Cotman Watercolor Paint Set, Sketchers' Pocket Set, 12 Half Pan w/ Brush

Several years ago, I decided to follow some tutorials from my high school art book and take watercolors more seriously. I bought quality paper (Strathmore, cellulose 300 gsm; at the time, I wasn't aware of the difference between cotton and cellulose) and a decent watercolor set without compromising my finances. Good watercolors can be quite expensive. So, in December 2016, I ordered this sketch set that was on discount, and I have no regrets. I can proudly say that these were my first watercolors from a reputable brand, even though they are student/academy quality. - The box/presentation: The plastic box doesn't feel cheap; it's very sturdy. However, since the lid doesn't come off, it's sometimes difficult to clean the edge where the hinge of the mixing tray is. To address this, I carefully remove all the half pans and wash the entire box from time to time. It has a small and compact size. The closed box measures 13x6 cm. - Colors / Half-Pans: The colors seemed very good to me at that time, with excellent pigmentation. While they can't compare to professional watercolors, they were a great option for a beginner who wanted to enjoy learning the technique. Many purist watercolorists may disagree with the inclusion of white, but I found it useful for adding details and experimenting with pastel colors. The ability to experiment made it worthwhile to have in the set. The set includes two yellows, two reds, two blues, and two greens, each in warm and cool versions, plus three earth tones. This selection helped me learn how to mix colors to get the shades I wanted. Initially, seeing a palette of 48 colors was overwhelming, but this smaller set was more manageable. I would have preferred if they had included the pigment numbers on the side, but it only lists the color names. However, you can find this information on the official Winsor & Newton website. - Brush: I still have the brush that came with the set, but it's not for daily use. It serves the set's main purpose, which is to make sketches, but I usually painted on 9x12 inches paper (the size of the notebook I bought at the time), so I often used larger brushes. The round brush is of decent quality and good for making details. I'm very happy to have learned the basics of watercolor technique with this set. Below, I will share the pigments for this set, if it helps anyone: - Lemon Yellow Hue: PY175 - Cadmium Yellow Hue: PY65, PY97 - Cadmium Red Pale Hue: PR255, PY65 - Alizarin Crimson Hue: PR206 - Ultramarine: PB29 - Intense Blue (Phthalo Blue): PB15 - Viridian Hue: PG7 - Sap Green: PB15, PG7, PY139 - Yellow Ochre: PY42 - Burnt Sienna: PR101 - Burnt Umber: PBr7, PY42 - Chinese White: PW5

Wonderful set of paints! I bought them last minute for a class, realizing my watercolors in tubes were left behind in another state - ugh! Our local art supply store was out of stock & the closest one in stock was 2 hrs away roundtrip. They were delivered promptly overnight - I was so relieved! This set had all but 2 colors on my supply list, so it was a huge savings from buying individual tubes. Other students were asking me what kind of paints I was using. Colors are vibrant and they mix & move beautifully throughout a full range of techniques. Loved working with them! I’m still learning & this is just the first layer in a simple Canson cold pressed watercolor practice book, but I think I’m hooked!

This is a great set of watercolors, and I love the built in palettes for mixing and diluting. The range of colors has even more than I need, the colors look great, and it was a great upgrade for me as I use a travel cotman palette for portable use, but wanted a larger set with more colors for home use. This is still quite portable and I take it to different rooms and outside very often, but it is definitely not a pocket sized kit. That said, I think it will last me a loooong time and I like that I can replace any pans that I use up so that I won't have to replace an entire kit (this is true of all the cotman sets I've tried). I've attached a few paintings I've made with these watercolors. I do usually use Sakura Pigma pens with them just due to my style My favorite thing is that the inner palette is EASILY removable for cleaning. I've had others where it's almost impossible to snap off the palette. This one you just hold it at the right angle and it lifts right out.

The Winsor & Newton Cotman Field Pocket Set is perfect for artists on the go! The 12 half pans provide vibrant, mixable colors, and the included brush, sponge, and water bottle make painting convenient anywhere. The compact design fits easily into a bag, making it ideal for plein air painting or travel. Overall, this set is high-quality, portable, and perfect for both beginners and experienced watercolor artists — highly recommended!

