WOW! I Tried The Most Expensive Paint! 

That feeling of "I'm not good enough to use this yet" so many of us working class kids can relate to having had that feeling about something. Not wanting to 'waste' them. The older you get he more you try to unlearn that and use the nice things even if you can't afford to replace them right now you know?

I also have the “precious, must not use too much” mentality. I’ve been trying to break out of that so things aren’t languishing but it’s hard.

I got gifted a set of Mijello Mission Gold and they are so expensive I was scared to touch them for ages. They are beautiful paints. The friend that gave them told me not to think about the price and just to paint and it was such a generous gift. Every time I use them I'm blown away by the richness of the colour and the pleasure of them

I love my schmincke watercolors too! I'm glad that I'm from Germany because while they are still not cheap they aren't as expensive here (because no import taxes because made in Germany xD) And I think that's one reason I don't mind the 'normal' tins they come in... they aren't anything special but the easiest available watercolors here. I am someone who likes to preserve special things too - I can't use stickers if I have only one because what if I want to stick it somewhere else later? xD

Schmincke offers a dot card that contains their full colour range for a pretty fair price, from there you can determine your favourite few colours and get those in tubes. Best value option imho, as the dot card will always stay a helpful reference tool if you wanna expand your collection 🤓 btw Daniel Smith is even more expensive here in Germany than Schmincke is in the US >_>

Beautiful painting! I totally understand wanting to save the “good stuff”. Your little animations always make me smile.

"2 birds one stone, 2 girls 1 cup" I spit my coffee all over my phone. Then, the repeated "Big Money" Dammit, Emily You're killing it today! ! 😂😂😂💜💜💜

The colors are sooo pretty, but you make them even better because of your artistic talent. God bless you💖🙏

"Look at my nest, aint it beautiful, don't you want to sleep with me?!" 🤣🤣 It's a little more upfront, but if you already know you love a given paint, you do get more for your money if you buy the 15mL tube and pour your own pans. So if you use one color up, worry not! BONUS: If you have tubes, you can swap paints with other artists. I get almost exclusively tubes, and will often trade paints by the (hand poured) half-pan or even by the dot card. This is where you can REALLY save money!

Totally get what you mean! When I was younger I used to get so overwhelmed by expensive and/or quality art supplies, it stopped me from actually creating art, because it had to be something so special to use the supplies on, I was constantly afraid of failure and couldn't even create anymore at some point and just stopped doing so. But when I decided to have fun again, explore, even waiste material in the process, I started to love creating art again, even so much that I'm parttime an illustrator with my own business now

Here is another way to safe a bit of money on those: The Schmincke Academy Watercolors. While for many brands, the academy or student grade watercolors are significantly worse in quality and experience compared to their artist or professional grade, this doesn't go for Schmincke. They are just lower in pigmentation, which means they will be used up faster. And some colors do have a different pigmentation though (for example the light ochre from the academy is my favorite ochre of all the ones they have, as they use different pigments and ratio for it). Also, the primary colors are named as such and easier to identify than with their horadam. They come in a range of 24 colors, though occasionally they have limited editions with 36 colors (11 temporarily available convinience colors that you can mix from the normal palette yourself and a metallic color, only available in the big set though). The price is just a bit higher than half of the horadam, but is the same for all colors. Also, unlike horadam watercolors, the academy is completely vegan (they use synthetic oxgall here) and non toxic (like cadmium and cobalt paints replaced with hues), making them also eco friendly. Of course you only have the more basic colors, something like Potters Pink, Perylene Green or Caput Mortem is a Horadam thing. Just a warning for those who are going to get some Schmincke paints (no matter which line): None of their colors uses additives like honey or glycerine which would make the color shine vibrantly. There are many reasons for that, mainly long term quality maintenance. So, compared to the majority of (semi-) professional brands like Daniel Smith or Sennelier (to name some of the best), Schmincke paints appear to be not as vibrant. The reason why still most professional watercolor artists love them so much is simply, that such intense vibrancy is most of the time unnecessary or even undesired, unless you make cartoon and child level anime drawings, in which case i'd rather recommend the above mentioned brands, or Da Vinci for americans, or White Knights/Roman Szmal for cheaper european paints. Or even any ink, as long as you don't care for lightfastness, as they are more vibrant than any watercolor.

"Oooh, I want it!" "Oh wait, it's expensive..." "Hold up, I can like, MAKE that!" - story of my life. A couple years ago me and my mum built an advent calendar from scratch because the ones for sale were either too expensive or flimsy. And we spent the money we saved on gifts for each other. Win-win!

