Testing Affordable Beginner Watercolour Palettes From Amazon! 

I agree! The Meiliang (aka pretty excellent) is one of the finest budget friendly paints on the market. I have not tried magic fly but I did try the Artistro and did not care for it. The tin was cute tho 😆

I'm so glad you reviewed the Meiliang palette. It was the first watercolor palette I ever bought and I still go back to it even after I've upgraded, just because it has such beautiful colors.

Love your videos. I am so thankful to have a watercolour teacher like you Emma ( even though we have not met face to face. Praying for you. God bless you and your family.

I’ve bought several pallets of mie ling watercolors but smaller! I personally love them and the price is just awesome! Great video for us beginners 🎨💜

I just bought the meiliang palette. I’m excited to start using it. I’m normally a Winsor and Newton person, but I wanted more colors than the tiny palette I have.

As a learning watercolor artist, I so appreciate your reviews. To me, your reviews are mostly spot on, and you save me from trying "some too good to be true" papers and pigmented products. 👌 Also, I found on a very textured paper that i need to work wet on wet in much smaller sections for the painting to look even "okay" for making cards, tags, and book markers. 😀

Definitely helpful! I have been wanting to buy some watercolors for my 15 year old grandson who is just getting into art. I now have a good place to start! Thank you for doing this video! 👍👍❤️

Excellent review. I've heard great things about Mei Liang being an excellent beginner set, and your review was the one that cemented my decision to purchase it. Thanks!

Wow what a difference between these pallets! Thank you for your review!

Thank you so much for this video... Exactly what I needed! Sadly I initially bought Artistro palette because it had some pretty good reviews on Amazon... But although I am a complete beginner I noticed quickly, that I had trouble with what you call "granulation" and it is quite frustrating... Now that I have used it for a few weeks and saw your video, it seems like I have to buy Mei Liang palette instead to really get into the fun parts of watercolors.

I think it is a testament to you skill that these all look pretty good.

I really enjoy using my Mei Liang pallet for practicing strokes and experimenting with new techniques. It is one of the first pallets I bought and the colors are pretty and vibrant! I've moved up to using Winsor and Newton pro and Daniel Smith when I'm painting something to keep or give away, but I always love to "play" with my first pallets from Mei Liang and Art Philosophy confections. ❤️❤️❤️ BTW - I LOVE to paint along with your tutorials❣️

Very helpful! I've seen these sets pop up in my searches all the time but I never know which is better. Thanks for doing this!

I have the smaller Meiliang set, which is my go to set, and I also have the Artistro, which I am trying to love.... among several other sets. I think I have a watercolor supply addiction... Thanks for the reviews!

This video was so helpful! I was using a very chalky paint set and then I watched this video and received the mailing set and then I Got my first 10 cottman set it has been wonderful

I think Turkey Blue is my new favourite colour name! :D Thank you for the review, btw. It's good to know that one can find some reasonably priced and reasonable quality palettes on Amazon.

wow thanks, i was actually looking for a new bigger palette with metallic in it and yeah this helps so much!!!

I like the Artistro just for the tin case lol. So pretty.

Excellent video, Emma! The Meilang set was the first watercolor palette I bought (minus the metallic colors.) I love these paints! I actually only have two palettes... I have this one and I have the small Limited color palettes from Winsor Newton Cotman series. I thought that one would be a great palettes to learn more about mixing colors... As I am still very much a beginner. Thanks for taking the time to make this video!

This makes me all kinds of happy. I chose Mei Liang as my first palette and am working on learning with them. Pleased to find I made a good choice.

This video was incredibly helpful . Thank You very much!👍🏻

This was SO helpful. You paint so beautifully! 💖💖

Would you say Mei Liang is a better first pallete then Windsor Newton?

Thanks for review Emma. We all really appreciate it. Have you heard about a brand called Phoenix brand? I was just wondering if they ok . I'm only really new to the world of watercolour. Take care and safe for me, ok. xo.

At this point, as long as the layering isn't as abysmal as Crayola, I'm liking it

I'm in Canada. I am wary of shipping costs when buying from Amazon. I'm in a large city, so I buy local. I still have my Michael's watercolors sets - standard and metallics. I like color mixing - I learned that from using acrylics with a limited palette. I would be overwhelmed with such a large color palette.

So many of these have a lot of colors but the colors are so similar especially the yellows and blues. When you factor that in, you are only getting 24 different colors

I'm a beginner, I almost bought an expensive Windsor and Newton pallet to upgrade as my pallet I got from the supermarket is 'chalky' the paint spoils my drawing! I'm serious about improving my skill, and so I'm going to buy Mei Ling now and save a lot of money.I really like your results, but as im in Europe I'm gutted I cant use your affiliate links to help pay you, as the reason I'm buying it is based on this review. Thank you, i have subscribed.

Thank you for sharing this comparison ❤ I really love the bleeding and granulation in paints. I did see that the last one had some but I didn’t like the overall look of the paint ❤ I’m a beginner and I need artist’s views to help me ❤

Thank you

Super😊

And that is why I bought the Mei Liana for my grandson for Christmas.

Great review , thank you so much , I also like the Meileng palette , nice work xoxo

Thank you very much! I'm really new to watercolors and looking for some new stuff, and you probably saved my sanity - I almost got Artistro, and ... it looks not great. DEF gonna get MeiLiang!

Oh dear… I see new pallets in my near future lol (like I don’t have 25+ now)

I'm so glad you did this comparison for us. I had the one set in my Etsy cart. It's been there for a while now and I'm going to delete it. I'm going to stick with Winsor Newton.

