SAKURA XNCW-24N, 24 Assorted Watercolors Field Sketch Set with Brush

Please note: The 5 star rating is for the good color options and the convenience of a portable watercolor kit for painting on the go - and from the prospective of someone very new to using watercolors. I joined an outdoor sketching group over a year ago. Painting outside presented several challenges for me and my initial attempts were frustrated by the difficulty in juggling brushes, paints, a water bottle- all while holding onto the sketchbook and trying to draw in it! After I discovered water brushes and stumbled on this Koi Sakura portable watercolor set, I was finally able to get down to the business of painting. At first, I wasn't sure if I'd like watercolor as a medium and didn't want to spend too much. At less than $25 for the color range and portability, I felt I couldn't go wrong buying this set. At that time, I also purchased the Cotman 14-color watercolor set but didn't like the flimsy-feeling palette and the paints kept falling out. I needed something easier to manage. This 24-color set had all the shades I needed with a few colors I don't even use. It folds up neatly into a small, square box that fits into my shoulder bag. The colors are strong and more on the opaque side - which was my preference, initially. The problem I did have with the Sakura paints is that mixing colors created muddy results. I read somewhere to not mix more than 2 colors together if not using single pigmented watercolor brands. These are beginner/student quality but are much better than the retail store stuff that's all chalk and barely produces any color. I've only used the included brush a few times early on. It was too much work to take off the plug and then attach the brush end to the barrel (and then dismantle in reverse after I was done). Instead, I bought several other fuller length water brushes. I like the Niji, Kuretake and Pentel Aquash brushes and have used Derwent ones as well. I just store the other water brushes (won't fit the Sakura case) with my drawing pens and pencils that I bring along with me, in a pencil pouch. Now I'm ready for better quality paints and the price difference is considerable. I plan to keep this Koi set because the box is sturdy and well-made. I can replace the paints with better watercolors once I decide which to get. I've tried the Prima Marketing paints and was impressed with the color clarity and how more translucent they are compared to the Koi brand. I suppose this is part of the learning -- knowing what good paints look like on paper and what they can do!

One of the passions I have are watercolors. Everyone who may know of me knows I love all types from paint to pencils. I was on the lookout for a pan set that would not break my wallet and I had heard a lot about Sakura so I took the plunge and bought this field sketch set. When I get something new I like to play with it and one of the first is just applying the colors to paper so I can see how they look. The pigment in these is very nice and they work like a dream for me. I am super excited to work on my next project. I am also thrilled with the size, it's perfect for traveling and the brush has a cap for the tank so it won't leak. One tip, I cut up my larger watercolor pad to the 6 x 4 size of the container so I have them for taking with me on a trip and it all works great! The case is well crafted and the pallet slides off so you can connect it anyplace you like. There are little built in sponges to soak up access water and clean the water brush between colors. This water brush is nice with a great tip and no loose fibers. I like that I can use it for petals or leaves and I like the end cap on the tank. In my case I find it pretty easy to control too. Overall. I am super pleased with the quality and pigment in the pans. The 24 colors are a wonderful variety. It's awesome for travel or home use. There are no issues at all with the water brush or the seal on the cap. I have nothing negative to add at this time.

**Great gift for getting back into watercolor** I bought this Koi watercolor field sketch set for a friend's birthday. He loved doing art in high school but life had other plans and he hasn't done it for several years, so I thought this would be a nice way to encourage him to start again. He absolutely loves it. The set is easy to use, very intuitive, and the colors are bright and beautiful. I got thim the 24 color palette and the variety of colors is perfect. There are enough to make it easy, but not so many that it's overwhelming. The paint flows really nicely across the page, which makes it approachable instead of intimidating. The water brush is especially handy because it makes the whole set easy to take on the go without worrying about a bunch of extra parts and pieces. And it's such a good value for the price. It has been a great way for him to reconnect with something he used to love, and I’m so glad I chose this set as a gift.