This is gorgeous! I very rarely get premade sets of watercolors, I'm much more likely to just buy a few colors at a time. One more idea for finding cheaper quality art supplies is to look for creative reuse/creative recycling shops in your area. I have two by me, and they take donations of art supplies and both tend to run on a pay what you can systems - its like a thrift store for just art supplies!

I'm the same way with my traditional art supplies, like my copic markers, I want to learn to use them so much more but at the same time I want to preserve them for as long as I can, and even after nearly ten years they've still yet to dry out. I also always enjoy your videos and artworks, they're always so relaxing to watch, and not to mention the little bits of comedic snippets in the between. I adore your humor!

I keep coming back for the random outbursts of "BIG MONEY!" 😂 it brings me joy 😊 Thanks for sharing your art, stories, and top tier humor 😍

Just wanted to say that I love all the quiet close up shots in this video. Mixed with your humor, this was the perfect combo of calm and entertaining

I have the same problem, I have a smaller Schmincke Horadam pallet that I was gifted 2 years ago for Christmas, I didn't even open it until this year as I felt it was a waste to use them on "my" paintings. D: But hubby said if I don't enjoy them now, then it truly would be a waste. Still scary AF to use them XD

Lovely finished painting, the gold accents are divine~ I agree "Bit by Bit" is def a great method, especially when you get into the world of small batch handmade watercolors, those things can get reeaal pricey! Also payment plans if shops offer them can help if you have to make a bigger purchase at once.

Emily I’ve been loving your videos lately. The voiceovers are hilarious. The art is beautiful as always

Hey Emily, perfect upload timing as always- just as I have been feeling really down I get this notification! I start school again Tuesday and have so many tests for subjects I struggle with, it's stressing me out a lot, but you're one of my favourite youtubers and such a source of comfort :) I've been watching you for so many years 😊

I'm 4 days into detox today and I love how transparent you are about your mistakes. I love the art too :)

Interesting take on a palmistry sign, since I read palms. I read the dominant hand(what the person is and is doing with their life) and reference the non dominate hand (what they were supposed to do and sub concious). We are shaped by our environment so wanting beautiful things is naturally a part of what we want in our homes. I love watching you paint with water color and feel like this was special for you to share this work and this special set of paints with us.

oh yeah, ebay is a great place to look for secondhand watercolors! i found one batch of like 25 really really old schmincke tubes there, for like, 30 euro i think? a few of these colors are so old that they dont exist in their catalogue anymore, which made it a bit difficult to identify them with 100% certainty, and a lot of them were not liquid anymore in the tubes, but the good thing is, that watercolors, especially quality ones like from schmincke, can be reactivated basically forever :D (i still wonder how old exactly these tubes are, bc the ebay seller couldnt tell me either...they were from his uncle or something) also i bought a lot of daniel smith colors from someone on ebay who was decluttering their collection, which was wonderful bc daniel smith is incredibly expensive here in germany, and i probably saved like, 600 euro on those paints compared to buying them new!

I'm a big fan of the "bit by bit" process. That's how most of my palettes have been acquired over the years. I recommend it to others as well. And I get the "precious" factor. I still have a 4H pencil my grandmother gave me around 30 years ago. It's so old, it doesn't say Derwent, rather something like "Cumberland Pencil Company"... I keep it now as more of a lucky charm than anything. But my grandma was one of the first to encourage me to draw, and so it will always be precious.

I originally got into watercolors when I saw your intro to watercolor series years and years ago. It used to be my main medium although these days I mostly do digital. But watercolors feel incredibly nostalgic for me, since I spent most of my teen years painting the day away. This really makes me want to get back into traditional painting again.

the blending of the colors does happy things to my brain.

Over the years I think I learnt the most when I had art supplies on the more expensive side, not because they are necessarily better but because I did my best to learn "proper" techniques as to not waste the product. I've gotten better gouache recently and I've noticed how much better I have become with the medium as well as the influence it has had on the way I use other ones. I blend acrylics better now and I've learnt to control how I use water with watercolor as well. It makes me feel good because I'm learning without rushing and I can see results. The real waste would be to not use something that was made to be used yknow.

