Best Watercolor Paints for Beginners: 5 Sets Compared

The best watercolor paints for beginners let you mix clean color from a short list of single-pigment tubes. A box with more pans doesn't help with that. By that measure a six-tube artist-grade set beats most 12-pan beginner boxes, and it costs about the same.

This ranking looks at five sets that beginners actually buy, and compares what is inside them: how many pigments are in each color, what the maker says about lightfastness, and what Blick charged for the box when we checked on 7 November 2026. Prices move, so treat them as a snapshot.

In short: Buy the Daniel Smith Essentials Set (six 5 ml tubes, $33.40 at Blick) if you can. Five of its six colors are single pigments rated lightfastness I. If you want pans, the Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketchers' Pocket Set ($22.54 on sale at Blick) is the best student box. The Sakura Koi box is the cheapest at $14.70, but Sakura publishes no pigment data.

What are the best watercolor paints for beginners? (quick answer)

The Daniel Smith Essentials Set. It gives you a warm and a cool yellow, red and blue in artist-grade tubes for about the price of a student pan box, and every color in it is transparent. If you would rather start with pans, the Cotman Sketchers' Pocket Set is the one to get.

Overview

A beginner set should do three things. It should mix clean secondaries, so your greens and purples don't turn to mud. It should use pigments the maker names, so you can look up what you are painting with. And it should not cost so much that you are afraid to use it.

All three point to a short palette of single-pigment paints, which is why the best watercolor paints for beginners are usually sold as tubes rather than boxes. A split-primary palette of six tubes covers more mixes than a 24-pan box, because the box fills its extra slots with pre-mixed greens, browns and greys. A single pigment means the color comes from one chemical compound, named by a Colour Index code such as PB29 for ultramarine. A paint listed with two or three codes is a mixture, and mixing it again on the palette tends to dull it.

Price matters less than it looks when choosing the best watercolor paints for beginners. The five sets below cost between $14.70 and $86.12 at Blick on the day we checked. The two cheapest and the most expensive are all usable. The difference is how much pigment is in the pan, how cleanly it mixes, and whether the maker tells you what is in it.

For what the labels mean, the student vs artist grade watercolor comparison goes through six pigments side by side.

The 5 Best Watercolor Paints for Beginners, Ranked

Prices are Blick's listed price on 7 November 2026, before tax and shipping. The manufacturer's own price is given where it differs.

1. Daniel Smith Extra Fine Essentials Set (6 x 5 ml tubes)

Blick price: $33.40 (item 01767-1009), which works out to $5.57 per tube and $1.11 per ml.

This is the set most working painters would hand a beginner. Daniel Smith describes it as three cool primaries and three warm primaries: Hansa Yellow Light, Quinacridone Rose and Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) on the cool side, New Gamboge, Pyrrol Scarlet and French Ultramarine on the warm side. All six are transparent.

What the maker's color pages say about each tube:

• Hansa Yellow Light is PY3, lightfastness II (Very Good), the only color in the set below lightfastness I.
• New Gamboge is PY97 with PY110, the one two-pigment color here, lightfastness I.
• Quinacridone Rose is PV19, lightfastness I, non-granulating.
• Pyrrol Scarlet is PR255, lightfastness I, semi-transparent.
• Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) is PB15:3, lightfastness I, high staining.
• French Ultramarine is PB29, lightfastness I, granulating, meaning the pigment settles into the paper's texture as a fine speckle.

The weak point is the format. Six 5 ml tubes need a palette to squeeze into, and 5 ml of a yellow does not last long if you paint large. The pans vs tubes guide works out what each format costs per ml over time. For a beginner painting on quarter sheets, though, this set will last months.

2. Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketchers' Pocket Set (12 half pans)

Blick price: $22.54 on sale, list $38.49 (item 00337-1059), or $1.88 per color at the sale price. Winsor & Newton's own US site lists it at $38.49, and showed it sold out when we checked.

Cotman is Winsor & Newton's student range of 40 colors. The pocket set holds 12 half pans and a travel brush: Lemon Yellow Hue, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Cadmium Red Pale Hue, Alizarin Crimson Hue, Ultramarine, Cerulean Blue Hue, Viridian Hue, Sap Green, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and Chinese White. Winsor & Newton adds that actual contents may vary.