This is my first watercolor set (I wanted to pick up watercoloring). It's super compact, so I could definitely see myself carrying this around. Because this is my first watercolor kit, I don't have much experience - like knowing what makes a kit good or bad, if the watercolors are good quality, etc. But I will say that the colors are super, super pigmented. I will update this review with a photo of a painting I did. And the brush is absolutely awesome. I literally squeeze it like 2-3 times and the entire color will be gone from the brush tip. It's insane. The first time I used this I was worried about the durability of this brush, and how it would control the amount of water when I squeeze, but it's brilliant. Solid control, and easy to use. I believe it makes watercoloring easy for complete beginners who have no understanding on how to control on water. I definitely feel like as I experimented with this, the ease I felt was because of this amazing brush. All you do is fill the inside with water, and turn the actual brush-tip part on. Voila! It's connected, and will not leak. Also, on the back of the box shown in the product image, there are instructions that you can put a little canvas or paper on the inside of the lid (so once you open the box, the lid will be flat) when you paint. Like they're trying to sell that it's also an easel or something. This doesn't work for me because 1) my paper is massive and 2) It wouldn't be very balanced anyway, because the paper would shift around on the plastic. I don't think this would be a problem for a lot of people because we would all be using pretty big pieces of paper, but just letting you know. It doesn't work for me, and I don't see how this would be that great, because I feel like it would slide around, or if you accidentally moved the entire kit, the water would move as well. The kit does come with sponges on both sides of the colors, but I haven't used them yet (not really sure when to use it). They look like cheap sponge that you could probably easily replace. You can easily pull them out the little trays. Cleanup is super easy. I usually run the plastic detachable mixing palette under water for a few seconds, then use paper to wipe the rest off. It comes out really clean. Of course, if you leave it to dry for a long time and then clean it off, expect some struggle. I am just in love with the brush. The brush is freaking awesome, and the brush fibers are amazing. All in all, I really like this cute, compact watercoloring kit. I'm glad I made this purchase :)

I bought this set to carry around with me for plein air painting and urban sketching. The size, together with the overall convenience of the package, convinced me to buy. Having now had and used these paints intensively for several months, I feel qualified to offer a review. By way of comparison, I also have a Cotman travel set of 12 colors and zillions of tubes of paint, mostly for home use, some of which I've put dollops of in a travel palette. First, in terms of value for money, the Koi kit is excellent. Compared to Cotman, it includes a waterbrush, two sponges, and has a more generous mixing surface, all big pluses. Moreover, the waterbrush is very decent quality. I picked up some low-end waterbrushes that came in a range of sizes from my local art store. The Koi brush runs circles around these in terms of snap, holding its shape, and being able to control water flow. The set offers lots of colors, just about everything you might need, another plus. So why only four stars? When it comes to watercolor sets, it's all about the paint. Transparency is an important quality for watercolor. While this will vary with the materials with artist grade paints, for student grade, as this set is, most of the paints are tints or hues so consistent transparency should be more easily achieved. Except it is not here. The reds, in particular, suffer from a big problem in this regard. Having a transparent rose/crimson color on one's palette is pretty essential. The quin rose is okay, but the crimson in this set is lifeless and quite opaque unless diluted down a lot. You don't need a zillion colors in a water color set, but you do need the right colors to mix what you want. Specifically, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna are the two essential colors on any palette. The blue is in evidence here but, inexplicably, burnt sienna is nowhere to be found. The closest is a color that is bizarrely labeled "light red." It is red all right, but hardly light. It's not burnt sienna either, more like an opaque Venetian Red. But, rather sadly, it is the best option. The bottom line is that, despite the convenience and the larger number of colors, I find myself preferring the Cotman set to this. It has many fewer colors, again mostly tints and hues, but better colors, both in choice and in behavior.

