In 2021, my watercolor journey started when I was gifted the Winsor & Newton Cotman student grade 20-color tube set. Now that I’ve used exclusively professional grade watercolors for years, I’ve started to lose touch with my memories of student grade. I decided that if I’m going to be recommending or disrecommending Cotman to beginners, I better know what I am talking about, so I picked up the same 20-color tube set that I started with. What do I think now??
Myths & Facts
I wanted to revisit Cotman in order to personally test some received wisdom that I’ve repeatedly heard and even passed along. Like so much of watercolorist oral tradition, I found it to be of mixed veracity. In my re-test, I found Cotman paints to be both not as good and not as bad as the claims I have heard from fellow out-of-touch pro-grader users.
Fact: Student grade paints have less pigment & more binder
It was really notable how much more binder there is than I’m used to. Compared to the gentle flow and high intensity of pro grade, student grade struck me as being gummy, streaky, and weak. You need more paint to get a vibrant color.
Myth: “The low pigment load fine actually because you can just use more paint”
Unfortunately, I found that just indefinitely using more paint isn’t a satisfactory solution. There is an upper limit to how much paint you can use before it gets weird. When you do use a lot of paint, you can get clumpy, irregular drying.
This is why I disagree with Ron Ranson’s take that beginners should use Cotman or other student grade paints because they will feel more comfortable using plenty of paint when it’s inexpensive. I understand the problem he’s trying to solve, people being precious with expensive paint, but I just feel like a lot of Cotman isn’t the same as a lot of pro grade.
Myth: “Cotman yellows are weak”
Actually, I found Cotman yellows to be quite strong and satisfactory. They were among those most close to professional grade in quality. It was the reds that really let me down.
Myth: “You can’t reactivate Cotman tube paints”
I recently learned that Winsor and Newton’s official company advice (regarding their pro line, but also applies to Cotman) is that you should buy pans if you want to use dried paint, because they use different formulas in the tube and pan paints. I don’t do this, because I don’t use standard pan sizes, and I totally use DIY-dried WN tube paint all the time. It is kind of hard to rewet, but it’s not disastrous.
So my question was, how are the Cotman tube paints to rewet? I found that the tube paints reactivated a little better than my expectation (which was admittedly low). Most colors achieved similar to their maximum wet vibrancy.
I have never tried Cotman pans, so I can’t compare tube and pan formulations.
Color by Color
Here’s my thoughts and personally, entirely subjective “grade” for each color. I judge by comparing them to their pro grade counterparts, both in terms of final appearance and experience or brush-feel.
I used the Cotman colors straight from the tube for maximum vibrancy. I compare each one to a pro grade equivalent (or close enough) that I had in my collection. Some of the pro grade comparison colors were painted from dry, so it’s a comparison that is a bit unfair in favor of the student grade paints.
Lemon Yellow Hue
Pigment: PY175
Color Slot/Substitutions: Lemon Yellow
Review: I was pleasantly surprised by Cotman’s yellows overall. I have read that they have a reputation for weak yellows, but I found the strength quite reasonable for this pigment, which has moderate tinting strength. The color is bold. I do wish Cotman had put Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue in the set, since it’s more of a middle yellow, and I find that more useful; but this is a good example of a lemon yellow. I really liked this color when I was starting out.
Grade: A
Cadmium Yellow Hue
Pigments: PY97, PY65
Color Slot/Substitutions: Orange Yellow
Review: I expected this to be a middle yellow but it’s distinctly warm, almost the same hue as DS New Gamboge. It’s pleasant and rather strong.
Grade: A
Cadmium Orange Hue
Pigments: PO43, PY83
Color Slot/Substitutions: Orange
Review: This dried fine, but felt weak on the brush. I don’t personally find orange that useful, but it’s reasonable to put straightforward secondaries in a beginner set, since they tend to be easy for people to get their head around.
Grade: C
Cadmium Red Deep Hue
Color Slot/Substitutions: Middle Red
Review: A nice fire engine red, just a bit weaker than I would like. Of all the color families in Cotman, I feel the reds let me down the most, as they all feel weaker than they need to be.
Grade: C
Alizarin Crimson Hue
Pigment: PR179
Color Slot/Substitutions: Crimson
Review: This definitely doesn’t feel like Alizarin Crimson. It isn’t rosy and pinkish in dilute; it’s more bricky and dull (which is typical of its pigment).
