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I may have done a very smart thing by buying a very poorly reviewed watercolor set!
I bought a really, really bad set of watercolors a while back. The brand had great reviews, but when I went to buy 'MoZart Watercolors Set' I bought a set that is completely and utterly different from the one I'd seen reviews for. A lot of brands have different levels of products and if you don't know that you can think you are buying the set from that one cool YT video, but it's not ... like not at all. I have a deep an abiding hatred for Faber Castell over this issue. Conversely I love Japanese brands and also Derwent because I've never been confused about what I was buying.
Anyway, I wanted to spend between 20-30 bucks on a watercolor set, but I wanted to spend those bucks very smartly. I've read a bunch of reviews and watched YT videos of sets being used. I've been to a bunch of art supply stores recently and mostly just stared at the watercolors and wound up just buying more markers and pens. Today I asked for pricing on the sets in a case at a store because the prices weren't visible. I asked the price on the Daniel Smith 15 color set expecting them to say like '100' or '120'. The 6 color sets go for between 35 and 40 bucks in that same store. The lady said it was 60-something bucks I went for it. Then the cashier had a coupon knocking to like $54. 2x what I planned to spend, but Daniel Smith colors are top notch. I thought maybe because they are a local company the store had a special deal, but now I think maybe the bad reviews are why this specific set is cheap.
I got home and looked at some videos for this specific set. This set is panned (so to speak) because the actual plastic case it comes in it crap and has no mixing wells. MSRP is $100 with some sellers pricing it at $75. Also, it's meant to be an 'ultimate mixing set' but one of the colors is easy to mix from 2 in the set and pros find including it silly.
Still, the paint is top notch Daniel Smith paint in removable pans. Take them out of the case and glue them into the metal case from like a dollar store brand and voila ... that's still about $100 worth of top notch, pro quality, lightfast watercolor in a functional case with mixing wells.
I really did not expect to wind up with Daniel Smith watercolors. I thought I was going to have either Prima or Van Gogh. If my attempts at watercolor suck next month it's not going to be due to poor supplies.
I am going to cannibalize the case from my MoZart set, get some use out of my earlier blunder.
Learning about art supplies has been an adventure. It's a pain that there are so many ins and outs and messed up pricing schemes.
I bought a really, really bad set of watercolors a while back. The brand had great reviews, but when I went to buy 'MoZart Watercolors Set' I bought a set that is completely and utterly different from the one I'd seen reviews for. A lot of brands have different levels of products and if you don't know that you can think you are buying the set from that one cool YT video, but it's not ... like not at all. I have a deep an abiding hatred for Faber Castell over this issue. Conversely I love Japanese brands and also Derwent because I've never been confused about what I was buying.
Anyway, I wanted to spend between 20-30 bucks on a watercolor set, but I wanted to spend those bucks very smartly. I've read a bunch of reviews and watched YT videos of sets being used. I've been to a bunch of art supply stores recently and mostly just stared at the watercolors and wound up just buying more markers and pens. Today I asked for pricing on the sets in a case at a store because the prices weren't visible. I asked the price on the Daniel Smith 15 color set expecting them to say like '100' or '120'. The 6 color sets go for between 35 and 40 bucks in that same store. The lady said it was 60-something bucks I went for it. Then the cashier had a coupon knocking to like $54. 2x what I planned to spend, but Daniel Smith colors are top notch. I thought maybe because they are a local company the store had a special deal, but now I think maybe the bad reviews are why this specific set is cheap.
I got home and looked at some videos for this specific set. This set is panned (so to speak) because the actual plastic case it comes in it crap and has no mixing wells. MSRP is $100 with some sellers pricing it at $75. Also, it's meant to be an 'ultimate mixing set' but one of the colors is easy to mix from 2 in the set and pros find including it silly.
Still, the paint is top notch Daniel Smith paint in removable pans. Take them out of the case and glue them into the metal case from like a dollar store brand and voila ... that's still about $100 worth of top notch, pro quality, lightfast watercolor in a functional case with mixing wells.
I really did not expect to wind up with Daniel Smith watercolors. I thought I was going to have either Prima or Van Gogh. If my attempts at watercolor suck next month it's not going to be due to poor supplies.
I am going to cannibalize the case from my MoZart set, get some use out of my earlier blunder.
Learning about art supplies has been an adventure. It's a pain that there are so many ins and outs and messed up pricing schemes.