New to the channel thanks for the review and I look forward to learning so much from you

Thanks! Somehow, you made even the cheap paints look great. I like reviews like this because I want to invest in better paint, but the money! Wow! DS and Holbein and any of the pro paints seem wildly expensive to me. Do they actually last longer or are they just THAT much more expensive?

I bought Artistro for my first pallet and have quickly upgraded to Cotman as I couldn’t get the blending and bleeds how I wanted

What water color brushes do you recommend

MeiLiang wins again :)

I would love to see a review for Superior watercolors at some point (As I use these and artist's loft. I'm poor). I've watched a few other reviews but would love to get your thoughts. I have a set of 48 and have been enjoying them but I don't know anything about what's good and what's not. Of the reviews I've seen they're said to be pretty good for their price and are recommended for practice and those that are starting out. They're from china and really affordable. I'm not sure where people buy them normally but they're about the only good purchase I've made from wish.

Great video, unfortunately I found your video a bit late, I will get a new set to start with watercolor, thanks!

Can I ask how the meiliang compare to Windsor and Newton cotman paints? Thank you

Shame that the Meileng is not sold on the Canadian Amazon 😞

Hi Emma. What brand of paper did you use here?

What & where do you get that thin tape? Yfs

Yeah the Maline much better. I probably butchered the name. Oh well. Thank you Emma 😊. JK FLORIDA USA 🇺🇸

I'm going to jump on that s*** before they raise the price cuz every time you do a review on a good paint like this they hike that price up for real

Thanks for this video! How do you think the Mei Liang watercolors compare to the Cotman by Windsor Newton? Enjoyed as always!

I noticed that the Artistro paints would turn into flakes when I would add water back to my palette/wells after the paint was dry (like the next day, etc). The flakes were actually tough to get back into actual paint and I had to rub them a lot with the brush while mixing in water. :( Also, yeah, I had to use a lot of water with them to make them more transparent, so I was using a lot of wells... that turned into a lot of wells full of flaky paint. I have since switched to Winsor Newton's half pans and have yet to have any complaints with them. They are still on the "affordable" side considering how well they stood up to the cheap Amazon sets for me. Thanks for making this video!

Could you do a comparison of the Pagos, Gencrafts, and Grabie. These are names that populate Amazon, but nothing is known about them. I prefer non-granulating paints. Heavily granulating paints, like the Artistro here, to me, looks like the paper is pilling, even if you are using Arches. I like the clear transparency of the MeiLiang because it looks like it would glaze well. Also, would you consider comparing the MeiLiang with Paul Reubens, Windsor Newton professional with Cotman?

I have the smaller version of the Meiliang pallette and I love it. Sadly it’s almost gone, but I’m thinking of buy the bigger one. Thank you so much, Emma for taking the time to do this even tho your not feeling well. Wishing you a wonderful day!😊🖌

Mei Ling was my first palette and I loved it and I still use it in my sketchbook. I then went onto white Nights and Roman Szmal both of which I love and don’t feel then need to use any other…ok except for those special enticing colours from…mmmm…Schmicke

I have all of these sets, so I really appreciate you comparing them and talking about the pros and cons. I’ll admit, I bought the Artistro ones for the case hahaha. It was so freaking cute.

I found the pretty excellent to be lovely too. I bought some other cheaper ones to practise with and only use the pretty excellent. Thank you for doing this comparision

What is the sponge used for?

Hello and happy Monday. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this comparison. As a new to watercolour painting art maker, I'm continually wondering if I'm using the right bruses, right paper and right paints. So your help is very much appreciated. Have a blessed day! ~ Cobs. (from England).

I definitely appreciated your reviews. I do have a Meilang palette - 36 colours - and I do like it very much. So thank you for this review because I had been toying with the idea of buying a couple of the other palettes for teaching purposes....but now I will make some other choices. Thank you Emma

I also chose meiliang as my first pallet so I'm quite happy. Thank you as always. X

Thank you for taking the time to make this video. I am always curious about other watercolor pallets but nervous to venture out and try them myself. I love how you broke each one down with the likes and dislikes. Thank you!🥰

I want all of them :D Especially that academy paper :D My paper that I have from Brea Reese does not allow me to do wet on wet, as it immediately absorbs the water and starts bending. That was all I could afford as a beginner and I am making the best of the situation. But it would be so nice to upgrade at some point to real good paper! Thank you for testing all these palettes out for us!

I saw your review of the Grabie palette. How would you compare that to the Meiliang palette?

Great reviews. Very helpful. Thanks so much!!

Don’t like Mei Liang at all. Cheap and very chalky.

video not working as of the 4/07/2024

Thanks Emna, a respectful review! So much more could be said, but let's not.

i think mei liang paints won this one

Up I need to up grade my pretty excellent pallet it this with metallic added that is awesome 36 color palette plus 12 metallics oh the case is pretty I want this one I'm going to keep it nice and neat and destroy my pretty excellent to get down and dirty with it I'm excited to seeing that palette for real. If mai Liang did the extra bits like magic fly with better quality paper 😱 perfect stater kit .

How does the price compare to professional watercolour, say 3 primary tubes or 6 split primary tubes?

Where do you buy the swatch paper?

Hi Emma, Thanks for your great tutorials! Question for you? I am fairly new to watercolour. I received White Nights as a gift, how does it compare to the good watercolours out there? I have not found any tutorials reviewing White nights...

I wonder what you mean by chalky and residue. What do you see as the difference between chalky and gouche?

I feel the same about my shiny pretty excellent water color palette. I have the 36 pan . I have my eyes on the metallics added in the new pretty excellent packaging . Is so 🤤 😂