Rather than judge it by the name, I’ll judge it as a color: a nearly-middle-red Perylene Maroon. I would use this similar to the way I use Perylene Red (PR178). I just wish it were stronger as it does feel annoyingly nerfed.
Grade: C
Permanent Rose
Pigment: PV19
Color Slot/Substituion: Magenta, Pink, or Rose
Review: The hue is good and this is a good mixing color, and I would classify the strength as moderate on the Cotman scale. It is notably weaker than pro grade, and dries clumpy and shiny when I try to make up for it by using a lot of paint. I would reluctantly choose this as my pick for a Cotman primary red because of its useful mixing range and the lack of any better ones. I found Cotman reds quite unsatisfactory as a rule.
Grade: C+
Purple Lake
Pigment: PV19. Not this is the same pigment code as Permanent Rose; there are two varieties. The purpley one is sometimes called PV19β.
Color Slot/Substitutions: Violet
Review: This was probably my biggest disappointment, not because it’s the worst color, but because I had the fondest memories of it and the highest hopes. I loved this color when I started with Cotmans, having no experience of professional grade paint. I loved it so much that I was disappointed to find there was not a professional grade equivalent, exactly. It’s a PV19 violet, so you’d think it would be like Quinacridone Violet, but it is a bit warmer/pinker than most, and I loved that about it. I eventually came to use Quinacridone Fuchsia (PR202) in a similar way. I still like the hue okay, but I found the paint notably weak compared to its fellows. I am not sure if WN has changed the formulation or if I just had too rosy of a view of it.
Grade: D
Dioxazine Violet
Pigment: PV23
Color Slot/Substitutions: Violet
Review: Dioxazine Violet is nice and strong! It is an extremely strong pigment, almost too strong, so if they weaken it at all, it’s not that noticeable and also not really a bad thing. This is one I’d feel comfortable using in student grade – I don’t see a big difference from pro grade.
Grade: A
Ultramarine
Pigment: PB29
Color Slot/Substitutions: Violet Blue
Review: I’m irrationally annoyed that the official name of this color is “Ultramarine” and not “Ultramarine Blue.” They don’t have an Ultramarine Violet to confuse it with, I guess. Anyway, the hue of this Ultramarine Blue is nice – a good middle blue, not too green or too violet – and it does show granulation. It’s just so weak. It’s hard to use the way I normally would in mixes because it seems to weaken every mix. That’s a problem for a color I normally use as a versatile mixer.
Grade: C
Prussian Blue
Pigment: PB27
Color Slot/Substitutions: Dark Blue
Review: Nice and strong! I had good memories of this color and I’m glad to see that they are justified. This is one that’s almost as good to use as its pro grade counterpart.
Grade: A
Cerulean Blue Hue
Pigment: PB15
Color Slot/Substitutions: Cyan
Review: This is meant to be a dupe or fake of Cerulean Blue (PB35 or PB36), but it is more like a Manganese Blue Hue. It’s made from PB15, the same pigment used in Phthalo Blue, but it is much weaker and lighter-valued than Phthalo Blue; I wouldn’t use it interchangeably. White isn’t listed in the ingredients, but it’s a pastel light blue that appears very similar to a mix with white. You should also not expect it to have the same granulation as a genuine Cerulean Blue.
As a convenience sky color, this is decent, but it’s not a very flexible mixing color. I guess I don’t object to this color in and of itself, so much as I object to Cotman’s tendency to include this as the only cyan in sets, but that’s beyond the scope of the color reviews and is more of a set review. If you want a color for skies, this is fine.
Grade: B-
Turquoise
Color Slot/Substitution: Cyan
Review: I expected from the name and the pigment listing that this would be kind of a blue-teal similar to Winsor Pro’s Phthalo Turquoise (PB16), but as you can see from the photo, it’s much bluer. It is actually quite close to plain ol’ Phthalo Blue (Green Shade), which makes me wonder why they bothered to put in Phthalo Green. Anyway, this is an appropriate color to use as a primary cyan. It is quite strong for Cotman colors, though I did notice it tended to dry clumpy when used in very strong concentrations.
