Ranking All My Artist Grade Watercolors (and real talk)

I bought a lot of the paints you recommended over the years and now I am shocked to discover how much more valuable they are. Paints that I paid $38 for are now $67!! I sure didn't expect a consumable to become MORE valuable rather than less!

Yes please a student range too!!

Agree with Holbein. What is up with them? I am disappointed, esp for the price. Sigh...

Lindsay, I have some info about that Lukas Cobalt Turqouise! I remembered this story you told, so I bought it this week just out of curiosity - the pan version. And it's very good, the same you got all those years ago. Clean, vibrant and with very visible granulation, some of the strongest I've encountered in this pigment. I have about 12 variations of Cobalt Teal from different brands (uh oh, talk about addiction!) and Lukas is among the best I've seen so far. I'm positive this is the right one!

Lukas may have discrepancies between their pans and tubes. Kimberly Crick mentions that on her website, while some other watercolourists consider them chalky. I'm fairly suspicious too even though I haven't tried the tubes yet - they're just CRAZY cheap here. Definitely in a "too good to be true" kind of way, haha.

I don’t have a fav brand tbh I have a curated variety. No one brand really has everything I love and need. But…. If I had to start over I would start with Daniel smith cus their green gold is ⭐️

winsor newton's caput mortuum the lovely granulation

Mission Gold is my favourite. I got them recently and I am amazed at the quality and colour payoff. They are very pigmented, very bright. However I prefer paints like this, because if I need lighter colours I can simply add more water.

The Maimeri blu green earth is their version of terre vert. All terre vert is like that. It’s supposed to be and has been used for many years as a colour to neutralise crimson etc in lighter skin tones and in portraiture. It’s a very old colour and useful.

For me, my favourites are Daniel Smith, and the Schmincke Super Granulating paints. When I look at most sets of swatches the colours are just so FLAT, there's no variation, no life. I love colours like Moonglow that feel like they're doing half the work for me when it comes to visual interest. Daniel Smith's regular colours also have so much pigment and lightfastness. I painted a rainbow at the start of covid to put in my window to support the NHS. It's still just as bright a few years later. So yes, they are crazily expensive, but I get a tube here & a tube there with treat money or as birthday/Christmas presents & I feel they're worth it.

When the good Lord Yeshua calls us home! Yes, and soon it shall be too! I so look forward to seeing all the colors in Heaven that we've not seen before. God bless you, your family and your art in Yeshua' name, Amen.

I made this summer a big investment in watercolors. So I really love my Schmincke Horadams and I’m expanding them in the following years. I have a small set of qor. Like them to. And I I would love to see a good comparison between winsor and Newton professional and Schmincke. Because I also did buy a set from Winsor. I don’t understand the difference between the two brands I think at this moment. For my birthday I get Roman Szmals. I also have a selection of Daniel Smits (I did have that for years and years) and I think I found that they are difficult to use but beautiful. So I did watch this video though the end.

First and foremost awesome video! I always enjoy your videos. Ok, it's 3am, I can't sleep, find this video that I hadn't seen before. Then you say, "They have the excitement factor of Winsor and Newton" and I lost it. I laughed out loud! Sitting there sounding like a psycho at 3am. Thanks for the video and the BIG LAUGH!

I found scuola Davinci watercolor paint on ebay they say it's old stock was just wondering if anyone knows anything about that particular line?? I've tried to find information about it and can't find anything. Thanks in advance😊

Have you tried watercolor sets by Pentel Arts?

At the moment Daniel smith and Paul Ruben’s! The quality is second to none

I love working with both watercolor and gouache. At the moment I work most with Van Gogh. I simply love the colors. Today I noticed a great offer for Paul Rubens Artist watercolors and am so excited trying them out. I started using Kuretake and still enjoy working with them. Hahaha, the biggest problem that I have - the day has not got enough hours.... ;o)

Fabulous review and i agree with u on many of the brands u mentioned, and love that u said about the spark of joy and make u want to paint with certain brands and colours...i feel this too x thank u for sharing Lindsay x
My favorite brands are: sennieler, i love the honey, rewet so so easy, thick and brilliant for my "sometimes overworked" botanicals (i couldn't believe that u think the same as me with Sennelier) - Paul Rubens for the vibrancy and fun of them - Schminke super granulating tubes, but not all of them! 15 out of the 40 tubes r so very special and unique but the other 25 i wouldn't purchase again, the 15 i love r fabulous for skies and grass and buildings x
My 1st ever set of professional watercolours was Winsor and Newton and i disliked them so very much....even when i think about that palette sitting at my art station i feel angry with myself that i wasted money! The prussian blue wont rewet and is so very weak i couldn't believe that it was artists quality. My student grade of Daler Rowney and Reeves (which i use for plein aire now and practice) are so much better and more fun. x love Alli and Bella XXX

Hands-down, my favorite is Schwenke because they just have everything going for them and they never disappoint. I have been enjoying Roman Szmal and I like sennelier .. I agree with you about mission gold I use them along time ago. I still have them and I still use them and they completely win me over every single time.

