Etchr Student Grade Watercolors- Unbox & Swatch- Student Grade Showdown

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Shownotes:
Full Shownotes: https://tinyurl.com/y2zm5a8f

Get Your Own:
24 Half Pan Set, $48.00 on Amazon: https://amzn.to/39omLIc
On the Etchr site, $49.50: https://etchrlab.com/collections/pain...

https://etchrlab.com/

This isn't my first time reviewing an Etchr product- I reviewed the mini palettes a while back, and have eyed the satchels for a few years, but have had difficulty justifying pulling the trigger on the price point. I have mixed feelings about Etchr as a company in general- while several of their products seem promising, they all seem overpriced, and their watercolors promise big.

Not finding anything about who makes these, so maybe yall can let me know, or we can figure it out as we go along.

https://etchrlab.com/collections/paints

Etchr offers three watercolor sets- the 48 piece set, a 12 piece metallic set, and a 12 piece pearlescent set.

The photos on the website look like these were white-labeled, possibly from Paul Rubens?

So according to Etchr, these are student grade paints- Color info in full shownotes

The Packaging:
Wrapped in Plastic (probably Amazon’s addition)
Fairly swanky cardboard box branded with Etchr’s branding and log
Watercolour
24 Half Pan Set
Premium Student Series

Card
Cleaning wipe? Sorta like the Paul Rubens
Bellyband

Black metal palette with an Etchr sticker on it
I kinda rag about getting your branding screened on the product

Inside the tin
Swatch Card on what seems like decent watercolor paper
24 individually wrapped half pans

Each pan is wrapped (similar to the Rosa Galleria) with an adhesive sticker- so no foil, no extra plastic, and since the pigment info/lightfnast/opacity is on the swatch card, I don’t need to save these plastic wrappers

I save it anyway because it’s easy to remove and restick. Less waste I guess.

The halfpans themselves don’t have any markings or provenance. The paints are extruded and have a shiny surface.

Some of the pans seem a little underfilled

Swatching on their included swatch sheet:

Colors swatch clean and bright. They paper they included is decent (I’m thinking one of their cottonrags) and reflects the color well. There seems to be some granulation in some of the colors.

Swatching on My Sheet:
Very similar to the results I got with their paper.

Color Mixing:
Atomic: These make some really nice mixes that don’t desaturate too much. Granulation is more noticable with the atomic mixes than with the swatches.

Optical: There is some color movement, but not as much as I’ve noticed with the Rosa Galleria and Mungyo paints. I feel like the true test is going to be with the fieldtest.

These seem to get used up quickly and aren’t sold open stock by Etchr (and they aren’t revealing their source), and don’t necessarily use standard (or similar) names to popular professional watercolors, , which to me just shortens the lifespan of these paints. These are standard half pan sized, and this is a standard palette, so it can take replacement half pans (or you can refill from tubes), but I think this is something you should be aware of before buying watercolors for yourself (if you’re new to watercolor) or for an aspiring artist.


Lift Test:
Not all colors lift uniformly, but most are pretty staining. Some of the colors I thought would be more prone to lifting, like the yellow ochre, are surprisingly staining.

Wet into Wet Test:
The granulation really stands out when you do wet into wet, particularly with the prussian blue, emerald green, and ultramarine. Color seems to disperse nicely.

Compared against Paul Rubens Half Pans:

Ok, I can’t find my original paul rubens half pan set (I donated it), but I love the Paul Rubens tubes SO MUCH, I want to give them a redemption arc anyway (I bought the first set on Wish, soooo), so I’m ordering a set of 24 and will do an Art Supply Redemption!

Pros:
Nice color selection, particularly Power Black
Handle decently well- kinda unremarkable- nothing really terrible, nothing really great

Cons:
These are definitely student grade in that they pollute the water fast and tend to get used up fast
Colors are renamed to nonstandard names, so if you’re not familiar with the common art trade names, you may have difficulty buying replacements when you use up a color you really like.
Way overpriced in my opinion compared to other student grade, comparable quality watercolors on the market

The Verdict:
Fine feathers don’t necessarily make fine birds- while the paints are ok, I think they’re overpriced.

Music:
Sonatina No 2 in F Major Rondo- Joel Cummins
MydNyte- Noir et Blanc Vie
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik- Mozart
C Major Prelude
Tranquility- Kevin MacLeod
Angevin 70- Kevin MacLeod
MydNyte- Noir et Blanc Vie
Silver Blue Light- Kevin MacLeod

#Etchr #Etcherwatercolors #Etchrwatercolorreview