I’m extremely picky when it comes to my watercolor paints. I don’t really care about the brand – but rather the overall feel and look of the paint on the page. I love colors that a bright and smooth in appearance (meaning very little to no granulation). I also love colors that mingle or merge easily with one another especially in wet on wet situations.
So below is a list of my favorite paints as well as the brands that I use on a daily basis. Since I’m a nerd when it comes to my paints – I’ve also included my paint resource chart – laying out the make-up of each of my paints below.
Note: I do earn a small bit of affiliate commissions from the Amazon links below (as folks have asked me to provide them with the links), but these are all paints I have tested and use. Thanks.
SO HERE ARE MY FAVORITE WATERCOLORS
1. BRILLIANT OPERA ROSE – SCHMINCKE
2. SHELL PINK – HOLBEIN
3. SCARLET LAKE – WINSOR
4. CADMIUM ORANGE – WINSOR
5. INDIAN YELLOW – WINSOR
6. JUANE BRILLIANT NO.2 – HOLBEIN
7. CADMIUM YELLOW – WINSOR
8. CADMIUM YELLOW LEMON – SCHMINCKE
9. GREEN GOLD – WINSOR
10. MAY GREEN – SCHMINCKE
11. WINSOR GREEN (BLUE SHADE) – WINSOR
12. COBALT TURQUOISE – SCHMINCKE
13. HORIZON BLUE – HOLBEIN
14. WINSOR BLUE (GREEN SHADE) – WINSOR
15. QUINACRIDONE MAGENTA – WINSOR
16. MAUVE – WINSOR COTMAN SERIES
17. YELLOW OCHRE – WINSOR
18. GOLD BROWN – SCHMINCKE
19. BURNT UMBER – WINSOR
20. PAYNE’S GRAY – WINSOR
21. NEUTRAL TINT – WINSOR
OTHER PAINTS I’M TESTING
So those are the MAIN colors but I’m also testing a couple of new watercolor paints. personally, I’m not a huge fan of pan paints when it comes to watercolor – but these paints caught my eye. They aren’t considered traditional watercolors – but their color pay off is really good for an inexpensive pan paint. But I will say – some of their blues and greens aren’t that great. So you may want to substitute some tube paints for the colors that don’t have as great of a color pay off. ?
Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors, 48 Colors
OTHER INFO ABOUT MY MAIN PALETTE
If you are nerd like me – you like to know everything about your paints. So here’s a little list that I put together on some basic info on my paint colors and their make-up. 🙂
