If you are new to watercolor painting and want to explore your hobby, the Van Gogh watercolors set is a quality student-grade set of paints. Beautiful and authentic Van Gogh watercolors are perfect for a beginner.
It has the most vibrant shades of any student-grade paint, has a high transparency range, and can be used with a variety of paper types.
If you are passionate about watercolor painting and have always wanted to try it, then this is the right time. Let the painter in you out.
I wrote a Van Gogh watercolors review just to test out this set myself. Let’s see if I liked it.
Watercolor like an artist with Van Gogh products
The Van Gogh watercolors are student-grade paints produced in the Netherlands by Royal Talens.
Royal Talens is one of the largest manufacturers of artist-quality paints, pencils, and other art materials in Europe, and they also make products for other brands like Rembrandt.
Van Gogh Watercolors are developed with a careful balance between quality and price.
With brilliant and intense colors, high tinting strength, excellent lightfastness, and brilliant mixability, they are the perfect choice for artists of all levels, from beginners to professionals.
These watercolors are intended for ‘the serious artist,’ filling a niche for affordable quality paints that are less expensive than their Rembrandt Professional range but of a higher quality than student paints.
Van Gogh is available in sets of half pans and full pans as well as tubes.
The pigments in Van Gogh watercolors are listed on the back of the packaging, making it easy to identify the specific pigments in each pan or tube.
What can you expect from Van Gogh watercolors?
The Van Gogh watercolors give you the chance to create your own work of art. Whether it is a landscape, portrait, or still life, you will work with professional quality watercolors.
The unique ingredient in these Van Gogh watercolors is gum arabic. This makes the paint more flexible and keeps your colors from drying too quickly.
The Van Gogh watercolors are available as sets ranging from 6 to 24 colors (pans or tubes). For example, you have a set with 24 tubes, but also a set with 12 tubes and one with 6 tubes.
The review
These are very affordable when compared to other artist-grade watercolors.
They’re a great value for artists who want good quality paints without breaking the bank as the watercolors produce vibrant, transparent colors at a fraction of the cost of most watercolor paint.
Van Gogh’s watercolors contain specially selected pigments of high purity and quality for making paintings of lasting beauty.
These natural pigments are bound by means of modern synthetic resins, modified starches, and traditional gums such as gum arabic to achieve brilliant colors of perfect consistency.
They are made with modern manufacturing techniques that allow the colors to be purer and more concentrated than traditional watercolors. The paints dry quickly and have a high lightfastness.
The colors are vibrant, intense, and very well pigmented even when watered down.
Sometimes watercolors can be tricky to mix, but with Van Gogh watercolors, mixing is effortless and it expands the range of colors tremendously.
These high-quality student-grade paints are easy to use and blend well. The final product truly exceeded my expectations: the paints are vibrant and have a very good opacity.
Van Gogh Watercolor – Plastic Painting Box of 24 Paints
This Van Gogh watercolor set is ideal for beginner artists. It includes 24 basic colors in a compact plastic case.
The pans are removable so you can switch them up as you prefer or even use them in another palette if needed.
The case has a built-in mixing palette that is quite large and easy to clean as it detaches at the hinges.
The set also comes with a brush that is a great size for detail work. There is also a lot of space around the pans for bigger brushes, which prevents the contamination of colors.
I would definitely recommend this product to anyone interested in starting watercolor painting!
Pros and cons – Is this the set for you?
I’ve covered the main points of the Van Gogh watercolors review, but let’s now see what you should keep in mind when you are buying these watercolors.
What are the pros of these watercolor sets and what are the cons?
| Reasons to buy | Bear in mind |
| Marked as student grade, but the quality goes towards artist grade Comes with a mixing paletteIntense and well-pigmented colors Great mixability Removable pans | Comes only with one brush The brush is only for detail work The bigger sets are not travel-friendly Colors need to be watered down quite a bit to achieve the transparent look |
Van Gogh VS White Nights – Reviews of watercolor sets
When reviewing different brands of watercolors, the White Nights watercolors come close to the Van Gogh watercolors in regards to affordability.
So, which one should you choose, and what are the main selling points in the Van Gogh vs White Nights debate?
Both watercolor sets are marketed as student grade, but they are both high quality regardless.
Both brands use similar pigments, but they use different ones, and it is worth mentioning here that the White Nights watercolors have more filler in their watercolors.
The quality is pretty similar if we talk about the paint itself. White Nights is a little bit creamier than Van Gogh, but I personally prefer Van Gogh because it is easier to apply on paper.
I would say that the opacity of the paints is quite similar, but I would say that the opacity of Van Gogh is a little bit better than in White Nights.
The pigments are slightly different in each of them. In White Nights you will find PB29 (Ultramarine), instead of PB29:1 (Natural Ultramarine).
In Van Gogh, you will find PY42 (Yellow Ochre), instead of PY43 (Yellow Ochre Light).
F.A.Q.
Are Van Gogh watercolors artist-grade?
They’re good, but not artist grade. They’re very opaque, but also very flat (no granulation). They are student-grade watercolors that seem to be somewhere in between student grade and artist grade. Definitely perfect for beginners.
How to use Van Gogh watercolors?
Each unique color is made from the same high-quality pigments. The colors can be mixed wet on wet and can be used for washes and glazes. You really need to experiment with the paint. You will be disappointed if you try to use these like other watercolors.
How many Van Gogh watercolors are there?
The Van Gogh watercolors come in sets of 6, 12, and 24 paints. You can choose between buying the paints in pans or in tubes. You can also buy colors individually, which allows you to also make your own palette.
Where are Van Gogh watercolors made?
Van Gogh watercolors are made in Holland by a company called Royal Talens. Royal Talens was founded in 1899 near the Dutch city of Apeldoorn by three brothers who were members of the Talens family, which has a history of involvement in the art materials business dating back to the 1600s.
CONCLUSION
Despite these watercolors being in the student grade range, they are actually of a higher quality than other watercolor paints in the same quality range.
The colors are vibrant and opaque and you should have no issues blending them.
The Van Gogh watercolors are a good starting point for people who are new to watercolors and wish to experiment before investing in artist-grade paints.
I hope this Van Gogh watercolors review helped you in deciding whether these watercolors are a good fit for you. If you have any further questions about how these paints perform, please leave a comment below.
