Features:

  • Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colours are a range of water colours that are made to our high quality standards but costs are kept to an economical level by replacing some of the more costly pigments with less expensive alternatives
  • Cotman Water Colours possess good transparency, excellent tinting strength and good working properties
  • This popular pocket-sized plastic box features an integral mixing palette in the lid
  • This water colour set contains a pocket brush and 12 Cotman Water Colour half pans: Lemon Yellow Hue, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Cadmium Red Pale Hue, Alizarin Crimson Hue, Ultramarine, Intense Blue (Phthalo Blue), Viridian Hue, Sap Green, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Chinese White
My favorite paints!

I love these paints. I use them over the other paints I have time and time again. These come with 48 half pans, but some colors are repeated. I also like that the second palette space is detachable for saving some space on my small art desk. This set did not come with a brush. I put a small medicine dropper in the little space so I can drop water into the pans or to transfer colors or washes on my palette. I also swatched all of them out on the watercolor paper I typically use and laminated it and keep it in my palette box. They are in the order I keep them in my palette. Hopefully you can see the dark to light variations. I bought these as an upgrade to my Reeves student grade tube paints, and it was well worth it, they are still not artist quality, but they were a nice step up from the Reeves. I have owned this palette for nearly a year now, and haven't used all of the paint yet. I have seen the replacement pans online for around $3. They also sell the cotman tube paints at major craft stores for $4-$8, depending on the color. I plan to buy the artist quality pans as I run out of the pans, so eventually I will have a 48 half pan artist quality set, but I won't have to pay for it all at one time.

My favorite!

My favorite watercolor set. It travels with me everywhere! After two years, it’s still my favorite! Easy to add or replace pans. I’ve purchased several other travel sets including French and Japanese imports. Still love my Windsor Newton’s! My paintings have improved over time, too ...

Vibrant Paint With Lovely Color Choices!

Better deal than the 24 half pan set. You get all 40 colors available in the line, plus 5 duplicate pans of 5 popular colors. I took a photo of the paints next to their wrappers. If the paint box gets bumped, the paints fall out of their pans and it's hard to know which box to put them in. You'll want to know this because the box has the color name and number which you'll need when the paint runs out so you can reorder. I used only a tiny bit of paint to paint the "Fourth of July" painting included with this review. The paper is 18"x12" so the paint goes a long way!

Knowing how to dull color is super important

Used this in a watercolor course at my college and was very impressed. Quality really is so important. Knowing how to dull color is super important. The paper also really matters. Wrinkely paper is no fun. Im using arches cold press block. The edges are sealed until you cut them appart with an exacto knife.

BEAUTIFUL! and a comment on repeats

I ordered this set July 1st. The estimated shipping was 1 month and I received it in 11 days. I was a little worried about this set having a bunch of repeats so I tried my best to do as much research as possible before I ordered. This set comes with 45 half pans of Winsor and Newton Cotman Watercolors. Here is the best answer I can give you: Winsor and Newton only make 40 colors in Cotman half pans. So YES THERE WILL BE 5 REPEATS. They repeat the 5 most used colors from their perspective. It may not be the 5 you would most use but it is the 5 most of their customers use most often. I will give you a link to the Winsor and Newton website showing their Cotman colors and I will make a list below of the 5 I got in repeats. I might wrongly list one because I am not completely sure I remember... but this is best I can remember. On the color and packaging and fun stuff like that.. The shipping was awesome. I said above that it was way before they said it would be but it is also summer and humid and hot around this area of the world. I was very nervous about my colors being gross when I got them. They were so beautiful and untouched by the heat. The box was undamaged. The case was perfect. The colors are each wrapped in clear plastic so you get to open each one like its own little Christmas prezzie! They were placed in the case by the order that the Winsor and Newton website shows the color on the website I have listed below. I unwrapped each one and got the repeats out of the way and still have room to put the repeats back and and add a few more if I wish. The lid to the case is a palette and there is a removable palette on the bottom that swings in. (I personally dont like to used these things because if you have runny paint in the lid how will you close it without making a mess?) There is a spot to put a brush in.. or if you have smaller brushes like mine you could probably fit 2! The set does not come with a brush.(which was fine with me.. I am too picky for those brushes) The colors are beautiful and brilliant. I immediately made a reference chart and suggest you do as well. I think tonight my daughter and I will make a grid chart and see how it goes. Overall I am sitting in my chair doing a happy dance and can't wait for this weekend so I can paint and paint and paint and paint. Now I just need to keep my kiddo out of it! http://www.winsornewton.com/na/shop/water-colour/cotman-water-colours Repeats(I think) Cadmium Yellow Alizarin Crimson UltraMarine Ivory Black Chinese White