Edit: This is almost 10+ years in the making but i was looking through old reviews and saw that I said I’d update once I’ve tried more watercolors and now as a professional artist/illustrator (vs. as a recent high school grad who had dreams of making art for a living) I have a bit more to say. I still believe everything I wrote below! Believe or not, I still have this same watercolor set because I find the size, set up, and thumb hold convenient to use. I’ll squeeze different watercolors on to the palette and still occasionally use the old, crusty pans from the OG set (I’ve replaced some). This a great set for students and beginner water color hobbyist of any age. I genuinely feel getting this and using it to explore this medium and practice more art in general lead me to becoming a professional artist with how often I’d take it out to use. Having used other brands now like Winsor & Newton, Holbein, etc, these watercolors can be “chalky” and not very pigmented compared to higher grade watercolors (obviously). The pigments can just sit there and not blend/bleed, but for it’s intended use for students/beginners or even people needing a larger palette set for on the go plain air painting, it’s reliable and great. Original Review: I was really interested in a pan watercolor set and something convenient to lug around places when I bought this. One of my favorite artists at the time had one of these so I decided I'd try watercolors out! I haven't regretted the decision. :) I really love this set! I've had this for about three years now and I use it for almost all of my watercolor pieces. It's been with me my entire watercolor art journey. It has lasted a pretty long time (that or I don't watercolor as much as I should), and I've only hit the bottom on a few colors. The packaging is great and I'll keep it long after I run out of its original pants (I'll probably order some tube watercolors to fill up the empty squares). The provided palette is wonderful! I sometimes end up using the back of the palette/the lid of the container for additional space, usually because I get lazy about cleaning it, but that's great too! The brush pen is pretty good for on the go, but I usually use my own brushes for detail work/more "serious" pieces. I also kinda messed up the brush when I went to go clean it this one time and it leaks too much water for me to do anything but washes now. I've been meaning to order another one, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it. Color/pigmentation wise, I'll have to update this review when I try more watercolor brands. I only have experience with this so I can't compare it to anything else. Though I can speculate that it's might not be the BEST quality compared to other higher end brands just because it's a watercolor set and probably has it's fair amount of filler in some of the colors. The art supplies don't make the artist though because I've made pretty decent stuff with this and I've seen amazing artist make great work with this too. I can't recommend this enough! It's amazing for beginners/advanced artists/whoever because it's super convenient and has plenty of color choices! Though if anything, if you're a beginner, you might not need all 24 colors. They sell a smaller set with 12 colors which might be ideal if you're starting out so you don't get overwhelmed with color choices and mix muddy colors (something I did a lot of lol). (included art done with this set! some stuff ordered from when i first got it (2013) to now (2016))

Though not "professional grade", travel palettes are great for outdoor sketching and they are quick for little things you do at your desk. Sakura has a great reputation and has been around for many years: I used Sakura art supplies as a child (Cray-pas.) This set has a variety of paint cakes and I got the 24 pan. You really only need 8 to 12 colors but the 24 has a good variety of yellows, which are one of the most useful colors, and several blues that are essential. The paints are typically Japanese; the Japanese use a different binder and wetting agent than European watercolors and they lift a bit more (I find) but they are always rich in pigment and not chalky. This is very important for any painter especially beginners, who try to buy student grade and suffer with pale, weak color and chalky finish. I prepared a sample chart. It's a bit darker in the photo but it does show the density of the colors fairly well. The colors lift when rewetted, so they require a bit of a different technique. The colors are not the traditional metallic pigments: it's cadmium hue, not cadmium red (probably pyrol red, which is ok) and the yellows are permanent yellow and "jaune brilliant"--a color Sakura is known for, but not cadmium yellows. As a result, most of the colors are transparent. If you do wash over waterproof ink, that's a good thing. The only color I didn't like in the set is the Burnt Umber, which I found weak in density. The white and the black are useless to me (purists don't use them) but there they are. Once in a while I use white, I never use black. To make black I combine a color like Permanent Green Deep and Crimson (a blue red). Quinacridone Rose is included, a very useful rose pink and there is a fairly good purple (resembles cobalt purple) The greens are pretty nice: olive green and light permanent green (like sap green) and viridian (a very strong blue green, I never use it unmixed0 and Permanent Green Dark which resembles the old Hookers Green Deep. The yellows are very brilliant. The blues are the least impressive: ultramarine is a bit dull but the essential blues are here: cerulean, cobal, ultramarine and prussian (probably phthalo blue.) They don't list pigment content, at least in English. The palette in the box has legs that fit over sockets; you can position it off the back or to the side. A Japanese water brush (fill with water, use as a watercolor brush) and sponge wipers on each side. So no need to carry water, but you will find you might want a small screw cap vial of water in your kit to make big washes; the brush has trouble doing that. Re: Refilling. The company says to refill with any Sakura TUBE paints but two problems. That could be just as expensive as buying a new palette and the paint holders are in a cheap light plastic tray, not a heavy plastic tray like the palette. So it's a bit liable to crack. Re: Pigment names and lightfastness. Some reports are that the yellows are fugitive (fade over time.) The red vermilion is actually fairly permanent--it's likely pyrol red. Sakura does not reveal its pigments or contents as "proprietary' and as they seem NOT to use metals and advertise them as "non-toxic" other than paint buffs like me who know the difference between aurolein, Hansa yellow and Cadmium Yellow, who cares? If you are going to do things you wish to frame and keep, do a lightfastness test yourself. (Paint strips on paper. Cover half with black paper and place in bright sunlight for a few months. then remove the black side and see if the colors have changed.

