Watercolor is one of my favorite mediums to work with, and my top for painting, so I had been wanting to get a travel set to take with me as well as something easy to get out/put away on lazy days. It was one of those things I wanted, however, I never bought it. There was always something else I needed or wanted over it.
Prima Watercolor Confections sets had been showing up in my Amazon recommendations since at least summer, so I finally caved and added them to my cart.
Prima offers five (that I know of) sets of watercolors: The Classics, Pastel Dreams, Tropicals, Decadent Pies and Shimmering Lights. I got The Classics first, and quickly jumped for the Tropicals and Pastel Dreams. My review is based off the three, so I imagined the other two will live up to the same quality.
Previously, I had always used watercolor tubes or liquids, with two exceptions. I was worried, because the two pans I had used before were chalky and one didn’t seem to get much color no matter how much or little water you mixed with. So I will say, that was not the case here. There were two colors that seemed a little chalkier than the others, but overall, the colors were smooth, vibrant and beautiful.
The tins are great – they have one that flips out for mixing, the part I like most about this is it doesn’t dip down or droop, ending up with water spilling all over the place off the edges.
It also includes empty row in the middle, which is perfect for a mini-brush. It is also the perfect size to fit 6 more pans in the middle (which is what I did, took my 18 favorites and added them to one tin).
They also include a paper with the number of each pan to color match them.
*NOTE: the pastel dreams set is the only one (of the three I got) that included names, the other two sets only had numbers.
One of the main things I noticed right away on the negative side was how loose the pans fit into the tin. They slip and slide around, but more-so when closed they can fall out of their spot. I did find however, if you aren’t switching them around, you could ideally hot glue or super glue them down where they belong (or where you want them).
Another thing I noticed was that The Classics and the Tropicals don’t have names for their colors, they had numbers on the bottom of their wrapping, which makes it hard to remember their places if they get moved or compare them to other brands. However, the Pastel Dreams do have names, so I don’t know if the other two would have names or not.
The Classics: Are a great first set – they include colors you would indeed expect to get in classic set: red, pink, orange, yellow, green, light blue, blue, purple, brown, black, grey, and white, the colors are smooth and rich.
Tropicals: Were perfect. I wasn’t sure exactly what colors to expect, but when I tested them each, they were rich, vibrant and everything I would expect on in a tropical evening scene. The only thing was that some of the colors seem rather close in color to each other.
Pastel Dreams: This was the set I was most excited to get, I absolutely love pastel colors and shades, so I couldn’t wait to try these ones out, and unfortunately this was the set that disappointed me the most. There are some beautiful pans, however, I first noted that there were two browns. I get it, brown is a color, both the other sets also included one – however, I don’t expect brown when I think of pastels, let alone two. Then there were three red/pink shades. Yes, I get red/pink, but between the red and brown that was half the set gone. The bumblebee is rich and beautiful, but it with the brown was the two pans that seemed overly chalky to me.
As I said, all of them include beautiful colors and rich paints without being overly chalky (with the two exceptions) or dry. If you use too much water or have a heavy hand, it should also be mentioned that they can become quite translucent and transparent with too much water.
I would highly recommend them to anybody looking for a few colors to take along with them, easy storage or someone just getting interested in watercolors.
They also work great in the Leuchtturm 1917 notebook (and probably other notebooks as well). I’ve been adding a splash of color to pages lately and did my Christmas spreads with these paints. They are also good with for lettering, since they don’t build up thick and pasty, they work well.
Oh! And we’ll be using them to make our Christmas cards this year, and I think Santa is bringing some for a certain little girl this year. He has yet to get back to me on that.
A New Adventure 