One thing I noticed with this box, if you don't carry a brush pen in the slot, you can fit 6 of the Cotman halfpans just in the brush slot. It seems to fit perfectly.

I love how you linked all the amazon links (especially when you’re not sponsored by amazon) from different countries so it will be easier for us viewers to find it depending on which country we live in. So thoughtful. Thank you for your amazing review and video!

Thanks for another excellent review. I find the Sakura water brushes to be much more useful as you can cap them with water before leaving home without a worry of dripping or damaging the brush head.

I have the old cotman set and I prefer it comparing to their new colours choice. To have 2 of each primaries it's important to learn colour theory. The white and black are pretty useless, at least to me but it's nice that they add Payne's gray and I also like the new palette as well. Your daughter's voice in the background is so sweet!! Thank you for this great review, Teoh 😊

Its a nice cute box, I do prefer them as well over the old sketchers box, but the color selection... :( You probably know that, the old box had a cadmium red light hue, a burnt umber and a warm yellow (I forgot the name of it, haha). While I like the addition of a Payne's gray and purple (I remember when I was not so good at color theory so I didn't know how to mix a bright nice purple with my Cotman set), I don't like the fact they kept a white and added a black to it. Payne's grey alone is fine, is one of my favourite colours. If I were to select the colours, I'd ditch the black and white and add the missing reds and yellows. Maybe exchange this shade of purple for a purple lake? I love that color on the Cotman set as well :)

LOVE your review- very through and informative. Perfect for someone like me, who is new to watercolor with lots of questions! I love how you took the time and care to Patiently go over each detail, and even demonstrated a very organized manner of swatching. I was so excited to open this, but I really didnt know where to begin and this was a wonderful guide 🥰 you got me all excited to try it out now lol

Honestly, the box alone is worth $15. If you don't like student grade paints you could fill the pans with your artist tube paints instead and still come out ahead. I say that because it's hard to find a small palette that can fit decent size travel brushes inside the palette. The fact that paint doesn't seperate in the mixing wells is huge.

ohh this new design reminds me so much of van gogh's student paint set. I'm kinda disappointed they included lamp black when they already have payne's gray though. That dioxazine violet is also an interesting color to include in a student set but I think people who don't know how to mix properly would appreciate a vibrant violet out of the pan. Really great look at this set Teoh!

I bought this travel box last year when I was in London UK. For a small box of paint, this W&N set enabled me to capture the various scenes. Great review vid'. Thanks.

I actually like the pocket sketchers box better. It's slimmer design works better for me personally and I think it's got a better color selection. I don't see the need for a black AND a Paynes Grey. I also don't see why they'd include two greens but not two yellows and two reds. The split primary pallet really seems like a better choice to go with for these travel type sets

Tiffany’s noises 💕💕 adorable Thank you for the review! Informative as always

Spot on! Great review. The saturated yellows are dull, except for gamboge (hue) which is never included in a starter kit. The first thing I throw out of Cotman sets are the black and white, then the yellows. Payne's Grey, Neutral tint or Indigo will go a long way. The "Turquoise" is a confusing label. Praise for W&N for now making the box fit regular half-pans as well. I suspect the shape of the W&N pans is intended to keep customers from buying other brands. In today's market that would, in my opinion, alienate a lot of customers.

Interesting shape of watercolour box! Aside from the 6 wells (which is great), thank you so much for testing out whether other brushes could fit! That was my problem with the original cotman box, since the brush space was so small.

For the price, this is a great, little palette. Easy enough to fill the pans with your own tube paints, add a travel brush and you're good to go. Be sure to hold onto the 1/2 pans that come with the set, b/c not all empty pans fit into the slots. I snagged one for about $14 and I''m very pleased with it after adding my own collection of paints from D, Smith, M Graham, etc.

Thank you for this review. I just received my brush pen set & love it.

Toeh, I love your reviews so much. They are so thorough that all my curiosities are satisfied. I feel confident that I know the product. Your baby girl sounds so cute.

Great review! Thank you for sharing!

Bought this set a while ago to start out and didn’t know if i made a good choice on it, but watching your video really helped give me a different perspective! thank you for your review!

Thanks for this I have Cotman very set for over 30 years and the colours do not run or fade.