Grade: A-
Emerald
Color Slot/Substitutions: Green
Review: This is a mix (theoretically you could mix it from two other Cotman colors, Lemon Yellow Hue and Viridian Hue), but I found it difficult to match the exact hue on my own. This is a quality that I typically value in commercial mixes, since they bring something to the table that’s not easy to replicate. That said, I suspect there is unlisted white in this mix because it is light-valued even in masstone and somehow they got it pastel without becoming too yellow, which feels like what you’d use white to do. Or they have a way of processing Phthalos to make them pastel without white (as they presumably did with Cerulean Blue Hue), I don’t know, but it comes to the same result. Emerald is fairly strong, but because it has a limited value range, it’s of limited usefulness as a foliage mixer. I am not quite sure what else I would use it for. Viridian Hue, below, is more useful.
Grade: C
Viridian Hue
Pigment: PG7
Color Slot/Substitutions: Green
Review: Phthalos are so strong that they’re still nice and strong in Cotman, and while there’s a little clumping/bronzing in extreme masstone, it’s generally quite good. I’d describe the hue as a middle green, not too blue or too yellow, which surprised me; PG7 is usually known as Phthalo Green (Blue Shade), and often has quite strong blue undertones, especially in Daniel Smith brand. But the Cotman hue isn’t far off from Da Vinci’s relatively middle-ish formulation of the color. While I like the bluer hue, the more middle-green hue is arguably more useful for making a wide variety of foliage mixes.
Grade: A
Hooker’s Green Light
Color Slot/Substitutions: Green
Review: No point of comparison for this one because I didn’t have a pro grade commercially mixed Hooker’s Green on hand to compare it to. I will say that this struke me as being acceptable. When graded on the curve of Cotman paints, it’s one of the better ones. When graded on the curve of all Hooker’s Green paints, it’s even fine, I think, mainly because a lot of Hooker’s Greens are weirdly weak, especially WN Pro’s version. I don’t find Hooker’s Green to be a necessary color, because I like to mix my own greens, but this is a reasonable foliage base and beginners may appreciate having a convenience green they don’t have to mix as much.
Grade: B+
Yellow Ochre
Pigments: PY42
Color Slot/Substitutions: Earth Yellow
Review: Cotman Yellow Ochre is pleasantly strong. I found it reasonably comparable to my favorite yellow ochre, Holbein. The hue is a bit more muted, but this is common (Holbein is my favorite because it’s unusually high-chroma). Note that the Cotman version is extremely opaque – even more so than most Yellow Ochres, and this is a pigment noted for being opaque.
Grade: A
Burnt Sienna
Pigments: PR101
Color Slot/Substitutions: Brown
Review: Whoof. This has to be my biggest disappointment in the set. I have no memory of what Burnt Sienna was like in my original Cotman set; I just know I didn’t start to like the entire slot until switching to Daniel Smith’s Transparent Red Oxide (without that Cotman Burnt Sienna is also a transparent red oxide using the same pigment.) Perhaps the Burnt Sienna in my original set was just as bad, or perhaps I got a dud: the one I tried in this set was horrendous, with binder fully unmixed, pigment clumpy and weak. Just a horrible painting experience.
Until I re-tried Cotman, I would have totally recommend their Burnt Sienna as an important color. Given how shitty it is, though, I can’t. I don’t know what to do about the important role that earth orange plays in mixing. Work around it, I guess.
Grade: F
Burnt Umber
Color Slot/Substitutions: Brown
Review: Wow – the Cotman was actually stronger than my pro grade comparison color! Granted, this test was unfairly stacked in favor of the Cotman, which I used fresh from a tube, whereas the DV paint was not only from dry but from a dot card. Still, even under those conditions, the Cotman can rarely match the intensity of the pro grade. The downside? The strength of the Burnt Umber seems to come from its inclusion of strong synthetic yellow ochre (PY42), which also means that is more opaque than I would like.
Grade: A-
Lamp Black
Pigment: PBk6
Color Slot/Substitutions: Black or Gray
Review: Water control issues in the swatches above are my fault. I actually found the Cotman to be about on par with pro grade when it comes to the strength and intensity of black. Lamp Black is such a strong pigment that it’s hard to mess up. The only signs I could find that it’s not pro grade is that it tended to dry more streaky (not as dispersive, harder to grade smoothly) and more shiny (as sign of excess binder).
Now, I don’t like Lamp Black or find it necessary or desirable as a pigment, since I think it mixes ugly, but I’m trying to judge on how good of a job Cotman does at making the color, not whether the color is good. In that context, it gets top marks.
