lots of water.There is some question about light fastness, But after two weeks in a very sunny window, under the bright southern sun, there is little change with most of the colors. I think the light fast rating must be pretty good.This paint mixes well with watercolor mediums, egg yolk, honey. there was no flaking or chipping when using egg yolk.im happy with this paint, and aspire to learning to use it to my advantage.

I'm giving this product four stars because, while I do love it and think it is certainly worth five stars in my opinion, there are also still some caveats that might be of interest to some people.First and foremost: If your pans are sliding around in the metal bracket, don't glue them down or install magnets or anything complicated like that. The simple fix is to remove all the paint pans and then gently squeeze the two sides of the metal rails between your fingers, just enough to bring them slightly closer together. The pans are shipped wrapped in plastic and little paper sleeves which means they need more room to be held comfortably in those metal rails than they need when they are unwrapped. By simply pinching the rails closer, you can get a nice tight fit when you reinsert the pans.Alright, so pros and cons of this set. I love the metal tin. In fact, based on other prices of similar metal tins on Amazon, the tin alone is worth the price you pay for these. I love the extra space in this metal tin. There's quite a bit of room for more pans of color or maybe for a small travel brush. I love all the mixing space in the tin -- not just the lid, but also a fold out mixing area. I love that this set has a purple. Purple seems to be a pretty rare pre-mixed color in these small watercolor tin sets. The purple is very vibrant, well-mixed, and on the warm/red side. Mixing a purple is doable, but it does tend to look muddy compared to the purple that came with this set. Overall I see it's inclusion as a pro.Overall, the colors are pretty vibrant. I do find them to be more on the opaque end of the spectrum rather than more transparent, and they are slightly chalky. I also have a Windsor and Newton Cotman Pocket Sketcher set and I find the colors in that set to be more on the transparent side. I honestly find pros and cons to both opaque and transparent paints, so I don't necessarily see the opaqueness of these paints as a totally negative thing. I mostly paint with both sets and use them for different purposes and am happy with that set up. If you are looking for super transparent paints, though, you won't find them here. You will find a nice metal tin that can easily be refilled. You will also find a nice set of colors for playing around. You will also find a nice set of colors that, to some extent, behave a bit like gouache and will allow you to cover up small mistakes that you make while painting. I think the very most negative thing I can say about this set is that the colors do not mix well together and tend to muddy pretty quickly. This is in no way an artist grade set of paints and if that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere.Initially I would have said I was displeased with the color selection in this set and wished I had purchased the Tropicals set, but I really think this set has a more balanced and broad set of colors. The Tropicals includes two greens and three blues along with a smattering of other colors, which I believe would make up for the annoying lack of green, yellow, and red options in this set. I think if you were looking to invest in these types of sets, perhaps buy this set and the Tropicals set, or purchase this and another small travel set like the Windsor & Newton Cotman sets to supplement and enhance this set. Overall, however, there's lots that can be done with a set like this and for under $20 you can't beat the value.