It is no doubt that Winsor and Newton are a renowned leader in the watercolor world for their famous pigment sets and inexpensive pricing.
Cotman 12 Half Pan Sketcher’s Pocket Box
The Winsor and Newton Cotman series are well known to be a great student-grade range that offers quality pigments that have excellent tinting strength and transparency. An awesome set for serious beginners is the 12 half pan Sketcher’s Pocket Box, a well-priced set that comes with a compact plastic palette as well as the brand’s Sceptre Gold (sable/synthetic blend) collapsible pocket brush. This beginners set is optimized for travel (can literally can fit in your pocket) and can be a great addition to your urban sketching art supplies if that’s something you’re interested in.
While the color variety of the Cotman Sketcher’s Pocket Box has been judiciously selected to enable you to mix the greatest range of colors, the biggest flaw of the 12 Sketcher’s Pocket Box set is its limited set color range (Lemon Yellow, Intense BlueCadmium Yellow Hue, Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, Viridian, Sap Green, Chinese White, Alizarin Crimson Hue, Ultramarine, Burnt Umber, Yellow Ochre), worsened by the inclusion of a white (Chinese White) pigment. Although this pan could easily be replaced with a pre-purchased pan, it’s just a little frustrating seeing a set specifically designed for students to be so limited in color variety. This restricted range of pigments is also made clear with the absence of purple shades. Regardless, the Winsor and Newton 12 Half Pan Pocket Set is popular for a reason, mainly for its compact profile for plein air artwork and color range suited for someone wanting to dabble in watercolor as a new medium.
Cotman 24 Half Pan
If you want the exact same quality and reliability of pigment as the previous set but truly want to maximize your color range without too much of a jump in price, I would recommend the Winsor and Newton Cotman 24 Half Pan set. This set contains an additional 12 pigments compared to the 12 Half Pan set including: Cadmium orange, Dioxazine Purple, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Prussian, Emerald, Hooker’s Green Dark, Indian Red, Paynes Gray and Lamp Black.
It similarly includes a small pocket brush (size 3) that fits conveniently in the compact box profile, however, also includes the ‘PLUS cartridge system’ offering the additional flexibility to expand the set’s color variety beyond its initial selection of 24. This addition may seem a bit ‘gimmicky’, but the freedom to add extra pans is incredible for tailoring the set to your artistic style and desired color palette.
One thing to keep in mind with this set (similar to the Sketcher’s Pocket Set) is that the lid (palette) is not easily removable and may be difficult to clean underwater per use. This can be easily solved by just spraying the palette with water and wiping it down with a paper towel, however, can be highly impractical if the palette is densely covered with pigment that is difficult to properly clean.
Again, this “travel set” is amazing for urban sketching and on-the-go plein air style painting, easily fitting in your backpack without you having to allocate too much extra space. The name truly speaks for itself.
Cotman Half Pan Studio Set 45
The Cotman 45 Half Pan Studio Set is Winsor and Newton’s largest student-grade set that covers the full range of colors that includes an additional extra pigment for each of the most popular hues available. The half pans Winsor and Newton provides is optimized for outdoor painting and/or urban sketching. Much like the previous two sets, the Cotman 45 set includes a built-in mixing palette for you to easily create washes or mix colors as you please. With the full spectrum of color made available, this set can easily be transferred from on-the-go painting to a studio setting.
Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolors
The Winsor and Newton Professional watercolor line improves upon the Cotman’s saturated and dull texture with high pigment load and vibrancy. Unlike the Cotman line which includes additional binders causing occasional inconsistencies in paint, the professional range contains flow additives such as animal based ox gall to add to their rich smoothness.
The biggest improvement of these watercolors from the Cotman range is its amazingly vast color variation. Some examples include the completely transparent Cobalt Blue, vividly pigmented Cerulean Blue and brightest Dioxazine Violet compared to several other reputable brands. The jump from Winsor and Newton’s student-grade range is especially prominent here with its exceptional lighfastness and excellent dispersion suited for professional artists.
The biggest flaw of these paints is the quality of the tubes they are contained in, due to their caps often getting stuck rigidly and requiring a shockingly large amount of pressure to twist open. Another drawback to consider is that these paints do not re-wet as exceptional as other brands such as Daniel Smith or M. Graham, and require a longer-than-expected time to soak after being sprayed with water before use.
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