I know that feeling. 😊 when I started at my art high school, we had to get our own paintbrushes. I was nervous and didn't know what to do, and my mom - single mother of 4 took me to our local art store and got me the best version of everything on my list. And I think I told her im new to this and I dont want her to spend money on something like that for me. And she told me it was ok, and that it was worth it. I got compliments on them at school, and some weird salty backhand compliments from some of my peers who were more skilled and well off then me, but did not get the same brand. 😊 I love those brushes and grew into them. Her love, support and confidence in me has stayed in heart 😊

I love your art, and I also love your sense of humor. Your videos always make me feel comforted and happy. Thank you for lighting my mood on a bad day.

Oh yeah… Schminke. It was so funny as i got them. It was 1 year after my burnout. I recovered slowly with doing art and was fascinated with watercolors. Than i saw the small Schminke autumn collection and i treated myself for Christmas. I didnt know that my boyfriend made an art advent calendar for me and put in 10 extra half pans with other art supplies. Than on Christmas Day i got the big set from my mom. I went from 0 Schminke pans to more than enough for two people. I felt so appreciated and supported. I use the big set a lot (not for practicing but still) and it’s barely indented. You just need a really small amount and they are just so fun to use. I love them and their meaning to me.

To anyone who also resonates with Emily's "I don't wanna use the fancy art supplies because I don't want to waste any" Just remember that the only way to REALLY waste art supplies is to not use them...

My sister is an artist and I’d love to get her that wooden pallet! Unfortunately I’m operating with like, a crayola water color budget so…lol. I’ll save up and surprise her one day 😂

I have a couple Schminke colors: helio turquoise and purple magenta. The purple magenta is a particularly gorgeous fuschia-purple type color :) LOVELY paints!

I know this was uploaded three days ago but I just shattered my ankle when i was at school and it took 20 minutes for me to get help despite screaming and when i was at the hospital i was just devouring her videos. I love her humor and how soothing it is to watch her paint.

Beautiful! Something about your voice and the close shots of the painting were super soothing

Omg your my fav RU-vidr you make me feel comforted in my Art

I adore your talent and humour. Makes me feel like I’m talking with a girl friend having coffee and painting. ❤️🥰

man i totally understand the instinct to save and not use. i begged my parents for art supplies for my birthday but to this day i have used them like a few dozen times and each time i use them really sparingly...like i squeezed just a dot of paint from the water color tubes

I usually watch videos in 1,5 or 2x speed. Never yours❤️ your tone of voice, your jokes and your art. Worth listening in normal mode.🥰

I love your narration style, it alwasys puts me in such a good mood. The bird with a nest made me laugh.

I can totally relate to how you feel about gifted Art Supplies. My first “expensive” (White Nights) watercolour set was given to me by my Mother-in-law and I’m very happy and sad at the same time whenever I use it as I can see it slowly getting used up! I am even thinking to myself that maybe I should just preserve whatever’s left and buy myself another set as I can’t bear the thought of using all the paints up in that one! Another awesome video from you ❤️ your art is so inspiring!

I burst out laughing at the bird part because I feel the same way! Thanks for making my day so much better! 😂❤️

So glad to see you making new content, I only found your channel recently but binged a bunch of your old videos and was like, man I hope she gets back into this after a healing break!

The bird nesting metaphor defined my soul!

Soooo pretty 🤩. Also the bird nest stuff made me laugh so hard. Thanks for a great video Emily i’m really glad your back 💜

Okay, those paints are mad sexy, but your brushes look sooooo nice, too! I use Black Velvet Silvers. What are yours? 🤔

Oh man. 'Gotta preserve the precious' is the story of my life. I'm a crocheter, and I have a dragon's hoard of very nice yarn that's just ... sitting there because I have to make sure I make something NICE ENOUGH with it.

I really only have one half-pan of Schmincke paint and it's naples yellow reddish which I use as a base for skin colors. ^^ Absolutely worth it! I'm currently mostly using Daniel Smith paints which are also great.

Great video, Emily. You made me snort laugh several times, whilst also loving your art ❤️

"I'm like a bird. Look at all this shiny sht!" 🤣 Ah, that definitely hits the nail on the head

It’s so refreshing to see your art on here 💕 hope all is well with you and the fam hun!

I love the Schminke Watercolors. They feel so good to draw with. They are cheaper here because I live in Germany, but the artist grade quality is still very expensive. Still my go to colors. I also rather have less colors and have to mix myself than a huge range that have a worse quality.

growing up I've been religiously watching Emily's videos. And i cant believe I'm 19 now. Watching your new uploads makes me feel like a kid wanting to paint again. love your videos!

