Hi friends! Arrtx kindly sent me their 24 Watercolours Set for review, and after using it for more than a week, I am ready to share this with you.
Packaging & Swatches
Arrtx 24 Watercolours come in a sturdy cardboard box, similar to Kuretake Gansai Tambi. However, unlike Gansai Tambi, other than the pans being plastic, the Arrtx inserts are paper. There are pros and cons in this; the pros being that the packaging (including the plastic pans) is recyclable, the cons being that if you are a “mister”, this could get messy. That being said, you can always transfer the pans into a tin palette if you prefer.
On the back of the box you can see the 24 colours with lightfastness and transparency ratings, as well as pigment information. Even though a few of the shades have either semi-opaque ratings, and one (Lamp Black) has full opacity rating, I personally find that they are pretty transparent overall.
Here are the swatches:
Performance of Arrtx 24 Watercolours
When I first swatched Arrtx 24 Watercolours for the review, I could feel that the strongest, most vibrant colours are the blues. The Phthalo Green is beautiful as well. The burnt sienna in this set is very different from most burnt siennas I owned from other brands, in that it is more red and less yellow. The sap green is also quite different from other brands’ sap green. My personal favourites from this set are the blues, Phthalo Green and the three yellows, I feel that they are really beautiful and come out rich in pigment.
To test out all the shades, I also mixed reds and greens and used the brown shades from the set. I find that the Payne’s Gray and Lamp Black are a bit more binder heavy, particularly the Lamp Black. Mixing the blues, greens, Burnt Umber and Violet achieved a darker black for me personally.
I did a quick landscape piece to show how vibrant the reds and yellows are in the set. The Cadmium Orange is absolutely rich and beautiful as well.
Overall Arrtx 24 Watercolours Review
Arrtx 24 Watercolours lift, layer, blend well and rewet easily. I find them to be very easy to use, and some of the colours are very vivid and richly pigmented. Considering these are full pans, you are even getting two phthalos in the set for a very affordable price! I think these are as good as my first love, Meiliang, which I still use. I look at the Phthalo Blue from this set and compared it against the Daniel Smith one and it is identical. Personally, the set is worth it just for the blues alone. The primary colours are so vivid and rich that they will create beautiful artwork.
Disclaimer: While Arrtx sent this set to me for review, this is not a sponsored post, and all my opinion is my own. I do not get any commission if you purchase it from Arrtx or Amazon or any other retailer.
