🎨 How to Choose Watercolor Paints for Beginners

✅ Quick Overview

• 🎨 Understand the difference between tubes, pans, student vs. artist-grade paints

• 🔄 Learn how pigment type, transparency, and lightfastness affect your painting results

• 💡 Explore beginner tips for starting with a small, versatile, warm/cool primary palette

• 🔑 Get practical advice on what to buy, how paints behave, and what truly matters

• 👩‍🎨 Includes product recs and a simple guide to confidently choose your first set of paints

Introduction 

This is the third post in my Watercolor Fundamentals blog series — designed to help beginners build a solid foundation with clear, confidence-boosting insights and practical guidance. If you’ve already read our how-to posts on watercolor paper and watercolor brushes, you’re well on your way to building a solid foundation!

Now, let’s talk about one of the most important questions beginners ask:

“What watercolor paints should I buy?”

Whether you're choosing your very first watercolor paint set or trying to understand the difference between student vs artist watercolor paint, this post will guide you through everything you need to know. We’ll cover paint formats like tubes vs. pans, pigment types, lightfastness, transparency, and how to pick the best beginner watercolor paints for your creative journey.

1. Watercolor Tubes vs. Pans: What’s the Difference?

One of the first choices you’ll make is deciding between watercolor tubes and pans. 

Photo of my Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolor Tube set + cat figurine

🎨 Tubes

Tubes contain moist, paste-like paint that you squeeze onto a palette.

Pros:

• More vibrant color straight from the tube

• Readily mixable

• Ideal for studio work and bigger projects

• Great for mixing large amounts of color

Cons:

• Slightly messier for on-the-go

• You need a palette to squeeze the paint onto

• Can dry out if not closed properly

 Photo of my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor pan set

🎨 Pans

Pans are small, dried cakes of paint activated with water.

Pros:

• Extremely portable — convenient for travel or outdoor painting

• The box that hold the pans of paint usually has a built-in palette, which is perfect for painting on location

• Pans of paint are low-maintenance and easy to store

Cons:

• Requires more effort to build up rich color

• Harder to mix large quantities of a color, so less ideal for big washes

💡Beginner tip: Either format is fine to start with! Many artists use both. If you plan to paint mostly at home, tubes may be more practical. For quick painting sessions or outdoor sketchbook work, pans are perfect. 

2. Understanding Pigment Types in Watercolor Paints

Watercolor paint is made by combining  pigment (color particles) with gum arabic or similar binder. The source of the pigment — the actual coloring agent — affects everything from vibrancy to texture.

🌿 Natural Pigments

• Made from minerals, plants and other organic materials

• Often have unique granulation and earthy tones

• May vary slightly between batches

🧪 Synthetic Pigments

• Lab-made for consistency and intensity

• Often more affordable and lightfast

• Common in most modern watercolor lines

💡Beginner tip: You don't need to memorize pigment names or codes but knowing that some paints behave differently because of their pigment source can help explain why certain colors blend or layer in unique ways.

3. Lightfastness: How Long Will Your Paintings Last?

If you’re wondering what watercolor paints to buy for art you plan to frame, display, or sell, pay attention to lightfastness — a rating that tells you how resistant a color is to fading from sunlight.

How to Identify Lightfast Paints:

• Look for ASTM lightfastness ratings (I = Excellent, II = Very Good, III = Poor)

• Artist-grade paints typically list this on the packaging or brand website

• Some student-grade paints don’t include this information

💡Beginner tip: For practice pieces or sketchbooks, don’t worry too much. But if you are creating something you hope to sell, gift, or keep, choose paints that will stand the test of time.

4. Transparency vs. Opacity: What’s the Difference?

Watercolor is famous for its airy and atmospheric transparency — but not all paints are transparent.

Transparent Paints

• Allow light to reflect through the layers

• Create the luminous look watercolor is famous for

• Best for glazing and soft layering

Opaque Paints

• Contain more pigment or fillers

• Tend to sit on top of previous layers

• May look chalky or muddy when layered

💡Beginner tip: Most paint brands label their colors as transparent, semi-transparent, or opaque. You can also test them yourself: paint over a black line — transparent colors will let the line show through; opaque colors will cover it.

5. Student vs. Artist Grade Watercolor Paints

One of the biggest decisions you’ll make as a beginner is choosing between student grade and artist grade watercolor paints.

🎓 Student Grade Watercolors

• Made with less pigment and more binder/filler

• More affordable and widely available

• Good for learning brush control and color mixing

Downsides:

• Colors may be less vibrant or harder to blend

• Often use multiple pigments in one color (which muddies mixes)

• Lightfastness ratings may be missing

🎨 Artist Grade Watercolors

• High pigment concentration for better intensity and flow

• Single-pigment colors for clean mixing

• Professional lightfastness and transparency labeling

Downsides:

• Higher price tag, yes — but you use less, so they last longer

💡Beginner tip: If your budget allows, start with a few artist-grade colors and expand from there. You’ll immediately notice the difference in color payoff and blendability.

6. Watercolor Paint Formats: Pros and Cons

💡Beginner tip: You don’t need all of these to get started! Most beginners stick with pans or tubes until they find their style.

7. What Watercolor Paints to Buy as a Beginner

Now for the big question: what watercolor paints should a beginner buy?

So what’s the best way to start?

• Go small: A set of 6–12 colors is plenty for beginners.

• Choose a warm/cool primary palette: This gives you a wide range of mixable colors.

• Look for open stock availability: This means you can replace individual colors as needed.

• Quality over quantity: A few artist-grade colors will serve you better than a massive set of muddy student paints.