I'm looking for videos to explain different between all kind of paint, quality, how it works with different papers, hoping it makes a big difference, not only you showcase beautifully painted pieces but your voice was so relaxing, happy to discover your channel

Yay another video!! Finally. 🥰🥰🙂🙂 I was wondering you should start doing watercolor speed paint videos. Would love to see that. I’m a newbie at watercolor myself.

I love your videos because my mom is an artist. Watching these helps me talk to her about things that interest her that I would ordinarily have no knowledge of.

You absolutely deserved them. I'm doing the bit-by-bit deal right now, myself. Thanks for the review, and the palmistry poster idea... I'm thinking tea leaf reading.

growing up i didn't have much, so like if i were given like a 25 cent fake tattoo from this gumball machine type thing and i really liked it id never use it. i wanted to save it for the perfect moment, and of course that perfect time never came. they would end up getting so old they wouldn't even work after the years of being kept in a drawer. or when id get a sheet of stickers i would use them because i felt like they were too good for whatever i wanted to put them on. if i used them i seen it as a waste. im still like this today and its so hard to get out of that habit of preserving things i find too special to use.

This painting is on like another spectrum of the word beautiful 🥺

Excitement is rising

Very inspirational video overall! Thank you for sharing! I just invested in a 12 full pan set of schminke last month. It’s a nice split primary plus earth colors.

Aw Emily! Was so good to see another video from you, hope you're well! This painting is beaut! I bought a couple of tubes of that watercolour paint when it was reduced and oh my - fancy!!!

Amazing art as usual and I appreciate your sensitivity to the price and the reality that not everyone can afford it. I cherish all my fancy art supplies and am afraid to use them too.. sometimes I buy a pretty sketchbook… to just.. not use it 😭

The BIG MONEY drops and the little bird animation was so funny and definitely made the video.

your art is amazing as always, and I'm super excited to see the snake print available for sale- I fell in love with that piece when I saw it (and the gravity behind it was incredible) so I'll be purchasing right away! i remember how much I spent for art supplies just as a student, I can't imagine how precious those watercolors must be!

I bought my first Schmincke set this year, a small 12 half pans set, and it was second hand, so it was more than a half the price cheaper. Buying second hand art supplies is ~The Shit~

Ha, I do the same whenever I get something fancy as a gift, I try to use it as little as possible also that is some gorgeously smooth paint

i try to take as good of care of my good art supplies as i can, i spent so long having just pencils and basic paper growing up that now I cherish the supplies I have

This was a great video I'm personally considering very much so getting back into my art although I'm terrible at art I love the process of it so thankyou for this video I always really enjoy your art content always informative and interesting and you have a great energy that's very encouraging 😄

Your art is so beautiful 🥺

buy bit by bit was always my method of buyin these fancy schminke horadam colors! im so happy im not the only poor sheep out there with that methoss. i feel so understood, Emily! xD love your AMAZING art like always! have a great day uwu

I have a set of Schminke 24 pans, and I fucking LOVE them. They're so good.

These videos bring me joy and a feeling of serenity.

I bought that 48 pan set right at the beginning of my watercolor painting journey, a stupid thing to do but looking back I'm grateful. I cherish them as well and they are my comfort paints, I know I can rely on them and I feel safe trying new concepts with these watercolors. I'm very attached to my palette on a physical and emotional level

Earlier this year I got some pro-level watercolors (Steve Mitchell, another RU-vid artist, curated a set of M. Graham paints that was sold at a nice discount, so I jumped on it) and one thing I've noticed is that these insanely pigmented paints stretch a lot farther than the student grade stuff. I'm still learning how to mix with these, toning them down, using less paint and more water, that kind of thing. I started out diluting them just like I would my Artezas, and holy crap, the pigment jumps out and punches you in the eyeball! :D For a basic medium wash, you only need like four and a half molecules of paint in your mixing well full of water and you're ready to go! :) Seriously, though, the blobs I squirted out into my storage palette hardly look like they've been touched. I expect what's there to last me at least a few years, and there's three or four times as much paint still in the tubes. I paid about $115 for eleven colors (Steve's set, plus I bought one more color I wanted) and I'm don't expect to have to replace any of the tubes for at least a decade, even if I switched over to using these excusively, which I'm not. I practice and experiment and do exercises and stuff with my old cheap paint, which is going to stretch the expensive ones out even farther. (I have a Prang set too -- I got that when I started out because of your recommendation, and it's still great for messing around and practicing.) I think if you can afford pro level paints -- and that's the trick, scraping together enough money to afford that initial investment -- it's actually a pretty economical option in the long run. It's totally a Commander Vimes's Boots situation for folks who don't have that much money at any one time :( but if you *can* afford, like, a set of mixing primes plus a neutral dark, and maybe a couple of utility colors, even in small tubes, it'll last you for a ridiculously long time. And bonus -- with tubes you can put your paint in whatever kind of palette you want. :)