Nice! I’ve been quite curious about this set. It looks like a great option to give someone who would like to come out and try sketching. You could replace a few of the colours, like the weak burnt sienna, etc, and set them up without too large an investment. Great review and very helpful - thanks!

Excellent review,thankyou for sharing with us.

Thanks Teoh... very cool box with nice colors, I think I will buy it

The colors are actually usable, I remember having the previous design many years ago and I did not like it. Not sure if it was because of me not knowing how to use the palette correctly, but the colors were newer as pigmented or deep as I respected them to be. I could for some reason never get a dark enough color without using a lot of layers. I kind of want to try this palette but I already have some professional watercolors that I am currently using.

Nice review! Thank u for sharing😊

I have a small waterbrush like this one that I got from Jetpens and it came with a tiny water bottle. It is water tight and can hold water even when the brush is inside the handle. I have found it is good for prewetting the pans and flushing out the brush. It is usually 100 plus most days here in my part of Florida so having extra water bottles with me is never an issue. I also carry a collapsible water bowl and just use it like a regular brush when i don't feel like filling it up.

Was waiting for this review!

Thank you, this was very helpful in case if I was gonna buy one!

lamp black is really good for value sketches with sumi brushes. I keep 2 wells of it (different brand, though) in my summer palette. Thank you for the review.

I’ve used this specific set for the last year and a half +. I just leave the brush in there filled with water and it has never leaked. Did change some of the colours as I went along and found other options that I liked better, but I still use 6 of the original colours. When they run out I just refill it from tubes. I also took the white and black paint “blocks” and just filled the empty pans with tube paint. The chinese white in now filled with gambogue hue (which is amazing for mixing greens so by the way). Great review though.

I just found your channel, and I love it.

Very helpful. Thanks Teoh!!

Good review. I have this box and had not thought about the features you mentioned. I prefer painting with DS and WN artist grade, but I enjoy the Cotman, too:-)

Hello Teoh Hi, nice review, I agree with you about waterbrushes, I don't like the lack of control. I like the new kit overall but would replace the black and white half pans with other colors. I had a wonderful Windsor Newton pocket brush for years, sadly I lost it when I moved. I much prefer a pocket brush and carrying a little bottle of water than a waterbrush. Thank you for the review.

Oooh I'm in love with that violet

Teoh, I have used Cotman and as you say they are good for learning. Very affordable and I really like the new box design I've always preferred tube paints, not sure if the same pigments would be more intense. I do know yhat any colors with the word "hue" after it is not pure pigment. Of course if the set is affordable its a compromise you have to make. Nice review Teoh, thanks for all you do. 😊

I just bought this box without the pans and it's great to add your own choice of colors to. 👍👍👍

I have the old Cotman set and I absolutely love it because it is so compact but I always wished it had more mixing compartments. After watching your video I am getting the idea of glueing some 'dividers' into the mixing compartments of the old set. No idea of that will work, I just don't want to ruin it so I am not sure... Thanks for the great videos Teoh, they help me a lot!

Wow, great price on Amazon US now. These would make great gifts. I can see buying it just for the case. Silly not to include a brush cap though.

Good review, thanks! It looks like they may have updated their formulas to make manufacturing cheaper, because these colours definitely look duller than I'm used to Cotmans being. Dioxazine violet, burnt sienna and yellow ochre still look similar (on my screen at least).

I'm very tempted to get this set and make my first foray into watercolour painting :)

i got me a similar set cotoman it did not come with a water brush :) it has a metal brush travel brush ..did not use it but i used the colors on one of my sketches ,,, and i did what you say , not to use the colors light and not to be scared to go heavy on the pigments and work the contrast ...and i'm glad i did ... thank you...mine did not have pains gray i could have used it ahahaahaa luckli i had pentel artist brush gray to use :)

Good review on this new set Teoh. One thing I noticed was that maybe you might have 3 extra mixing wells if you used the space that the water brush goes into. I agree the white and black paint is kind of useless. I have student grade paints that I use for experimenting with. I save my pro grade paints for my better projects.

Nice set for the artist starting out. I guess a person could reuse the box and add their professional water color of choice. I do like this box a lot

Could you fit a small but decent size paper in the mixing spaces as a stand for the paper (like koi ones)???