Seven of those twelve names carry the word Hue, and that is the thing to understand about this set. A Hue is a mixture made to imitate a costlier pigment. Winsor & Newton's product page lists Cadmium Red Pale Hue as PR255 with PY65, and Sap Green as PG36, PR101 and PY139, three pigments in one pan. Both are rated transparent and permanent by the maker, so they won't fade. They just mix a little duller than a single pigment would.

Why it still ranks second: the box is cheap, it is everywhere, and the Ultramarine and the two earths are solid. A beginner who outgrows it can buy single Cotman pans for $6.89 on the maker's site, or move to the Professional line in the same box.

3. Sennelier La Petite Aquarelle (12 half pans)

Blick price: $27.40 (item 01669-1129), or $2.28 per color.

La Petite Aquarelle is Sennelier's student range. Blick's listing names the colors as Titanium White, Primary Yellow, Scarlet Lacquer, Rose Madder Lacquer, Ultramarine Deep, Primary Blue, Sap Green, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Ivory Black among the twelve. That is a sensible beginner selection: two blues, two reds, a yellow and the earths.

Sennelier's watercolor page describes a honey binder and Kordofan gum arabic, but that description is written for the artist line, L'Aquarelle. The maker's page does not say whether La Petite Aquarelle uses the same binder, so we cannot confirm it. Pigment codes are printed on the pans and tubes rather than published on the set page, which is why this box sits below the Cotman set despite a similar color list.

GODEEPER: Whichever set you pick, the paper under it decides whether the paint behaves. A cotton sheet keeps a wash workable for minutes longer than a cellulose one. Best Watercolor Paper for Beginners: Why 100% Cotton Matters →

4. Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour Field Pocket Set (12 half pans)

Blick price: $86.12 (item 00319-0004), or $7.18 per color. Winsor & Newton's own US site lists the same set at $156.59.

This is the artist-grade version of the Cotman pocket idea, in a larger box with a travel brush, a sponge, a 35 ml water bottle and a water container. The twelve Professional half pans include Winsor Lemon, French Ultramarine, Winsor Blue (Green Shade), Permanent Sap Green, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber, with a cadmium-free yellow and red, Alizarin Crimson, Payne's Gray and Ivory Black.

It ranks fourth because of price and because of the colors chosen. Payne's Gray and Ivory Black take two of twelve slots that a beginner would rather fill with a second yellow or a cool red. If the budget stretches this far, the Daniel Smith tubes plus a Cotman box for travel cost less than this one set and cover more ground.

5. Sakura Koi Water Color Sketch Box (12 colors)

Blick price: $14.70, list $34.08 (item 00378-1009), or $1.23 per color.

The Koi box is the cheapest set here and a common first purchase. It comes with a 4 ml water brush and a sponge, and the lid has mixing wells. Blick lists the palette as Chinese White, Cobalt Blue Hue, Crimson Lake, Deep Yellow, Ivory Black, Lemon Yellow, Light Red, Prussian Blue, Vermilion Hue, Viridian Hue, Yellow Green and Yellow Ochre.

It paints acceptably for the money. It ranks last because Sakura's product page describes the kit as lightweight and affordable and lists its uses, but gives no pigment codes and no lightfastness ratings for any color. You can't look up what Crimson Lake or Light Red are made of, or whether they will hold up on a wall. For a sketchbook that stays closed, that doesn't matter. For anything you might frame, it does.

GODEEPER: If you lean toward a pocket box because you paint outdoors, the travel sets guide compares pans, tins and water brushes for painting away from a table. Best Travel Watercolor Sets: 5 Pocket Boxes Compared →

Analysis: Pigments per Color, Not Colors per Box

Line the five sets up by what is in each pan and the ranking of the best watercolor paints for beginners explains itself. The Daniel Smith set has six colors and seven pigments in total. The Cotman set has twelve colors, and the two we checked on the maker's site contain two and three pigments each. A box can have twice as many pans and still offer fewer clean mixing options.