Here’s a Beginner-Friendly 9-Color Palette:

• Cool Primary Colors

  • Lemon Yellow or Hansa Yellow Light

  • Prussian Blue or Phthalo Blue

  • Permanent Carmine or Quinacridone Rose

• Warm Primary Colors

  • Cadmium Yellow or New Gamboge

  • Ultramarine Blue or Indanthrone Blue

  • Cadmium Red Pale or Pyrrol Scarlet

• Earth Colors

  • Yellow Ochre

  • Burnt Umber

  • Burnt Sienna

This combination of 6 primary colors and 3 neutral colors lets you mix a huge range of colors while practicing color theory and brush technique.

💡Beginner tip:  Don’t stress about owning every color — focus on quality over quantity :)

8. Watercolor Paints I Use and Recommend

This post contains affiliate links, which means as an Amazon Affiliate I may earn a commission (at no cost to you) if you make a purchase. Be assured I only recommend products I genuinely use and love.

🎨 Student-Grade / Beginner Sets

Pan Set Recommendation: Kuretake Gansai Watercolor Paint Set, 36 Colors

When I started with watercolors in 2020, several artists I followed recommended Kuretake Watercolor Paint Sets for beginners. I bought the 36-color pan set, and it’s still one of my go-to sets for quick painting sessions.

Why I love it:

• The colors are beautiful and easy to work with, especially for layering and flat washes — the paints dry with soft edges that are forgiving for beginners.

• Larger-than-average pans make it easier to load your brush, no matter the size.

• Comes with a protective sheet (prevents pans from shifting and doubles as a palette mixer).

• Includes a color chart you can swatch yourself for easy reference.

💡 Beginner Tip: If you’d like to start with fewer colors, Kuretake also offers 12-color and 24-color sets that are more budget-friendly. I personally chose the 36-color set because I was new to paints and still nervous about mixing colors.

Tube Set Recommendation: Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolor Paint Set, 10 Colors, 5ml Tubes
A few months into my watercolor journey, I received this set as a gift — and it instantly elevated my painting experience.

Why I love it:

• More vibrant and richer than Kuretake, but still very beginner-friendly.

• Paint flows beautifully, making mixing a joy.

• Small tubes go a long way — more than five years later, I still have paint left in every tube.

💡 Note: The Cotman line is Winsor & Newton’s student-grade range, but the quality is excellent for the price.

🎨 Artist-Grade Watercolor Paints

Once you’re ready to invest in richer pigments, longer-lasting vibrancy, and consistent professional results, artist-grade paints are a game-changer. They have higher pigment loads, fewer fillers, and offer exceptional transparency and luminosity.

Recommended Artist-Grade Brand: Daniel Smith

• My favorite starting point is the Daniel Smith Essentials Watercolor Mixing Set, which includes six 5ml tubes (Hansa Yellow Light, New Gamboge, Quinacridone Rose, Pyrrol Scarlet, Phthalo Blue Green Shade, French Ultramarine). These mix into a huge range of colors.

• Seattle-based Daniel Smith Inc. began selling their Extra Fine Watercolors (unique, lightfast colors) in 1993.

• Known for unique mineral-based pigments and stunning granulation effects — perfect for experimenting with texture and paint behavior.

• I keep a mix of their professional-grade tubes in various colors and sizes; even browsing their color chart is inspiring.

Recommended Artist-Grade Brand: Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolors

• Winsor & Newton has been recognized and celebrated for their high-quality watercolor paint since their founding in 1832(!)

• Their colors are vibrant, transparent, and mix cleanly for crisp, luminous washes.

• I use assorted tubes from this line for my most-used colors — they’re dependable and consistent from tube to tube.

💡 Tip for Beginners Considering Artist-Grade Paints: You don’t need to overhaul your whole palette at once. Try adding one or two artist-grade colors to your student set — you’ll see the difference right away in richness, flow, and how far the pigment goes.

Final Thoughts: Choosing the Right Beginner Watercolor Paints

Understanding your paints is one of the best ways to grow more confident as a watercolor artist. With the right information, you can make smart choices without wasting time or money — and your art will thank you :)

Remember, there’s no perfect setup — just the one that works for you. The best beginner watercolor paints are the ones that invite you to sit down, dip your brush, and enjoy the process.

Happy painting! 🎨 

📋 References

• Artist's Manual, edited by Angela Gair 

• Hello Watercolor!, by Jeannie Dickson

• Painting Tools & Materials, by Walter Foster Creative Team

• The Joy of Watercolor, by Emma Block 

• Watercolor Secrets, by Robin Berry 

🔁 What's Next on the Beginner Journey?

The key is to begin with small, simple steps. I created three free resources to support you:

1. 📕 Get the free Watercolor Lite: Beginner's Watercolor Glossary  – Perfect for first-time painters looking to understand supplies, tools, and techniques; or anyone who wants to feel more comfortable with how-to guides and video tutorials.

2. 💧 Download the free Watercolor Lite: Confidence Kit for Absolute Beginners – A relaxed guide to help you prep your brush, wake up your paints, and try your very first brushstrokes.

3.  🖍️ Get the free Watercolor Lite: Try-It-Out Guide for True Beginners – A playful PDF full of beginner-friendlymini projects designed for experimentation (and joy!).

Download one, two, or all three to get going at your own pace. No stress. No pressure. Just your brush, your curiosity, and a colorful painting day!

🧭 More from the Watercolor Fundamentals Series:

• 🎨 How to Choose the Best Watercolor Paper for Beginners 
• 🎨 How to Choose the Best Watercolor Brush for Beginners 
• 🎨 Easy Color Mixing and Pigment Tips for Watercolor Beginners 
• 🎨 How to Do Watercolor Washes: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners