# Different watercolour paints



## Mrs Roth (Dec 16, 2014)

Hi everyone, 

I am setting out a new adventure into watercolour painting after spending a good 10 years or so focusing on acrylic paint. I am used to using paints out of a tube with acrylics and have used tube watercolour paints at an art class that I have recently joined at our local church. Are tube watercolour paints better than paints that are hard and in a tin? (Usually rectangular in shape and remind me of children's watercolour paints).

Thanks for any advice x

Claire


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## Scott R Nelson (Jun 26, 2013)

There is quite a big difference between paints in my experience.

I have three sets of boxed watercolors and actually like the behavior of the Prang 16-color the best of those. The colors seem cleaner and mix pretty well. I can't remember the brands of the others right now, but the colors are kind of dull when they dry on the paper with one of those others. In my experience, even the best dry paint isn't as good as any that I've tried from a tube.

I also have a set of watercolor pencils, but haven't done much with those.

I've used two different brands of tube paints, Grumbacher and Winsor & Newton. The Grumbacher paint is cheaper and works well enough in some cases, but I can tell that the quality is better with the Winsor & Newton paint. You can't always get the same colors between different brands either. I would like to try some watercolors from Daniel Smith, but I would probably spend several hundred bucks to jump in with their paint. For example, I would love to have the full set of Quinacridone colors because they mix so well.

The biggest advantage of paint from a tube is when you want to cover large areas with one color or a mixture of two or three. You can quickly mix as much as you want or create a wash with as much color as you want, while watercolor from a box set takes a while to wet enough to use.

In one art class that I took, the instructor recommended mixing the colors to the consistency of gravy for certain effects. That's fairly easy to do out of a tube, but quite difficult from dry paint. Then with tube paint you also avoid the issue of getting a color dirty from trying to mix from a tin.

One other hint: not all artists like flat brushes, but I love to use them. Try one in a half inch or 3/4 inch width and see if you like them better than round brushes.

I've read quite a few watercolor books and they always recommend certain colors. I've found that I don't use any of those very often. Here's the list of the ones that I like:

Quinacridone Gold
Quinacridone Magenta
Gamboge Hue
Antwerp Blue
Hooker's Green

I'll use other blues and yellows, but for flowers and scenery I can mix nearly every color I need with those five.


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