Art Whale Watercolor Review

Hi friends! Call it a watercolor obsession, or a momentary lapse of reason, or the fine line between a hobby and a mental disorder but I have purchased not one, but two more sets of budget watercolors to review. I couldn’t help myself when I spotted the Art Whale brand of watercolor pop up on amazon. I knew they were likely a company having their paint made by another company through private labeling but the tubes looked really nice, they were in 15ml metal tubes (student grade usually have 5, 7 or 12ml tubes made of plastic) and the tubes had pigment info on them. Curiosity (and a $5 off coupon) got the best of me and I ordered a set. Check out my full review in the video below.

I waited to post this review on my blog because the paint sold out a few hours after my video went live on YouTube. You can now order the 24 set of Art Whale Tubes again if you want them. BTW I’ll have a tutorial of that bird from the video on YouTube tomorrow:)

Here is a summary of my review of the 24 set of Art Whale Tubes :

Pros:

• Price

• Pigment info disclosed on tubes and swatch (Pigments all check out a having good to excellent lightfast reputations)

• Large 15ml tubes

• Saturated strong color

• Dries down well in palette without cracking

• Rewets well after dried in palette

• Colors mix well

• Glazing is possible.

• Easy to handle, you will not have to compensate for any properties with this paint

• Sturdy storage box

Cons:

• Palette is not included

• I think there may be an error in the pigment notations for madder lake and olive green

• All browns except light red are a mix. they performed fine but they are all PR101 based with a black added.

• The cerulean blue was very stiff and hard to squeese out of the tube but it painted out fine.

Bottom Line: These are a great buy if you can snag them for under $40. You can’t go wrong with this much paint of this quality. The pigments are tried and true and going by the pigments disclosed I think they actually downplay, or under-promise, their lightfastness. That ultramarine blue is the best I’ve seen in a student/budget range. I’ve never heard of this brand “art whale” before but I am excited to see what else they come out with!

And now on to the Art Whale half pan set of 48…

After trying the tubes I was really curious about the pans and they went on sale for $10 off so I snapped up a set and the findings on this set was intersting…

So here’s the deal, I think (I am 99.999999% sure but will say allegedly throughout this post so I don’t get in trouble) these paints are made by the paint company Superior which makes the better student grade Chinese paints on the market and many companies have them private label products for them. These are NOT Paul Rubens although the packaging is similar. Paul Rubens is artist quality, more pigmented, and uses more single pigments and a better variety in sets. I highly recommend Paul Rubens watercolors and they are a great price for the quality. They have also been running specials so if you want a great paint go for the Paul Rubens professional line. (I do not recommend the Raul Rubens student grade tubes tho)

Anyway, back to the Art Whale half pans. I think they are great for the price however the set contains some colors that aren’t as useful as smaller sets of the same paint under different brand names. they seem to have a smaller variety of pigments they use and then mix them for more colors. I prefer having pure colors and mix them myself.

Here are the paints I think are the exact same paint:

• Best Value for Money and quality: Doodlehog 36 set (but not the 48 set, that paint is the same as masters touch, not as nice)

• Artsy 24 set and Here is the review

• Altenew 24 set *Here is the review

• I suspect the Etchr and Dugat watercolor are also made by Superior but I do not have them so I can’t say for sure. Superior also makes all the novelty fan and folding watercolor sets like these. with the really thin paints so if you like that quality (which honestly, I do for the most part) you will also like the half pan sets.

Hopefully this will help you out. I just wanted to help you avoid buying duplicates but also let you know there are sets with more colors of the quality of paint you may enjoy as well. Most of these private labels paints do not disclose pigment info but I did see cadmium yellow on the art whale set and disclosed on the Artsy set on amazon so I would not recommend any of these sets for young children.

Phew, that was a lot to get through! I have got to get my watercolor palette obsession under control! Happy crafting!