Great for a step up from cheap student grade watercolors

I bought these as an upgrade to my student grade reeves brand watercolors. I haven't done much with them yet, but I am excited to start playing with them. One of the pictures are all of the colors swatched out, which I plan to laminate and keep in my box. Another picture is The box compared to a standard gift card. As you can see the box is just a tad bigger than the gift card - it truly is pocket sized! The brush is nothing to get excited over. It is just a small round or liner-type brush. I probably won't use it, as it gives me hand cramps since the handle is so tiny. I would like to address several complaints I have seen. First, with the watercolor cakes coming out of the pans. I simply took the cake out of the pan, put a big drop of water underneath, and stuck the paint cake back in. After a bit the water makes the paint a bit gummy, so I simply gave it a firm press, and I haven't had a problem since. Another complaint is that the paint pans don't stay in the case. Well, that is true, but again I have a simple fix. I took the plastic pans of paint out of the box, and added just a dab of hot glue, then gave them a firm press back into the palette. This worked well. I tried prying them out, and they stick. When they are gone, you can simply take a pair of pliers and pull out the empty pan and replace. On my other set I used a piece of double sided tape that I cut in half length wise, then stuck the pans back in. I think I like it better then the hot glue. The tape holds well, but the pans can be pulled out just simply using the end of a brush to pry it out. Sticky tack/blue tack/museum putty works well too. Because these pans are sold as open stock, meaning you can replace one color at a time, I would not suggest getting too carried away with super glueing the pans into the palette.

Compact and Brush Set Review. Love them!

I (wife) have the Brush Pen Set and the Compact Set. I had the compact set first, but wanted a few more colors (beginner) and and to have a set portable enough for a road trip we are going on soon. I saw the brush pen set and loved it! The pen works well for my needs, the size of the palette is small for traveling but still has some mixing room, and I can bring a little recycled SweetLeaf sweetener squeeze bottle to refill the pen tube while away from home. Also grabbed a few other brush pens as well. Over all, loving it and the extra few colors. The Compact Set is decent. I don’t really use the thumb hole much myself, but someone else might. I would prefer more shades (b,w,g) be there, rather than 2 (different) yellows, 2 really similar oranges, and 3 different shades of brown. Black, white, and grey would be really useful on it. The water dish likes to fall off and doesn’t hardly hold much water. I use it as an extra mixing spot and leave it in its travel place. But over all it was a great starting point. If you are just starting out, I would go with the brush pen set and grab some extra brushes (I bought mine at Hobby Lobby on sale or Pentel on here for a water brush set), and maybe a white porcelain/ceramic dinner plate for mixing. Check Big Lots, it’s where I found mine for about $4. Watercolors like to bead up on plastic, so the plate is nice when painting at home. Overall, I’m loving my Cotman W&N watercolors!

great inexpensive student grade travel or beginner watercolor set (with a nice brush!)

Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colour Sketchers Pocket Box This set is amazing... and what a deal!! At under fifteen bucks right now it can't be beat. The case is nothing amazing, but adequate. It includes a lovely little travel paintbrush. I think I paid six dollars for my other tiny brush like this all by itself. It's a really great (but very tiny!) travel brush made by Winsor & Newton as well. The colors included are really nice. I'd previously purchased a more expensive set similar to this (like, twice as expensive) and didn't like it at all. In fact, I'd decided to cross W & N off my list altogether, but kept hearing from so many people who love them, even the student grade Cotman line, that I thought I'd give it one more shot when I found this set so inexpensively. Colors: 2 yellows:lemon yellow hue, cadmium yellow hue, 2 reds: Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, 2 blues: ultramarine, intense blue 2 greens: viridian hue, sap green, also yellow ochre, burnt sienna, burnt umber, and chinese white I know a lot of artists balk at hues... so far I like these and enjoy using them in my art journals. These are high quality student paints with good lightfastness ratings and nice saturation of color. If you can find this for under fifteen and are looking for paints to try, I suggest these as a great beginner or travel set. I've included a photo of a little sketch I did, and my swatched paints and the little brush.

So happy with this set!

The colors are wonderful with great vibrancy, quality, and range. the case is extremely compact (which i love) and the little brush it comes with works well for small detail. I've noticed a lot of complaints abut the brush being too small, but it feels fine to me, and the cap can be placed on the end to make a longer handle. Some quick colors tips: Burnt Umber + Cobalt Blue = cool black Burnt Umber + Ultramarine = greenish/off-black Cobalt Blue + Burnt Sienna = warm grey Cad Red + Ultramarine = neutral grey A. Crimson + Viridian = cool grey

Great watercolors!

These are great paints! I wanted to upgrade my watercolor supplies (in past used crayola then artist loft - both of which are great for beginners and very inexpensive...but have some limitations and I was finding it difficult to get the pigments & transparency I wanted). Read many reviews and watched YouTube and decided upon Winsor & Newton Cotman set. Glad I got these. I'm having so much fun painting now - it is so much easier to mix colors and get the transparency I desire. Colors mix with water easily and glide across paper. I guess my next investment will be in paper (I'm still using the cheapest watercolor paper I can find). I've included a picture of the watercolor set (I haven't had it very long but I've used it a LOT). One negative about the set is the brush. It came with some bent bristles (you can see this in picture). I've tried to reshape it but have been unsuccessful so far. I've got my own brushes (a set of Royal & Langnickel synthetic sable from Michaels) that I've been using. Paints themselves are outstanding. Would be nice to have black and some skin tones...but I've found I can mix all of these when needed (I've included a color chart that I made). The case is great too. Feels sturdy and reusable. Should be able to refill easily in future. Expect this set to last a long time.

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