I was so excited to get these. I ordered a set of watercolors in a .5 oz tube and thought it would be good to have a palette style set as well, but I didn't wa to spend a lot of money. These were not the least expensive, but also not the most. So I thought that would mean I would get pretty decent quality for a low cost set. These are better an expected. I used them today and made a color chart. The colors are bright and vivid. They look great as wet on dry, wet on wet, wash, and fine lines. The art is compact and the little palletes are half pallets. The only thing I notice is these are not removable. So I don't believe you can replace a color when they run out. I like the compact size. It will easily fit in my purse for use when waiting in the doctors office, or use on trips. It also comes with an extra tray for mixing colors. The only two colors that I wasn't totally impressed with vividness is the ivory black and the raw/burnt umber. Not sure which umber it is. Anyway, those I had to add a couple layersnto get the dark vivid color that I wanted. Overall, I am very happy with my purchase! I will purchase again. Great for e beginner or amateur artist, or professional artist that needs a compact set on the go.

I have a lot of really great things to say about this set, I'm probably going to miss something but here goes. I bought this about two weeks? ago and I was instantly impressed. It probably helps that I wasn't using very good stuff before. The brush releases the paint much easier than the derwent I was using before, which meant I didn't use as much water. The colours are fantastic and the paint itself is great, it's easy to use gradually instead of getting TOO much paint right away like my old watercolour pallet. The sponges on the side are extremely helpful for washing my brushes. It's so small and compact and there's even a spot for a brush, so I only have to grab the pallet and my sketchbook and I'm good to go. The only problem I really have with this is it seems harder to lift water and paint off my painting with this brush, it's not a huge deal since I always work with a kleenex or cloth next to me, but it's nicer to have that paintbrush precision. All in all, I am so happy with this, I told a friend all about it and she's asked me to order a set for her. And if you're like me and like to work small, I'd suggest also buying the smaller brush that I bought with this, (then you'll have a small and medium brush for a good price)

writing this review after years! the paints are absolutely great.. pigmentation is superb.

Mi esposa usa este producto continuamente. Le funciona muy bien, es muy práctico por el tamaño y los espacios para hacer las combinaciones de color. Sin embargo, en algún momento se le llegó a caer y se rompió con cierta facilidad (aunque no se quebró completo, sólo se le salieron un par de pastillas de color y fue fácil volver a ensamblarlo).

Boa pigmentação, perfeita para iniciantes e bem suave. Atendeu bastante as minhas expectativas, ainda estou aprendendo mas é fácil de controlar.

Leuchtende Farben, 24 Farben lohnen sich vor allem für den Ansatz von Mike Daikubara, dessen Bücher ich sehr empfehlen kann, auch wenn andere Autoren ein minimalistisches Set bevorzugen. Nicht nur als Anfänger ist damit ohne viel mischen schnelles Sketching möglich!