It's an ok field set. I'm mainly comparing this Cotman pocket sketch box to the white nights full pan field box: White Night Artists Watercolour... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006FHNE3C?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share I have a Swatch comparison to the white nights set in the photos included. Those are 12 full pans for about 23$. This Cotman box is half pans for about 13$. The cotman kit came with a tiny folding brush, but it's not much to write home about, it's like a size 2-4 round. Not big enough to do a wash. The cotman paints don't perform as well. They are clearly student grade. The white nights paints do lay down better. The box configuration is sort of meh, IMO. I tend to like the folding metal boxes more, but I do wish for more variety and portability and haven't found one that makes my heart sing just yet. Side by side, cotman swatches are in the left, yarka/ white nights on the right. I don't find the color white terribly helpful in watercolor. I also don't use black much, but instead prefer paynes or Davy's grey. The White Nights paints have a neutral black which is not as severe as an ivory black, so I guess there's that. The yellow ochre and umber in that set are also more transparent than cotman. I prefer to have sap green over a black, which the cotman set does include. Even better would be to swap Payne's grey for the white in this cotman set. I think the biggest difference is in how much more challenging it was to get the same pigment density in the cotman as the White nights. I had to really work the brush in there with the cotman paints, in addition to pre-spraying the pans and go back more times for paint with cotman than white nights- which are semi-moist, yet dry more quickly after you're done than the cotman. The cotman paints are extruded and have a lot more... filler ... something... that isn't pigment, than the St.Pete's /white nights paints. Those take a wet brush and you're off to the races. But these Cotman paints you have to work at and use a lot of water to get them going and even then, extra water it gets down into sides of the pans, around the paint cakes without dissolving them, but then when you are done, the Cotman pans take forever to dry out. I definitely prefer the White Nights set. Look at the triangles in the swatches. White nights is the right triangle on top. Cotman is the equalateral tringle on the bottom. Wht.nts blended naturally wet in wet. Like a dream -hardly any work from me except to wet the page and ease them toward each other. For the Cotman I had to put brushload upon brushload to get to equally dense colors, moving them into each other and even then, they didn't really want to blend and flow on the page even with an amount of assistance. And the secondary colors were muddier and harder to obtain. Pros on the cotman: smaller kit, sap green is a nice green. Half the price for half the paint and a sort of decently passable brush. Cotman series paints have an array of pallette varieties and styles worth trying out. Yarka pros: bigger pans. A neutral dark instead of a white. Includes a fantastic deep green. Semi moist poured pans Instead of extruded paints. I'd go with the St. Petersburg again in a heartbeat over cotman.

I am happily surprised at this compact travel paint set. It has everything you need to paint - 12 great colors , areas to mix colors, a water bottle for carrying water, a cup to hold the water, a paint brush and a small sponge to use in place of a paper towel. I made my own color Sample card to fit in the travel set. It all folds up nicely for travel - approx. 2.5 in. x 5in. x 1.25 inches for sizing. The paints are very nice and cover and mix nicely. I highly recommend this field set!!

Great quality! Yes it had 5 duplicates but that’s in the description. The size allows for 48 half pans so took the 5 duplicates out and added the 8 metallic pans in so I had the complete Cotman collection all in one stop palette. The palette is tricky to open if fully closed. But since this isn’t going to be a travel palette for me I just won’t close it completely so it’s no worry. I’m sure it can be rigged to where it won’t be an issue but it’s fine for me. The paints themselves wet so easily and are very well pigmented for a “student grade”. Overall so glad I pulled the trigger and got these sets!

I like the colors of this set and the vibrancy. Granted, I haven't tried the the more expensive, professional ones but even the Cotman are always worth buying. The colors blend well and should last me a good while.

The brand says it all. I’ve made my most beautiful skies with this pallet.

Einsatzzweck Aquarell-Einstieg nach lebenslanger Fehde mit Pinseln - und von mir eine klare Empfehlung hierfür. Laut befreundeten erfahrenen Künstlern ist Winsor & Newton Cotman eine gute Einstiegsmarke. Bisher eingesetzt mit Createc Papier 300g (rundum geleimter Block). Zuerst entsetzt über die geringe Größe (Ich wusste nicht, was halbe Näpfchen sind), zeigt sich schnell: Mit der Farbe kommt man weit! ✅ ✅ ✅ Stark pigmentiert ✅ ✅ ✅ Farbe lässt sich sehr gut aus dem Napf lösen und im Deckel mischen ✅ ✅ ✅ Das Set enthält transparente und opake (=deckende) Farben. Das Schwarz deckt bspw. so gut, dass man damit selbst tiefschwarze Pupillen kolorieren kann, ohne dass Papier durchscheint. Das schaffte bisher keiner meiner Fineliner & Marker. ✅ Der kleine Pinsel ist okay und gut für Details. Die Nylonhärchen kann man mit warmem Wasser wieder in Form bringen. ✅ Der Bleistift ist okay. ✅ ✅ ✅ Der Radierer ist sehr klebrig, aber HOLY, der hat zum Teil mehr Bleistift vom Papier geholt, als ich wollte :D Tolles Mischverhalten, die Pigmente verteilen sich gleichmäßig (nicht granulierend). Auf dem Createc-Papier ganz wunderbar verlaufen (trotz Tendenz des Papiers zur Pfützenbildung). Die Farben ließen sich gut layern und auch im leicht getrockneten Zustand wieder anlösen und verschieben.

Belle palette d'aquarelle. Pratique à utiliser

I loved it, thanks

Habe erstmal drei Farben benutzt, machen einen guten Eindruck