Idyll Sketching

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My Favorite Watercolor Paints by Brand

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It’s all very well for me to do Color Spotlights identifying my favorite version of each color, but it can be hard to collate and use information when you’re standing in the watercolor aisle at the art store. Every shop seems to carry different brands. I’ll find myself with a rare chance to stock up on, say, Holbein open stock on sale, unable to remember which colors I actually preferred from Holbein. So I’ve made a list of my favorites by brand; and I thought I’d share it with you! Revised October 27, 2024.

A few caveats:

  1. This list is subjective, my preferred colors per brand, which may or may not be yours. Click through individual colors to see the Color Spotlights comparing other brands and explaining my reasoning. 
  2. I haven’t tried every color, so there could be missing options. See all the colors I’ve tried through the Color Slots page.
  3. I haven’t tried every brand. Some big ones are notably absent. Sometimes this is due to location, availability, cost, format (I prefer tubes to pans), or ingredients (I have tended to avoid honey-based paints because they don’t stay hard on my travel palette.)
  4. The brand lists are roughly in standard order, yellow to red to blue to green to neutrals, not in order of preference.
  5. Brand lists do not make up a complete or good palette; they contain every color I like from a brand and none of the ones I don’t, without filling in any gaps or streamlining overlap. For complete usable palettes by brand, see Single-Brand Watercolor Palette Ideas.
  6. There are more colors listed than you need. The fact that, say, Pyrrol Red (PR254) is listed under Holbein merely means that I think Holbein’s is the best Pyrrol Red I’ve tried, not that it’s necessarily a color you must have. There are a lot of palette-slot duplicates — colors that are so similar that you don’t need both. I’ve starred (⭐) colors that I use most frequently.

Favorite Colors By Brand

Da Vinci Artists’ Watercolor

Especially beautiful earth tones and granulating blues; good all-around basic brand for most colors. This is also my default brand for a lot of “good in any brand” colors. Da Vinci makes Cheap Joe’s American Journey and Opus Essential Watercolours, so you can swap those brands one-to-one.

Update January 2025: the links in this section are affiliate links to the Da Vinci website! If you buy something from the link I will be eligible for a 5% commission.

Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor

Note: These links are to my Color Spotlights for each color.

Holbein 

Holbein Artists’ Watercolor

Note: These links are to my Color Spotlights for each color.

MaimeriBlu Artists’ Watercolor

Note: These links are to my Color Spotlights for each color.

Schmincke

Schmincke Horadam Aquarell

Note: These links are to my Color Spotlights for each color.

Winsor & Newton 

Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor

Note: These links are to my Color Spotlights for each color.

Cotman Watercolor (Student Grade)

If you want student grade watercolor (e.g. because it’s cheaper), this is a good brand and a good way to try various colors. They are all going to be less intense (more binder/filler, less pigment per ounce) than a professional artist grade, but that may just mean you have to use more paint. When working with student grade paint, I find painting from the tube more satisfying than using dry paint.

Here are my picks for favorite Cotman colors that I still have affection for after moving to artist grade.

Note: These links are to my Color Spotlights for each color, which typically don’t cover student grade versions.

  1. Lemon Yellow (PY175) – reasonably bold, a nice lightfast lemon hue. (Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue looks like a similar alternative which is a mix of PY175 and middle yellow PY97, making it more of a middle yellow, but I have not tried it. Note that no Cotman color actually contains cadmium.)
  2. Cadmium Yellow Hue (PY97, PY65) – a nicely balanced mid-to-warm yellow that is similar to SH Indian Yellow or DS New Gamboge.
  3. Gamboge Hue (PY150, PR209) – Mostly PY150, and like PY150, a great mixer of greens.
  4. Dioxazine Violet (PV23) – Such an intensely strong pigment that being student grade doesn’t noticeably change it much.
  5. Intense Phthalo Blue (PB15:3) – Phthalo/Winsor Blue is so strong that it’s just fine in student grade; if anything being a bit weaker makes it easier to handle. The color Cotman calls “Intense Blue” is nicely balanced between Phthalo Blue’s Green and Red Shade varieties.
  6. Turquoise, a Phthalo Blue mix containing a little Phthalo Green, is actually mostly blue and strongly resembles a typical Phthalo Blue Green Shade. A strong alternative to Intense Phthalo Blue.
  7. Cerulean Blue Hue (PB15): This is a pastel blue that I would not recommend as a primary cyan due to its lack of value range, but it’s a convenient specialist for sky blue.
  8. Prussian Blue (PB27) – Pleasant deep/muted hue. One of the stronger Cotman colors. Mixes a nice Indanthrone Blue hue when mixed with Dioxazine Violet.
  9. Viridian Hue (PG7) – this is Phthalo/Winsor Green Blue Shade, see note above on phthalo blue. More toward a middle green hue (less blue than some), similar hue to Da Vinci’s Phthalo Green.
  10. Light Red (PR101) – Very similar to pro grade Venetian Red; strong, granulating, nice mixer.
  11. Payne’s Gray (PBk7, PB29, PB15) – A strong dark, slightly blue-toned gray, useful for monochrome and shadows.

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