Nice little compact water brush!

I always enjoy seeing sets like these, even if I generally don’t use student-grade paints (or WN). It would have been nice to see how the waterbrush works when its reservoir is filled, and whether it does leak into the box, since WN seems to expect this set to be self-contained-do they include instructions to empty the brush before packing it in the box? But it was good to see how other brushes fit. Thanks for giving us a look at this set!

I feel like white watercolor paint should never be included. If you need a white go with a gouache or gel pen.

The box is nice however I'd rather have a warm and cool primary set than some of the other colours.

I recently purchased a watercolor set from a brand with all positive reviews, but I haven't seen many good reviews. I was wondering if you could try out the Paul Rubens 24 half pan set which retails for $38.99 on amazon. I haven't seen it on any other websites which I found pretty weird :/

I prefer the old pocket set for the two primaries choice, I noticed that my pans produce a richer color than the ones you showed, especially lemon yellow hue; I had to replace it and didn’t notice any difference in the strength of color compared to the completely used pan.

I have this and the old one but my only complaint is the new ones are over filled. So the new paints stick to the lid and I have to manually pull them off every time. I’m sure that won’t be a problem over time but something to know.

Looks like Van Gogh pocket sets. Colors are really interesting here... maybe for animal or food sketching?

I am not so good at drawing, painting, nor sketching, though I wish I were but colours always EXCITE me... :)

Very good review

Thank you for this review, Teoh! Well done as always. I purchased this set so I can have something portable. I plan to replace half the colors. I have M.Graham tube paints but I don't want to use those since they do not dry sufficiently hard. So I will purchase some pans. What (artist grade) brands fit well in this box - did you try any?

Thanks Teoh!

I think you could remove the useless brush (IMO) and add 3 more wells with a glue gun (I carry my brushes separately). IME, some of the Cotman colors are a bit better than others (reds are particular disappointing). I have the Sketcher box, and thinking of upgrading. I do have some more DS and WN professional colors. Thanks for your good review.

I bought one of these recently. I replaced black and white with Windsor Red and full strength Lemon Yellow from the pro series. Mine did not come with a brush, but I bought it at a box store, so maybe someone removed it.

I've never had Cotmans in pans -- but I have some in tubes from 30 years ago, and some I got recently (before I started down the Daniel Smith road). I think the old Cotmans were better. I happened to make an orange/blue mixing chart tonight, to see which combos produced the best blacks and greys. I threw the Cotman Burnt Sienna into the chart, just to see what happened. It's nearly the same hue as DS Transparent Red Oxide, but has very little tinting strength. They just seem watery to me. Also, in your video I noticed they were repelled by the fountain pen ink, and they did really weird things on the paper. Like there's weird binder. And, I have issues with the color selection. Throw out the white, black and grey and put more primaries in! But I guess it is cheap.

Great review, very thorough as always! But I would love to know how you are able to mix a nice purple from Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine. I have never had any success with that! 😉

You can put 6 extra halfpans sideway in to brush section, they fit perfectly.

I use my water brushes all the time. It's only when I'm making a painting bigger than 5 x 6 inches that I tend to use my regular brushes. But, I do prefer using the water brush, especially when I'm leaning on my bed and painting. My back hurts too much after just 3-5 minutes of standing, which is what I have to do when painting something bigger. I learned how to work with the water brush. I've never used the Cotman watercolors. I've seen some KZfaq artists use Cotman paints to create really pretty paintings. When I started back into watercolor paints, I bought Grumbacher Academie paints. They come in these tiny tubes for about $5/tube. I didn't like them; but, I've seen other artists use them and give them positive reviews.

Tip - Use Aileen's tacky glue. Place a dab under each of the pans and they will permanently stay in.

What is the difference in quality with Cotman sketchers pocket set 12 with colors and Cotman portrait or landscape set of 8 colors? Why for less paints the price is the same or bigger?

I must be too careful because my cotman set is over a year old, and my paints can still fall out. I don't get all messy, and when it starts to, I wipe off the edges to keep them clean.

nice, but not sure if it's brush is better than koi sakura set

pretty nice and affordable set, but the black and white kinda kill the set, otherwise it'd be perfect for beginners

Nice set for beginners, but since I discovered Holbein I won't go back to cotman 😅

I bought 12 ½ pane (with room for 24) W&N Cotman in a blue metal box. I has a metal ring attached outside on the bottom. I wonder what that is for.

