🌿 My Favorite Watercolor Sets Under $60

🌿 The two watercolor sets I've used most lately are the best values I've found. For painters of all skill levels, I'd recommend these above all others in the "under $60" category.

Da Vinci offers a 12 full pan mixing set which is entirely vegan, 100% lightfast, and made by a small family business in California. 

This set includes a cool and warm of each primary, a useful Quinacridone Rose for mixing pinks and purples, a handy Sap Green helpful for botanicals, and lovely earth tones using the preferable PBr7. The paints re-wet easily and hold their color in mixes exceptionally well. These are highly pigmented, vibrant watercolors which are incredibly smooth. A tiny bit goes a long way.

At the time of this blog post, you're getting artist quality paints for about $2.33 per half pan equivalent including a sturdy, well-made tin and free shipping. Da Vinci sits right in the middle of the watercolor world price-point wise. They're a little more expensive than Roman Szmal, Paul Rubens, and White Nights but far less costly than Daniel Smith, Schmincke, Sennelier, etc. This is, at this time, my absolute favorite watercolor set on the market.

If you're on a tighter budget, Van Gogh is an even less expensive alternative. Their 15 half pan mixing set (called 12+3) is vegan, 93% lightfast, and made in The Netherlands by Royal Talens. The set includes a cool and warm of each primary, a Quinacridone Rose for mixing pinks and purples, a convenient Sap Green for botanicals, earth tones, and a handy Payne's Grey. Like Da Vinci, these paints also re-wet very well.

The Van Gogh 12+3 set is less than $20 right now on Amazon, although that price is always subject to change. This means you're getting high level student quality paints for around $1.28 per half pan equivalent including a convenient lift-out mixing tray, serviceable brush, and free shipping with Amazon Prime. Van Gogh is generally considered the best student grade watercolor brand, and many professional artists started with them and continue to use a few of their colors in their palettes. 

If you can't choose between them, go with Da Vinci. They are more transparent and highly pigmented than the Van Gogh.

🌿  Supplies Used

 

• Da Vinci Watercolors 12 Full Pan Mixing Set
• Available at Da Vinci
• Open stock tubes are also available here: Blick | Da Vinci
  
  
• Van Gogh Watercolors 12+3 Half Pan Mixing Set
• Available at Amazon | Jackson's
• Open stock tubes are also available at Blick
  
  
• Canson XL Watercolor Paper
• Used for all my swatch cards
• Available at Amazon | Blick
  
  
• Tombow Mono Drawing Pens
• Waterproof fineliners used for writing the color names on swatch charts
• Available at Amazon | Blick | Jackson's
  
  
• Zebra Zensations Brush Pens
• Water resistant fude brush pens used for labeling the title on swatch cards
• Available at Amazon | Blick 

🌿  Watch My Review

🌿  Join Me

Become a supporter at Patreon to receive surprise goodies

Let's be friends on Instagram

Watch my fresh journal flips and reviews on YouTube

Be well,
Ann

“I dream my painting, and I paint my dream.”

— vincent van gogh