Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor Paint Set, Lightweight Metal Box, 24 Half Pan

Artist grade, excellent quality, nice set of colors.

These came fast and in great new condition! Of course these are amazing paints!!!

I’m new to watercoloring and wanted to pick a good palette, this one is beautiful!

I’ve been looking to add this set to my collection for a while now, and given that it retails for $189 ($113 at Blick), I wasn’t in a hurry. I happened to see that this set was listed for $65 here but held off due to all of the reviews alleging that these were actually Cotman sets sold as Professional. One of the other sellers on Amazon was listing them for $80 and had 100% positive reviews, so I took the chance and ordered a set. I received a 24-half-pan set of Professional watercolors packaged in the original box and tin with the paper wrappings intact. All colors were as listed without substitutions; this set is exactly the same as the one sold on Blick. Each pan appears as a Professional pan should and the information printed on the side is accurate. I have no concerns that these are not Professional pans, but I have no doubt that there is or was a seller passing off Cotmans as Professional. As for the watercolors themselves, they are easy to activate, heavily pigmented, and appropriately lightfast. I wish Winsor & Newton would hand-pour their Professional half pans instead of extruding them, but it doesn’t affect the quality or experience too much as long as you are okay with the bricks wiggling around or falling out from time to time. The colors in this set are great for a serious beginner or a professional looking to consolidate (this is going to be my travel set since I don’t enjoy lugging around all 80 Schmincke half pans everywhere, as wonderful as they are). I chose to supplement this set with Chinese White, Winsor Blue (Red Shade), and Scarlet Lake to encompass the 3- and 6-color systems that Winsor & Newton outlines for their Professional watercolors. These fit nicely within the same tin and still allow room for a full-size brush. If these have been on your wish list, snag them while the price is this good—you can always return and report if you happen to receive a set of Cotmans. I’m thrilled that I took the risk!

I bought this professional set and a Paul Rubens set. I absolutely love them both but for different reasons. The PR pigments are outstanding and rich. But as you can see, the w&n either did not bleed, or bled very little in comparison to PR. The small paper was arches, and the other two were cheap cotton paper. Easy to use, mix beautifully, and blend like a dream.

This is a set of 24 half pans of W/N professional (NOT Cotman) watercolors in a black tin, sometimes marketed as a travel set. The pigments are just about as good as they get-transparent, rich and easily activated. Few tins include ideal color selections beyond the basic warm and cool hues. This one is close to ideal and includes 7 neutrals, including both yellow ochre and raw Sienna, a sepia, and ivory. Highlights are Permanent Rose, Permanent Magenta, Winsor violet, Indanthrene blue and Hookers green. This set includes both traditional and contemporary colors such as phtalo blue and phtalo green.I added a few other pans of convenience colors in between the packaged rows.During the 18 months since I first bought this kit, I have tried many other brands of professional watercolors in both tubes and pans. I keep coming back to this palette because it is a great combination of mixing colors and convenience favorites, and the quality is really outstanding. The price is less than professional pan sets by other companies that I found to be less satisfactory than these, in terms of both performance and color range.Also-there is nothing wrong with the tin. When you buy any brand of these sets, one has to arrange and secure the half-pans by pinching together the sides of the metal brackets to hold them securely in place.I ordered a second set on Feb 8, 2023 and the order was cancelled by the seller after more than a month. Seller did not respond to inquiries sent through Amazon messages, but Amazon re-ordered for me. It was worth the wait-I'm very pleased with these paints and recommend them highly.

For the money, I expected to be a little more wowed by the colors and quality. My much less expensive paints seem to work just as well. Maybe pigment will hold up better over time? Squares are small. I'm blowing through a few of the colors fairly quickly. But still a nice convenient set with variety.

These colors are amazing and hold to the paper nicely. I love the tin they come in as well, first class art product.