The whole poit of a water brush is that you don't eed to carry water. Without a cap it is useless.

I just bought the Windsor and Newton set and this video shows up in my recommended. KZfaq....How the hell...😑

Can you mention the name of the pocket brushes in your caption that you introduced here in this video please?

What's the name of the brush you were using in this video?

idk y i just prefer using water brushes probably becoz i m able to control them any1 else?

THANKI YOU

You can add some more half pans in the waterbrush hole.

I'm new whit watercolors and just got this box. Which colours would you add instead the black and white? A warm red and a warm yellow? I'm thinking of filling the two half pans from the black and white whit them. Which two colours would you recommend?

The Pocket Sketcher's set has a much nicer selection of colours. This brush set doesn't have burnt umber and only has one yellow. I have the other set and just replaced the white with Prussian Blue. But with this set I would need to replace many of the colours. Better to refill the other set.

I bought this set for the palette only, I hated the color choices so I won't recommend it for beginners unless they're going to add and remove some colors

Could i use asian calligraphy brushes seems interesting to try

Awwaa the box is cute

Think I'll give this one a miss. I prefer less wells and not keen on the way the lid pushes the palette up at an angle. I think the W&N watercolour compact is far better ( more expensive but worth the extra )

Drinking game: every time he says “pan”

Oh my gosh I am so mad at myself I just clicked your affiliate link Not only would you have gotten a portion of what I spent what I spent three times the amount at a retail store for the price it is on Amazon I am so freaking kicking myself right now

I wanted two yellows instead of white!

Nice new Cotman box. 😊 Excellent review and demo of it. 👍 Did you check out Clare Caulfield's art, that link I posted in comments a couple of days ago? Her style is obviously much more simplified and loose. When she puts everything together into a finished piece it comes out looking very colorful, lively, and dynamic.

the red allmost looks pink

I bought this mainly for the palette, and immediately replaced some of the colours. I don't like this specific water brush either, but liked the space for my own brush. The thing that annoys me the most about this palette is that it doesn't sit flat - I always feel like the paint is angled away from me (if I'm using the mixing wells) or the main area gets in the way of the mixing wells. It might be fine at a desk, but i'm often using it on my couch or on the go. I'm actually kind of annoyed I didn't buy the smaller w&n cotman palette - I specificallly got this one for the brush (which I don't use) and the slightly larger size. I think I would have been happier with the smaller palette shown in this video. In the end, I got the (i think it was) 16 palette w&n cotman set. I took out the useless plastic dividers and stuck the pans down with bluetack. I can actually fit quite a lot of pans in it (32 I think but I don't have it in front of me right now), it sits flat, and has a finger ring under it so it is easier to hold on the go. This is the palette I use daily and would recommend it over this brush set.

I will just buy the bigger box so I can put an escoda brush for travel kekek thank u

I would just put the color on the hole instead of the half pan....obviously if you don't plan on changing colors.

Too bad they waste half pans by putting in black and white.. also why put black and Payne’s gray. I guess if you want the box it would be easy to take out some and put in Daniel smith.. I agree having six mixing wells is great..thanks

Are all the Winsor & Newton sets made in China now? As I know they are not made in France anymore.

I like the design of the box, but that waterbrush with no cap is the stupidest idea ever! Also, the colour selection is very strange - they include Turquoise and useless white, but basics like warm yellow and warm red are missing? Crazy!

I think you have too many travel brushes. You can send them to me, if that will help you......

amazon wont ship to aus and ebay want +$20 shipping. ah well.

Putting white and black in paint sets is kind of cheesy. There are other inexpensive paints that can be substituted by the company.

Alexis me your colour is very good and I am by the ji scholar please I request you comment and mere ko colour Chahi Mai kahan se kharidi sakta Hoon Ek Kamre is kam paise batayega please mera naam Saurabh Sagar Hai

I have a little game for you. Drink a glass of water every time he says half pan/s Edit:like so everyone can see!

I hated this palette. The paints in mine were very hard to rewet & very weak. Also the box when open doesn't lay flat & was constantly sliding around & moving.