I want to add that it's totally possible to refill your pans with tube colors by schmincke. they have the exact same formula as the pans! So if you find yourself using up one color because it's your favorite, it can be a bit cheaper to buy a tube of that color and refill yourself :D

Your little animations are so cute and add a nice touch to your videos :D

My brother bought me The Bob Ross Experience, as we call it, with a full oil painting set. I just started using them, even though they're a 2020 Christmas gift. I'm sorry, Jon! I love it so much I'm afraid to ruin it. I'm happy to say I'm wearing a shirt with many of the same lovely symbols as the ones in your painting!

I dropped everything when I saw this, your videos are always so amazing! I completely share the mindset of preserving and not wanting to touch things that are precious, but I've been trying to break it as these things were given to be used, not to collect dust. It's very hard, though, because I don't want to "waste" it, even when those who gave me such wonderful supplies don't care if I make a masterpiece or a smattering of color, as long as I'm happy and enjoying it.

Great video, and beautiful painting. Thanks Emily. 🎨👩‍🎨🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

What I love most about this paint is the way it mixes, so beautiful 😱 I have tried other expensive brands and I love those but sometimes when you try to mix them with another brand it gets really stripi? It's weird

Many thanks to the folks that gave you those paints. They went to the perfect place.

Oh god! My partner got me a set of 12 for Christmas last year and they are unbelievably good. Massive step up from the student grade i had before (not that there's anything wrong with student grade-they're a great way to get into the hobby and i still crack them out all the time)

I absolutely loved every single thing of this video... ESPECIALLY BIRD-MILLY BIRD MAMA ROCKS ♡♡

Those juicy closeups of paints, gliding on the paper. Yeeeees, beautiful=)

I only have two schminke colours so far (perylene green and indanthrone blue) but I really like them and I suspect schminke is going to be one of my go to brands for artist grade watercolours. There's this kind of 'sturdiness' to them that I like. Most of my set is Mijello Mission Gold and I love them but their colour range lacks a lot of colours that are a bit more standard in western watercolour so I go to schminke for those.

Love your art and tales. Please consider a v-neck tee for your next merch release. Happy Halloween!

Got my 48 half pan set on eBay brand new for $175. Last week got 27 15 ml tubes for about $7.25 each. Keep those eyes open and be patient. Those deals can be incredible.

I loved this video and enjoyed your commentary. Each time big money was said i died then the bird part flipping got me lol

If you're in the united states, Jackson's Art is magic. You save a lot of money on that specific brand and probably other stuff. There's a code for the first time you buy as well. Tip: Spring for the DHL and it's reasonable shipping. the three or four extra dollars is SO worth it.

Reminds me of my childhood at camp Quinebaug in Killingly CT.

I'm the same way with art supplies. Still have my 120 prismacolor set from when I was in hs. That precious mindset still follows me, though I'm making more a commitment to enjoy the nice things I have. As always your watercolor work is beautiful.

The art in this video is amazing, I love your paintings so much!

BIG MONEY 😂🤣 I'm dying. I did watch one of your videos a while ago with paint and paper recommendations, need to re-visit! I paint but I haven't tried watercolour since I was a kid and I'm thinking of trying it again but my husband might go mad if I buy anymore art supplies 😂

I like those tins, I have some simpler ones by Jackson’s cos they’re only £5 and I was buying a dozen paints to put in so that was enough money. I’ve heard good things about Schmincke, I have just one of their tubes cos I was completing a colour wheel, the ultramarine violet, very pretty, I love a good bluey purple. 48 is an amazing range of colours.

Me and my friend used to do that with art we liked too! We called it the (Our names)Express version

Wooohoooo this is gorgeous, Emily! 👌🏼💖

In love with you and these watercolors

Your videos are so soothing! We love you Emily ❤️

woah i just found out about you and I rlly like ur videos ur underrated!!! I'm telling Santa to put you on the good list!!