❤❤❤❤❤❤ thank you.

Wow Lindsay, you must have received a really bad batch of Schmincke pans or a knock off set. They are known to guarantee satisfaction. I've been using Schmincke since 2009 and gone through lots of tubes and never had that issue. I always buy tubes but do have a few pans too. Schmincke layers as well as Sennelier but are not sticky or gummy. I really don't care for Sennelier. I tried working with them and find no joy in it. Holbein is in my top 3 choices. It's my favorite choice for portraits. I like DaVinci too but like you, doesn't wow me and neither does Daniel Smith, except a few specific greens 😉 PS, I'm not brand loyal either.

I still love Daniel Smith because their paints are highly pigmented and move the way I like. I now have a list of non-DS paint I want to try now (thanks a lot). Seriously, this is such a great video. I don’t think there’s a better one on this subject (and I’ve watched dozens). I’m going to recommend this to some of my friends in our watercolor class.

I have the Schminke pans (not that Whiskey set), in the 12 full pan and 24 half pans. The colors are vibrant and mix well. This is a great video. I am going to re-look my stash and give some of those “meh” colors a re-try. Thank you for putting this together!

The only bands with no binder separation or paint jumping of the tube are W&Newton and Holbein. All the rest happen to have some terrible colors, not necessarily meny but W&Newton and Holbein managed to avoid it completely.

Interesting. You have negative opinions on paint companies marketing practices yet knowingly purchase an online skin care product that you admit won't hold up to marketing claims and might even irritate your skin.

I took up watercolor at retirement, but had a lifetime of experience with gouache and acrylic painting, so color theory and mixing were not an issue. I started with a QoR set of 12 based on recommendations, but it proved to be too frustrating for a beginning watercolorist with poor water control to handle. Then I switched to M.Graham. Easier to handle, but not easy to transport. They have never set up in the palette so i didn't even try to put them in a portable palette. Since my goal was to paint on the go with a sketchbook and portable palette, I got a Daniel Smith 15 pan mixing set. The paints were easy to use and I was able to mix the colors I needed consistently. I did not care for the plastic travel palette and moved them to a standard 24 pan metal paint box.

Although my water control is better now, I still have issues with QoR trying to paint wet on wet.

I think all 3 paint brands are vibrant, easy to mix, lightfast for the most part and readily available. The closest art store is an hours drive, so being able to purchase single tubes online is a plus. The cost per tube of the basics is about the same.

If I transport the M.Graham, i have to treat my palette like takeout, don't tilt the box.

I do like the Daniel Smith sticks and do the same as you, slice off a bit and put it in a pan.

I do like Phthalo Blue RS for the sky here on the west coast of central Florida. I had never been happy with the blues I had, so I used the Daniel Smith dot card to make a large swatch card of all the blues I thought might work and checked them against the sky at several times of the day. The red shade was the best match. I think what matches the sky geographically where I am now doesn't match other places so my 'sky' card travels with me to save time.

I am in a studio watercolor group and the resident artist leading the studio wants us all to use Winsor & Newton. I understand her desire to keep explanations simple and quick, so I agreed not to ask for assistance with color issues as long as I didn't have to purchase yet another set of paint.

Are there paints I wouldn't buy? Yes. Pretty much anything student or hobbyist labeled. There are very few of those where you can purchase replacement paints. Most of them are chalky and hard to rewet. Some have weird binders. I have a Cotman set my husband gave me years ago when I mentioned I'd like to take up watercolor. Since my gouache was WN, he thought it was a good purchase. I just can't get a good pigment load from them. I have various other hobby sets, ok for card making, not so much for painting.

If ever asked by a beginner for advice, I would suggest they avoid big sets and get a split primary of a major brand. Learn to mix the colors they use the most. Then purchase a convenience tube/pan of their most mixed colors. Someone that paints florals won't be using the same colors as an urban landscape artist.

Opinions. Everyone has one. Rather like a box of 64 crayons, soft ones, jarring ones, hot ones, cool ones. Dark and light. We need the different opinions to learn from life and test our own assumptions.

Thanks!

