Hi friends! This isn’t a new product by any means, but I wanted it for a long time and finally got it for Mother’s Day. Without further ado, here is my review of Mungyo Nostalgia of Pastel Professional Watercolour.
First of all, in case you don’t know, Mungyo is a Korean art supply brand. I have their chalk pastels and they are pretty decent for the price. In addition, this watercolour set is professional quality and lightfast. For US$15.00/CAD$29, it’s not a bad deal at all.
Presentation & Packaging
This 12-pan set comes in a soft cardboard box (unlike Paul Rubens) and has a well made tin. Additionally, the foldup tray stays flat, not slanted like some of my other tin palettes. It’s important to have the tray lie flat so the liquid doesn’t drip and slide off.
The Paints
The 12 half pans are individually wrapped. I love that they even printed the colour code on each pan.
By the way, you can purchase Mungyo Professional Watercolour open stock. I have a black one for which I paid CAD$4.99.
Also, each shade also has pigment information. Of the 12 shades, 4 are single pigments. Since this is a set of pastels, the most of them have a white base to them and and are not transparent.
Swatches of Mungyo Nostalgia of Pastel
The colours are really pretty and vibrant! In case you think this looks exactly like Prima’s Watercolor Confessions Pastel Dreams, they are the same. However, this Mungyo set is cheaper.
Performance:
Since these are all light shades (except for the two brown shades), it is not easy to use the set by itself.
In particular, 3 shades are very milky with strong white base: 825 Phthalo Blue Light, 873 (Rose Madder Genuine) and 874 (Salmon Pink). At least with the pinks you can use Pyrrol Red to darken them; none of the blues is dark enough to give more depth to each other.
Strong White Base
First, I did a Creamy Mami painting on cellulose paper with the Mungyo Nostalgia of Pastel watercolours for the review. I regretted not using 100% cotton paper because it created a lot of hard edges. Anyhow, I used all 12 shades in this painting. (I also used Bleedproof White and black)
After that, I painted another piece using only this set. Moreover, I mixed some colours together for the lavender and leaves just to show whether you could get more variations. In fact, you can, but the changes are fairly slight because of the white bases to them.
This set is best used as a complementary palette to your regular palettes. Here, I used mostly Mungyo Nostalgia of Pastel with just a bit of Payne’s Grey from Meiliang:
Some Cons
Even though I really love a few of the colours, I find that the inclusion of Raw Umber and Transparent Brown Oxide a bit unnecessary. Since this isn’t going to be a standalone palette, I felt that they could have included some real pastel colours instead.
Moreover, the paints felt a bit chunky. For example, after I wetted the half pans and dipped my brush into them, chunks of them come off at a time. The paints can also feel a little gritty and chalky. I didn’t experience this with Meiliang, Van Gogh or Paul Rubens, but this also happened to me with the Emma Lefebvre May Subscription box paints. So if you are the type that likes to paint straight from the pans without blending the paints on a palette first, this isn’t for you.
However, since pastel shades all contain white pigment, I had expected chalkiness. I still like the colours, except for 825 (Phthalo Blue Light), which is very pale and opaque, and does not mix well with other colours to create new shades.
Overall Review:
Mungyo Nostalgia of Pastel Professional Watercolour is a novelty set with lightfast and beautiful colours at a very affordable price. The paints can be a little chalky with strong white base in some of them, but you can still create nice artwork. You can mix your existing watercolour with white to create these shades, but it’s nice to have this set if you are a collector. For the price it is not bad (especially if you buy it in the US). However, it is not a must have; I would only recommend this to someone who really likes pastel colours.
