Watercolour paints
photo by jared
As a hobby artist, you might struggle with the dilemma of cost vs. quality when it comes to buying watercolor paints. (I know I struggle with this)
This article will help you determine how to choose the right watercolor paints for you.
Watercolor paint grades
Watercolor paints fall into two grades: artists’ and students’. As you’ve probably already guessed, the student grade is cheaper (or less costly if you’re sensitive to the word cheap) but offers lower quality colour pigments and doesn’t give you a nice vibrancy of colours.
Artist grade paints will cost more than the student grade however, the quality of pigment and colour just doesn’t compare.
The good news is that you don’t need to a lot of different colours to start out painting (see our list of quick-start colours list) and with proper care, paints can last you a long time so investing better quality artist grade paints is something I would recommend (not to mention it will just give you more joy from painting with a better quality paint).
Types of watercolor paint
Watercolor tubes
Watercolor paints come in two types of formats: tubes and pans.
Watercolor tubes contain moist paint which can be squeezed out. Watercolor tubes are good for larger washes and have a more richer colour than pans. Also, it’s easier to get more colour into the brush from tube paint than pans.
Watercolor pans
Watercolor pans are small blocks of partially-moist paint which can come in individual blocks or in a set of blocks. (left photo by Ben Demey)
Pans are more portable compared to tubes if you tend to do more outdoor projects and in most cases pans are more affordable than tubes. The drawback of pans is that it’s harder to lift the colour into the brush for larger washes.
My suggestion would be to have a mix of tubes and pans but both in artist grade paints.
A third type of watercolor paint you may have heard of is Gouache paint. Gouache paint is an opaque version of watercolors. It’s made from a combination of white chalk and watercolor pigment. Gouache paint dries into a more opaque result. Using white Gouache paint is useful for creating highlights in watercolor paintings.
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