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What makes watercolor paint good? Testing beginner, intermediate, and professional paints (Patreon)

Published:
2025-01-25 15:34:48
Imported:
2026-10

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  • 411631054.mp4

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Content

Hi everyone! Today's you tube video is all about testing 3 different levels of paint and comparing them. Which do you like best? Did any of these paints surprise you? I post you tube videos here for my patreon members so you can watch them ad free.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions

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Comments

Mary

This was so informative 👍 My biggest takeaway is the paper quality, wow. They all looked pretty good on the Arche paper. Thanks so much for this demo 👍🩷

Kristin Van Leuven

I think that was my biggest take away too! Kind of hard to make any of them look bad

Macee Jo

Great video! I have some Cotman colors and some WN pro colors. I do NOT like the cottman cerulean! It's not very pigmented, I find!

Len_ Morris

Would have been nice to add liquid watercolour paints to the test.

katy

I thought this video was great. But even though there is some sun, I would not call this a sunny day in AZ!

Erin

The Crayola was bananas to see - it must have gotten better because I don’t ever remember watercolor being vibrant at all when I was a kid. Of course we just had printer paper and they gave you the weirdest plastic bristle brush. Also I feel like W&N pans and dried tube paint pick up totally differently. I have a few of the professional pans and I kind of struggle with getting them reactivated. I’m certain they add something into the pans to shape them or whatever. I would be interested to see a comparison of cotman vs professional dried tube paint.

Jerri

Very helpful; ty!

Elizabeth O'Roark

I have been obsessing over your ceramic and gold palate. Where did you get it?

Lisa Byler

Good lesson! You are an extraordinary teacher Kristen!

Denise

I found this very helpful, and interesting

Barbara Bollin

That was great! Very clear and well organized. Surprised that you chose Alizarin as an example color; it's so dominant....

Barbara Bollin

Would love to hear about small-batch independent paint makers. I'm a new subscriber. You may have posted something in the past...do you have anything to say about Coliro?

Nancy Woodhouse

me too! and the matching water cups with the indentations to lay your brush.

Amanda

Kristin, do you have a video of how you prep your watercolors? Ex, do you wet them before use? How long do you let it set and so on. Thank you

Elizabeth O'Roark

I found it and I’ll have to save a lot for it lol it’s a bit pricey

marielle

When I first started I tried using the (highly recommended) Cotman pans, and was disappointed. Tried the Cotman tubes, and was actually even more disappointed. Went straight from there to Daniel Smith and W&N Professional, and have not looked back - even for "practice" or just messing around. The video really did prove that it's not my imagination - professional supplies are worth it!

Malvika J

Thank you for this video. Very informative. All the 3 birds looked great!! I am currently using 'la petite aquarelle', another student/ intermediate variety of paints , something my local store recommended, good for beginners. I'm going to try and run the same tests on these 😀

Carla Strong

Very enjoyable and helpful! At school with kiddos I use Crayola and it gets the job done for our little projects in counseling sessions; I have the W&N Cotman set and enjoy using it at home but also have other sets that work nicely - a lot of times it depends on the colors I want. I’m hoping to upgrade soon to a professional grade set and for sure, having just received Arches paper, that has made a huge difference! Thank you ❤️

Kristin Van Leuven

I think almost any paint can look good on that paper! I love that you use the Crayola one with the kids at school. I was impressed with how vibrant it is!

Kristin Van Leuven

That sounds great! I would love to know how those paints hold up to the testing

Kristin Van Leuven

I agree! Sometimes the student paints can be so frustrating when trying to get the darker values. That's too big of deal for me lol

Kristin Van Leuven

Hi Amanda! I don't have a video on it, but it's pretty simple. For tube paints I squeeze the paint into a well of my palette and then I let it dry for 24 hours until hard and the paint doesn't give when I push on it. I don't typically activate my paints with water before use, but I think that's personal preference. I find the more professional paints activate very quickly, but it's super common to use a spray bottle or a drop of clean water on your paints before use. I would experiment with your particular paints and see what works best

Kristin Van Leuven

I have not tried Coliro, but I'm obsessed with Letter Sparrow paints. I'm one of those people who finds something they love and pretty much stays with it, so I haven't tried many brands outside of LS, but Kelly's paints are great!

Kristin Van Leuven

It was the only thing close enough to magenta on the winsor and newton cotman palette. I really don't like Alizarin crimson that much haha

Kristin Van Leuven

I got it from Pottery by Eleni! I actually have a little surprise...we're working on a collaboration palette together that will be set up for split primaries. I'm so excited! Hopefully will be out within the next few months. All her work is stunning though

Elizabeth O'Roark

Will it have the gold rim?!?! My birthday is next month so I was thinking of asking for that set!

Kristin Van Leuven

That's a great idea Len! I think I will be trying out liquid watercolor this week for another video

Kristin Van Leuven

haha Seriously! And it hasn't been very sunny all weekend really. I'm hoping to try it out sometime this week if the weather cooperates

Kristin Van Leuven

I agree! I was expecting the crayola to flop way more haha. That's a great point about the tubes versus pans and I may do another video all about that to test it out! I definitely agree that it's much more of a struggle to activate the pans

Elizabeth O'Roark

Are you able to share what it will kind of look like? Obviously not a picture but will it be a set? How many wells? Brush holder? Etc? Lol

Patti

Thank you so much for posting this, I learned so much from this video. Actually I have learned so much from all of your videos-I'm a new subscriber and I'm so glad I did!

Kate

That was great, thank you. I currently use W&N Cotman most often but I have begun sampling tubes of pro paint in many brands. I am intending to upgrade to artist grade soon and am trying to decide which brand. I dream of A. Gallo paint but it is so pricey and the import tax adds to it so that is probably not a reality. What do you think about Daniel Smith or Schminke?

Marquet

Thank you! This is great!

Clare

I wish I had watched this before I ordered my supplies. The cotmon was on supply list as an option.