That is also why the best watercolor paints for beginners tend to be tubes. Tube sets are sold in small counts, six or eight, and makers fill them with primaries. Pan sets are sold in twelves and twenty-fours, and the extra slots go to mixtures, whites and blacks. Chinese White, Titanium White and Ivory Black appear in three of the five sets above. In transparent watercolor, white is the paper and black is a mix of blue and brown, so those pans mostly go unused.

Price per color is a weaker guide than it looks. The Koi box is cheapest per color at $1.23, and the Professional set is dearest at $7.18, a gap of almost six times. The Daniel Smith tubes sit at $5.57 per tube, but each 5 ml tube holds several pans' worth of paint. Over a year of painting, the tubes are not the expensive option.

One last point on the Winsor & Newton prices. Blick's $86.12 for the Professional pocket set is $70 below the maker's own listing, and its $22.54 for the Cotman set is a sale price against a $38.49 list. Both gaps were real on the day we checked and may have closed since. Check the listing before you buy, and treat the maker's price as the ceiling.

Blick's listed price on 7 November 2026 divided by the number of colors in each set. The Daniel Smith tubes look dear per color but hold far more paint per unit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should a beginner buy student or artist grade watercolor paint? A small artist-grade set, if the budget allows. Six artist-grade tubes cost about the same as a 12-pan student box and mix cleaner colors, because each tube is a single pigment. If the budget is tight, a student set from Winsor & Newton or Sennelier is fine, and you'll still learn the same skills.

How many colors does a beginner need for watercolor? Six. A warm and a cool version of yellow, red and blue mix almost every color you'll want, including greens, oranges, purples and greys. A 12-pan set isn't better because it has more colors. Several of its pans are mixtures you could have made yourself from the primaries.

Are tubes or pans better for a beginner? Tubes, for anyone painting at a table. A tube gives you strong color quickly and lets you squeeze fresh paint into any palette. Pans suit travel and small sketchbooks. Both formats contain the same paint from the same maker, so the choice is about habit and portability, not quality.

What is the cheapest decent watercolor set for a beginner? The Sakura Koi 12-color sketch box, at $14.70 on Blick when checked in November 2026. It paints acceptably and the water brush is handy. Its drawback is that Sakura doesn't publish pigment codes or lightfastness ratings, so you can't tell which colors will fade on a wall.

Why do beginner watercolor sets have hue colors? A color named Hue is a mixture made to imitate a more expensive pigment. Cotman's Cadmium Red Pale Hue, for example, is listed by Winsor & Newton as two pigments, PR255 and PY65. Hues are fine for learning, but a mixture of two or three pigments often makes duller secondaries than a single-pigment paint does.

Related Reading

• Watercolor for Beginners: Essential Supplies & Buying Guide: the paper, brush and palette that go with whichever set you choose.
• Daniel Smith vs Winsor & Newton: Pro Watercolor Review: how the two artist-grade ranges differ once you move past a starter set.
• 12 Easy Watercolor Ideas for Beginners From 3 Tubes: twelve first paintings from three of the tubes in the Daniel Smith set.
• Ceramic vs Plastic Watercolor Palette: 5 Differences: where to squeeze the tubes once you have them.

References

• Daniel Smith: Essentials Watercolor Set
• Daniel Smith: Hansa Yellow Light Watercolor
• Daniel Smith: New Gamboge Watercolor
• Daniel Smith: Quinacridone Rose Watercolor
• Daniel Smith: Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) Watercolor
• Blick: Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor Essentials Set
• Winsor & Newton: Cotman Watercolours Sketchers' Pocket Set
• Winsor & Newton: Cotman Watercolour Sap Green
• Winsor & Newton: Cotman Watercolour Cadmium Red Pale Hue
• Blick: Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketchers' Pocket Set
• Blick: Sennelier La Petite Aquarelle Set of 12 Half Pans
• Sennelier: L'Aquarelle and La Petite Aquarelle
• Winsor & Newton: Professional Watercolour Field Pocket Set
• Blick: Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor Field Pocket Set
• Blick: Sakura Koi Watercolor Sketch Box, Set of 12
• Sakura of America: Koi Water Color Field Sketch Kit
• Handprint: The watercolor pigments
• Pexels: Vibrant watercolor paint set on wooden desk, photo by Cile Kli Palet (hero image, Pexels licence)