I own and use a wide range of artist paint, but I choose Van Gogh for ink and watercolor sketching. I enjoy their luminosity, flow, and vibrance even in dilute washes.
The 15 set is the best value for money for a beginner watercolorist! Personally I own Mijello, Schmincke and Daniel Smith colors, and i still love these for my sketchbook and experimenting. Additionally I recently got the "Muted" colors pocket box, it's lovely ♥
Yes you're right, I mention it in the video, also I just don't get why they didn't stick with the 15 pans palettes, even if they only include 12, many companies do that, leave some extra spots, and it makes so much sense, as every painter has different preferences. Shame. And now you made me want to try the muted one! Lol, I'm easily enabled ;)
You CAN use these smart plastic palettes for any brand: pan size does not matter. With a little palette knife you can easily pop out any cake from its pan- even a hand-poured pan. (I have a spare DS 15 palette, but I prefer my smarter Van G 15: only it isn't empty yet...
Thank you Irit, this was really helpful. I was saving to buy expensive watercolours online but now I am definitely going to try these and buy them in my local store!
As you say, its an old brand and as it happens used to be one of my favourites for oils and gouache. Their student and professional ranges were always near interchangeable, they substitute good mixes for more expensive single pigment in the student range. Performance is usually pretty good, though they won't have the amazing individual pigment qualities you get in really high end ranges. These little boxes are very tempting, those chameleon and spark colours look interesting.
Hi, Irit.. thank you so much for your time and effort that is put into keeping the masses informed! I love painting beetles, butterflies, and other insects displaying natural iridescence. Can you please tell me how you found the Rembrandt chameleon coated glass Watercolours? I can't find a single art store offering these.
Glad you enjoyed! I don't know where you cna find them, I only saw them in the brochure. I think Jackson's carries Rembrandt, not sure about the chameleon colors... I'm on vacation but will check when I return home 😊
11:26 The half pans from my Winsor & Newton pocket set fits into the Van Gogh case and so do the Daler Rowney Aquafine plastic set half pans. (They both are a tiny bit smaller than VG half pans.)
Hi Irit, Thank you for sharing your insights on these paints. I just recently bought tubes from amazon (Dick Blick was the seller) here in the states and I got the dusk colors. They are really cool, but I did not see these pocket sets until you pointed it out. I am very much like yourself in that I have probably more paint than I will ever use, but it doesn't stop me from looking and trying new paints from different manufacturers. So I relate to your videos and I appreciate your reviews! If we lived closer to each other I could see us getting ourselves into some trouble together! lol. Have a great day!
I know this is quite an old video, but I love the Van Gogh range of watercolour so much that I had to comment. I've had Van Gogh paints for over 5 years now and I keep buying more instead of upgrading to the professional range. But I must say that I hate their cerulean blue and viridian with a passion. I don't understand why they choose these options when they have phthalo blue (without the white pigment) and phthalo green in their range?!
Thanks for sharing Nicole! I think the point of Van Gogh is to offer affordable options, meaning using the cheaper pigments. They have some great paints and I enjoy them too, but for more expensive pigments I go to Rembrandt.
Chameleon colors would be fabulous for a hummingbird! I like Rembrandt far better than Holbein. The Holbein tend to loose too much color when they dry.
wait? schminke doesn’t carry their akademie tubes internationally? i had no idea... they’re pretty common in china though.. huh im chinese and i buy most of my paints when im back in china, as the price is significantly cheaper than the average retail price in australia. (also theres a *massive* subculture for selling handmade smaller sample doses which helps a lot if one wants to try a lot of different brands) i absolutely adore my van gogh paints and if i were to invest in a premade official set i think this’d be my pick! the vibrant colours are absolutely gorgeous and it doesnt come with the white like the original 12 set :D
Funny that they are common in China! So weird... Maybe they want to push their artist line in Europe and not focus on their student line... No idea what's behind that decision. Totally agree about Van Gogh, they are such a good option!
Irit have you tried a Winsor and Newton 1/2 pan in this set to see if it fits ? I would love to know ! I would swop the White for another colour. I never use white. I have bought this just because I love the palette and brush.
I haven't tried W&N Professional pans in this set, but the Cotman ones do fit! However, they are not as snug as the van Gogh ones, they have minimal wiggle room left. But I do think they fit nicely. I have a combination of van Gogh and Cotman pans in mine and I think it's absolutely fine 😉
van Gogh is the watercolour that i have tried first, so they are one of my favourite ones (not best ones though). I do have both plastic box sets of van Gogh, the 12 colour and 12+3 colour set. Having tried both of them, i can say that 12 colour set is more ergonomic one, in case you have to hold the box in your hand, since that empty space which is occupied by 3 pans in another version, is very comfortable to place your fingers, so you can hold it in your palm very comfortably. Though, if you're using that palette on your table top, +3 is the better choise, since, you know, more colours to work with. And yes, it is the best plastic box that i've tried. Now using Rembrandt mostly, but still, van Gogh is there for me to mess around without thinking how much the paint costs.
Irit one question i ordered the 370 Light Red from Van Gogh what is your opinion on this pigment.I wanted to add to my palette an awesome mixing red that is not cadmium but has a range similar to Cadmium Red Light.I searched in pigments and they wrote that this pigment pr 254 is becoming popular as a substitute for the cadmium reds and napthol.How well does this color mix and did you had an opportunity to test it's light fastness???
I think my answer will disappoint you... I really don't have an academic approach to paints and pigments. I use what I love and discover it by painting. My advice would be to play and paint and mix and see if you like the results. Personally I hardly ever use red, simply because I don't like to paint with it. I like pinks and corals :)
Have fun!! I will be putting all my reds to work in my autumn palette, since they are poor and neglected, so maybe you'll see something that will help you ;)
I have a few that perform similarly. I assume we're talking watercolors and not acrylics? The koi ones - amzn.to/32aACfh- (there's also a smaller set ) are nice and they have cute sets. I also have a nice Japanese set Kissho Gansai - that has rather large pans but has fun colors - amzn.to/2ZyrbbS But I think the ones I enjoy the most are a couple of colors from the Shinhan hybrid paints (pink and lemon yellow are neon, bright red is just extremely bright), limited selection though. Hope that helps!
Hi, I have question, is this half pan or full pan? Does it say how many mls per pan? Just trying to figure out the size coz I am buying shared from tube 1ml per colour 😅😅
These are standard half pans, usually contain about 2.5ml of paint, but there are always slight variations depending on brand and formula of each paint and pigment. Hope that helps!
Maybe, but they are harder to get than the Van Gogh ones. Also, I've only seen Aquarius in full pans, Van Gogh come in half and tubes, which offer the most versatility. But I agree Aquarius are a beautiful paint!