So many of these are extortionate or unavailable in the UK. I agree with your take on Daniel Smith. I just don't feel it at all with them. I use W&N and I really like them - the potter's pink is a favourite of mine too! And their Indigo is my other favourite. My other favourite is Rosa (interesting that you likened these two brands!) And they're really cheap! I love their Aureoline yellow. I have a couple of tubes and I feel they behave the same way as the pans, but I'm happier with pans over the faff if pouring 😂. I got the dot card of the Rosa granulating paints after I watched your newer review video of them - I paid 1p for it! This is a fab video and now I have lots of things I want to try!!!

I started with Winsor Newton Cotman then graduated to the Winsor Newton professional paints, which I like. I also have many tubes of Daniel Smith and half pans. I don't pay attention to marketing, just buy what I like. I bought a tube of M. Graham which I haven't tried yet and Hobein (wanted a specific color). I live in the USA so if Winsor Newton goes downhill due to manufacturing in China I will stick to Daniel Smith since it is an American Company and for me, reasonably priced.

I love DS, since it granulates like crazy despite their stupidity in lying to their customers. So even though I love their paints, I won't buy them again. I love granulation, but other companies have granulating paints also now, trying to ride on the tails of DS, and it's a good thing since we have a few choices now. I do like and have paint from W&N and Schminke also.
And I have never used M. Graham. I have so much paint left still.

My favorite is mission gold for vibrancy
Daniel Smith for color/granulation combos in one tube
Qor for playfulness and vibrancy.
White nights for intensity
Kuretake for its opacity
The worst least favorite are schminke weak pigments and over priced
And Windsor and Newton only has about 6 or so really great colors but the sets are meh.

Very detailed thank you. I was about to invest in Windsor and Newton but I am just madly in love with bright colors so I am thinking about Regina's because I love the Dr PH Martin's but I don't like waste. Thank you.

Winsor and Newton moved production of their professional grade watercolours and designers gouache to the Lefranc and Bourgeois factory in 2011. The Cotman watercolours and Galleria acrylic range also moved to China. There is also a WN Chinese brand of watercolour made exclusively for the Chinese market. The watercolourist Guan Weixing only uses Winsor and Newton and Cotman watercolours. I haven't detected any significant change in quality. Some of their old colours have been axed and replaced with more reliable new pigments. There was on top of this an addition of a dozen or more new colours they introduced in the nineties, and which all quickly disappeared (you literally couldn't do anything with them). At around the same time they introduced the colour sepia into their designers gouache range. It is unlike any of their other designer colours - truly awful. This was all before the move to France.

Thank you very much for the work you put into this video. It is very informative and inspiring. I must apologize, though, for the words I have to say in this comment. I am a very traumatized person because I am Ukrainian in the midst of the most horrifying war the world has seen for decades. As a Ukrainian I simply can't ignore when people mention any kind of Russian products, no matter how innocent they may seem. Companies pay taxes. Art supply manufacturers pay taxes to their countries. Russian manufacturers pay taxes to the Russian budget which is used for - guess what? - financing the war! Any mention of any Russian product as well as any affiliate links to Russian products is an indirect support of the war. There is nothing wrong, of course, with using the products that you already own. Throwing them away won't reverse the payment and will do no good to anyone. However, reviewing and linking the products can motivate people to buy them. That means supporting the Russian budget, hence the war. Thank you for reading this comment. I hope it didn't hurt anyone.

I love the Sennellier 12 plus 6 pan set you have. They are magical on fabriano cotton cold press. I painted this whimsical style house on a hill without spending much time or effort and it was so effortless. Love those unexpected moments that can happen and make you fall in love with a paint. Thank you for making reviews that capture this.

Daniel Smith is my favorite watercolor brand. They have just released a five-sheet dot card of all 266 of their colors including their new gouache line (St. Louis Art Supply). Their free dot cards are not as generous as the ones that you pay for.

I just bought the Paul Rubens 24 half pan set and that's the only brand I have from this video because I'm a new painter. I enjoyed swatching them and I'm hoping to use them this weekend. I really appreciated this video. I wasn't sure if I could mix different brands, so this was super helpful. Thank you!

This strange Schmincke box is NOT the usual Schmincke quality! I‘ve got a lot of pans and NO colour looks like yours!

My absolut favourite watercolours are made by A. Gallo from Italy. They are simply gorgeous, handmade and therefore really pricey, but absolutely worth it! I also love the more affordable Roman Szmals and the really usually high quality Schmincke ones. 🎨

Mission gold not that I'm any good but the paint is so I stay with it

You're so funny at the end of your videos!! I Love watching all the way to end! I can't really answer your question because I only have the 2 Paul Rubens professional brands of watercolor. I have few good few of the student grades. So many artists in my area use winsor and newton and Daniel Smith, which I'm not super impressed with due to watching many videos reviews. So I just went with reviews and when a good deal, 40% of Paul Rubens 48 set came up on Amazon I grabbed it and have loved it very much. I do wish it had had a more pinky red at the time but as I have learned more and tried more it's great. Thanks for your time with us!!