Grade: A
Chinese White
Pigment: PW5
Color Slot/Substitutions: White
Review: I painted this sample against a paper bag to show off the white color. PW5 is a pigment I’m not familiar with from pro grades. Looking it up, it seems pro grades tend not to use it because it can tend toward being grayish and dull, not as bright-white as Titanium White (PW6) or Zinc White (PW4). This strikes me, at initial paintout, as being pretty white, but it lacks the opacity that makes white ever worth using. White watercolor is always kind of disappointing, so I guess it’s unfair of me to compare it against more-opaque gouache. But it’s hard for me to stick to comparing it within its own category and not critique its palette role, since white watercolor seems like a bad thing to include in a beginner set: it tricks beginners into thinking that it’s an important color, as it is in other painting mediums, instead of what it actually is in watercolor, which is a rare corner case color.
Grade: D-
Conclusion
I don’t really enjoy using most of these colors, so I definitely won’t be going back to student grade as a rule. Even the colors to which I gave an “A” are not colors where I’d say, “Yeah, this is as good as pro paint.” It’s just not as not good as the other colors.
Look: Cotman paints are definitely way more usable than, say, a children’s paint set. If you’re starting out with watercolor and a Cotman set is the difference between affording and not affording it, or you already have it, then I think it’s a good way in. I mean, they got me hooked!
They are definitely noticeably not as good as pro grade, though. And when I say “not as good,” I mean for pros and beginners. Pro grade paints are more pleasurable and less frustrating to use, and they are easier to make look good. If you’re struggling with student grade and wondering how artists on Youtube and Instagram videos get such beautiful pure color and smooth gradients, pro grade paints is part of the reason.
I have limited ability to compare Cotman to other student grade brands. I have tried Van Gogh in a dot card, and I have a generally favorable opinion of them; I think on the whole they are slightly better than Cotman. But where I live, they are almost as expensive as pro grade. I got this Cotman set for $20; I can’t find a Van Gogh set for less than $40. For that kind of money, you could get the Daniel Smith Essentials starter kit and just jump straight to pro grade.
If you can afford (or already have) professional grade paints, then I think you can safely skip the “use student grade for awhile” rite of passage. And if you currently use student grade paints and you care enough about the hobby to worry about whether you have the best student grade colors or brands, you probably are ready to upgrade to pro!
See also: 8 More Cotman Colors Compared to Professional Grade
Comments
8 responses to “20 Student Grade Winsor Newton Cotman Watercolors Compared to Professional Grade”
I had a much better experience with Van Gogh than Cotman, but I do agree their Dioxazine violet and Prussian blue are excellent (I also love their Intense blue / Phthalo blue GS).
Comparing Chinese and Titanium white isn’t fair, as the first one is meant as a mixing color to create pastel shades, so it’s not as overpowering as the latter. In fact, some brands like Van Gogh include 2 both whites in their range for different purposes. They are even be called “mixing white” and “opaque white” in some ranges.
You are right! It was also unfair that I used gouache. But I didn’t have a more appropriate comparison because I don’t really use mixing white.
I just thought I would defend Van Gogh a bit by saying that their halfpan sets can be relatively cheap in Europe: a 15-colour set often sells for 15 EUR, and I have seen it for, like, 13 EUR. That is not a bad option for someone who just wants to try out watercolour.
(The Cotman sketchers set of 12 is similar in price, but most people agree that Van Gogh gets you closer to the pro paint experience.)
It’s so regional! If you’re able to get Van Gogh for cheap, I think it’s a great option.
I just wanted to reiterate though that price is pretty much the only reason to choose student grade over pro grade. And I have often found that General Consensus about what’s more or less expensive doesn’t necessarily hold in specific situations, so my advice is to actually price it out.
I found your website through Google looking for different palette ideas. I love your profiles of palettes of other artists.
Your website and posts are wonderful. Like this one, they are so helpful, educational, and interesting. Also, I like that this is not from the perspective of an “expert” but someone who is learning at the same time. I really like that you’re not constantly trying to sell a Patreon or Substack subscriptions.
Thanks for all the great writing and information.
Thank you! I’m a holdout for the web 1.0 model of hobby website, where you release a ton of information that is mostly text due to your own special interest, and you don’t really try to monetize it. (Well, I do have the occasional, marked affiliate link on posts that explicitly discuss products, to help me break even on server costs.) I’m so pleased when somebody is able to use the information.
I don’t mind affiliate links at all. I appreciate the links to recommended products. I want to support artists but I can’t support -everyone’s- $6 a month subscription.
What a great review/comparison, thank you for sharing!