Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI Watercolor Paint Set 36 Colors, Professional-quality art supplies for artists adult painting sketching, Non-Toxic, Made in Japan

The images included with this review show only the warm and cool primaries, a total of six pans, in a plastic lid. The entire set is not shown, and these six colors were removed for the purpose of teaching color theory to my six-year-old grandson. Once we got through color theory, he began to use the entire set.I purchased the set for my 6-year-old grandson as a substitute for the traditional inexpensive Prang pan sets that cost around $2. This is definitely an investment if you want to teach your child about water colors and color theory. I selected this item because the primary colors of red yellow and blue are included in this set in both the warm and cool spectrum. In case you didn't know, the warm and cool colors you choose to mix additional colors is extremely important to obtain specific mixed colors.I do find the colors are very vibrant but on the Milky side not as translucent as I would like but still amazingly better than the inexpensive hand paints typically used in schools. My grandson took a lot of pride in owning this beautiful set of watercolor paints. I do wish the box was waterproof to withstand water better but it's holding up very well so far. Watercolor painting is so much fun with children!Being able to remove the pans was perfect for isolating the primary colors to prevent distractions and to be able to focus on color theory concepts. The box includes a place to paint each of the colors for a reference guide on the lid underside.

I have both the 36 and 48 color sets and they are lovely! They are NOT western watercolors, although they can be used like western watercolors and with some practice get similar results. The paints are semi-opaque, so must be really watered down to get the translucence of western watercolors. They are very vibrant and have a nice creamy consistency. Because of the binder, they tend to dry with the satin sheen where the paint is heavy. I absolutely love them for what they are and have created some beautiful work with them…and I’m new to traditional watercolor.

The Kuretake set is possibly a good choice for students who can't afford a whole set of tube watercolors. They don't quite work the way tube watercolors do, because Japanese watercolors use a different binder (the stuff that sticks the pigment together into the paste in the cake--said to be fish glue in Japan.) The colors are also reputed to be more opaque, but that's actually not true. They have a very good amount of pigment but they are transparent for the most part, the same as other watercolors. The lid of the palette box has a place to do swatches, and the photo at the end of this review has my sample swatches.Another issue is lightfastness. I know the lightfastness of Western brands such as Winsor Newton and Daniel Smith, but not the lightfastness of these paints because I don't know what pigment is actually used in the paint. But their reputation is very good, from reading a number of tests done.The paints don't rewet on paper quite as well as some of the non-staining colors I use from tubes, but over all they are bright, work up easily and are very pretty colors. At the price, a student might have good luck with these colors.For illustration, you can't beat them. I still prefer my Daniel Smith or Da Vinci or Winsor Newton for watercoloring but these are very fun and so reasonably priced, they are excellent for cards and illustrations.

These are some truly beautiful watercolors to work with! In one word, they are "pigmented." So pigmented! They are not like traditional watercolors at all unless you heavily dilute them. They are more similar to a gouache, and all colors are fairly opaque with a few of the colors being completely opaque (black, white, and I think Pale Aqua and Cornflower Blue). There is also a color that is sort of silver or pearlescent, and both warm and cool tones of gold. So this paint is thick and fairly opaque, and a little on your brush goes a long way. I sometimes draw with a Pigma Micron pen before painting and these pen lines usually remain visible beneath the paint, so if that's something you like to do, you can still do that!The reason these paints are so different is mostly because of the binder. Most watercolor paints use gum arabic as a binder. Kuretake's use the collagen from various sea creatures instead. I've also read that that is part of the reason the colors are so bright. And you can both see and feel the difference when painting with these.Aside from these paints being such a pleasure to work with, most of the colors are lightfast! According to some kind soul who tested this set of watercolors for lightfastness over a period of a year, the only colors that are NOT lightfast are colors 34 (Dark Pink), 57 (Turquoise Green), 66 (Menthol Violet), 67 (Deep Blue). For anything serious you paint, you can just use different colors instead and you'll be fine. This was one of the bigger selling points of this watercolor set for me, knowing everything wouldn't fadeI feel like this is a genuinely good quality watercolor set that could be used by both beginners and professionals, because the quality is good but the price is still fairly reasonable. And if you are taking your art seriously and intend to display it, the lightfastness alone is worth it. Because what use is it to create something beautiful if the sun is going to erase it? So I say this watercolor set is WORTH IT!