I’ve recently ordered the trial packs of Daniel Smith, Sennieler, and Sch ink I. I’m looking forward to swatching them and playing with them. I agree with your assessment of Daniel Smith and their marketing strategy. I’ll also try mission gold single pigment.
Thank you for sharing this information with us.

Regina has them on her website. I'd go through that rather than Etsy.

Hey L !!! Nice piece ! I follow your recommendations quite closely and am never disappointed !!! I will be picking up the P Rubens metallics next. I’ve been watching those for awhile now and they look very good ! I’m so glad to hear someone else didn’t not have a joyful experience with Daniel Smith. I bought about 13 tubes and feel like I fight with them each and every time. I leave them for a few months and come back to try again and yeah. Not my fav so I feel defective. I love my Sennelier paints just bought a bunch of individual tubes (which cost me an arm and a leg in Dick Blick choosing my own colors). I also have the Mission Gold and enjoy both the tubes and the palette sets. I have yet to try M Graham and they will be my next purchase. They appear to me to be very similar to the Sennelier line and I’ve heard wonderful things about them as well ! Thanks for all the videos !!!!😊

So Van Gogh isn’t an artist grade paint? I’ve recently fallen in love with roman szmal watercolor, you should try them theyre very affordable & wonderful!!! My favorite of all time might be Holbein but I also love the qor so maybe it’s a tie lol but I did watch to the end 😊

Windsor and Newton is my favourite brand, because of their bright, clean colours, plus their Quin magenta and dioxazine (windsor) violet are the brightest and clearest of any brand I’ve tried so far. Their particular variety of indanthrene blue is also a great substitute for the less lightfast Prussian blue. I also really like their half pans, including the fact they come labelled with the colour info. The only thing I dislike is that they don’t provide pigment info on their new cadmium free colours, (like DS with the Primatek thing, I think they dropped the ball on that one) so I mostly avoid just those colours, especially while I do my own lightfast tests. It’s possible to put together a nice palette without them. Daniel Smith is a strong second place, partly due to their wide range of interesting colours. Their Green gold, Quin Red and Cascade green are amongst my staple fave colours. I’ve also recently discovered that I really enjoy some Holbein colours. I only have a few, but their manganese blue nova is the nicest, easiest to rewet and most pigmented out of any I’ve tried so far, and I looove their leaf green. (I’m a sucker for a nice chartreuse green! 💚) Thanks for the video(s) 🙂🎨 Love your friendly, cheerful voice, today this video helped me through a stomach cramp. 😅

Thank you v much for this information Lindsay, as always your generous sharing of your knowledge and experience is beyond amazing!!…
if it.s okay I have a couple questions… 1. About Rosa Gallery paints -- I love them!! Might you be willing to do a painting with them , possibly in Critique Club ( or here) I really would love to see how you use them!
2. About the Daniel Smith sticks, which I bought several of after your recommendations— my experience is that different colors behave differently when you try to use them as a pan paint… the weirdest and most disappointing one was I forget the exact color but it was a very bright pink it might’ve been opera rose… or it might’ve been some thing similar to that… But instead of just melting into the pan eventually as, for example the quinacridone gold did, the bright pink, I wanna say it was opera rose, kind of shattered into millions of tiny little chunks and became very gritty and wouldn’t reconstitute very well… became impossible to paint with. Also the ultramarine blue stick is just like hard as a rock and so difficult to re-wet, which is interesting . As my other paints stay sticky where I live… So it would be interesting to see if you got a bigger set of the Daniel Smith sticks and did a review of those? That would be of very high interest! Pretty please for both requests? And could I bribe you with some books for you summer reading? 👀👀🤣

I just realized that you are the reason my main palette is made out of QOR paints. That high chroma 6 pack is amazing. It mixes just about everything you need (except maybe a light lemon yellow, but you can get pretty close with the Quinacridone gold and green gold mixed at a very light tint-strength wash).

It is also the perfect palette to demonstrate how magenta and cyan are primaries, because you can mix reds and blues easily with the colors in it. It also kicked off my obsession with pg50 (cyan shade) and i have three different pg50 and two different cyan leaning PB28 in my expanded secondary palette of 58 colors. It is my number one workhorse pigment/shade for sure! ❤