PHOENIX Twist Travel Watercolor Paint Set

I LOVE this watercolor set for impromptu plein air painting. I keep this one in my bag with a small watercolor journal, so I always have it handy when going to the dog park or when relaxing at our local coffee shop. The quality of the paints was so much better than I ever expected from such an affordable set. They aren't professional quality, but they definitely perform better than most student grade paints. The paints are easy to use, the colors are very pigmented and they perform very well on paper, blending nicely. The size is compact, (about the length of a ballpoint pen) but it holds a surprising amount of paint. The layers come apart and twist together to form a very sturdy paint set-up. A watercup and mixing palette are stored underneath and neatly snap in place. And, the travel brush that's included is exceptional! Usually, the brushes you get in sets are cheap and poor performing, but this brush performs almost as well as some of my very expensive Kolinsky sable brushes. And, its a nice weight. What a wonderful surprise that was! I'd buy this again for the brush alone! My only complaint would be that a couple of the paint stones were loose in the pan and easily fell out in the beginning. But, once I used the set several times, they stuck in the pan.

This Phoenix Twist 48 pan Watercolor set is just a fun set to use! The unique rotating cardinal system on the sides of each panel is quite amazing. It locks the sides in place to suit the color formation you prefer when painting. I would say be careful as you do so with your hand across the top as some pans will fly out. It’s easy to fix loose pans though so I am not worried about that. The set comes with a collapsing water cup that you can clip where you like when painting. It also has a panel that holds a sponge that also clips where it suits you best. The sponge is hard and I had to soften it with water before putting it back into place in the panel. The top lid of the set provides a nice mixing area that didn’t bead. The travel water brush is just phenomenal! It holds a great deal of water and pigment in the belly of its small brush. I’m very happy that there was zero brush hair fall out!! It’s quite comfortable to hold and has a nice length as well. It provides nice brush strokes as well as fine lines. When done painting, you easily stack your watercolor set into a nice compact stack. The cup, sponge and brush stores quite conveniently in the underside of a panel. The watercolor pans themselves are nice. They wet easily and carry good pigment load. The colors are vibrant and blend together beautifully. I was able to mix other color variations very nicely. The Phoenix Twist watercolor set also includes a swatch card that suits the shapes of the panels. I was lucky in…

I am happy with the deeply pigmented colors of these watercolor paints. These are four little trays which stack on top of each other when not in use. This is a good value for so many colors of watercolor paint. It has a color palette listing on the exterior of the box and they give you a little pre-printed swatch on watercolor paper which I used to test and try the colors to keep as a reference. 5 stars due to high pigment load.