These are Awful! Artist Loft Watercolor Palette (Pebeo)- Unbox Swatch- Student Grade Showdown

More of my art:

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:52 The Artist Loft Palette
02:50 Pebeo Flashbacks
05:37 Unwrapping the Palette
14:16 Swatching The Watercolors
19:47 Color Mixing
25:17 Wet into Wet Test
27:30 Other Travel Sets
31:50 Homemade Mini Palettes
36:19 Other Comparable Watercolors
38:34 Pros and Cons
41:44 Is It Worth It?
47:00 The Verdict
50:40 Final Thoughts:

Mentioned in this Review:
Pebeo:

Paul Rubens:

DIY Palettes
Empty Mint Tins
Half Pans
Whole Pans

Shownotes:

Artist Loft Watercolors
Note: if you're gonna buy art supplies from Michaels, try to catch a sale, use a coupon, or redeem a voucher- they're overpriced

These really remind me of the Pebeo watercolors I reviewed awhile back

Packaging:
Shrink Wrapped
Metal Tin
Totally rebranded

STRONG SMELL
Inside:
Screw together travel quill
cheap plastic liner
Half Pans

Each half pan has a foil wrapper
Colors are labelled by number, that's it

These are weird and gnarlier than I remember. The foil wrappers are really difficult to remove, and this feels like it's been sitting on a shelf for awhile. The watercolors themselves are kinda sticky.

Obviously no pigment info, but I'll try to dig it up from Pebeo

All of these halfpans are super difficult to open

Swatching:
Blick Studio Watercolor Paper:

Everything dries really kinda desaturated, not really a lot of color there. There's also not really much opacity- just not...not a lot going on with these. While I theoretically like the color selection, the paints themselves don't really work for me.

Lift Test:
None of these lift, which is really strange, and not a good sign.

Color Mixing:
While it's easy to find your primaries, all color mixes are kinda muted and desaturated. Granulation is a bit more apparent with the mixes, but everything seems pretty chalky and muted

Wet into Wet Test:
These desaturated really quick, it takes a lot of paint to get any color onot the paper. Most colors just kinda turn to nothing, although they do readily intermix with enough water.

Pebeo Info:
Pigment information not accessible

Compared against Other Travel Sets:
Since this seems to be purchased by artists looking for a good compact travel set, I think it's fairest to compare it against other travel sets

Basically any small metal 12 color set is this compact (minus the brush)

Pros:
Size
Price

Cons:
Basically everything else, including both those things

The Verdict:
That SMELL.
I can't say these watercolors found redemption today- they handle like I remember, I'm just better at reviewing than I was back then, so the red flags are more apparent.

Music:
Tumbling Down Clouds- NoMBe
Joining An Activity Group- Single Friend
Sun Awakening- Futuremono
Seratonin from the Sun- RAGE
Feeling's Not Mutual- Single Friend
TrueArtRealAffectionPart4- Noir Et Blanc Vie
Simple- Patrick Patrikios
Lazy Walk- Cheel
Blue Dream- Cheel
Contact High- RKVC
Take Me Down to the Fashion Show- NoMBe
Mom Wants Grandkids- Single Friend
Papov- Yung Logos
Benji- Dyalla
Knowpe- Noir Et Blanc Vie
MydNyte-Noir Et Blanc Vie
Seratonin from the Sun- RAGE
Tumbling Down Clouds- NoMBe
Bab Tista- Text Me Records_GrandBankss
Mom Wants Grandkids- Single Friend
Joining An Activity Group- Single Friend
Goestories- Noir Et Blanc Vie
Lofi Mallet- Kwon
Ready or Not- Trevor Garrod
Broken- Patrick Patrikios
National Express- Dan Bodan
Waltz in Low Light- Hot Buttered Rum
Friday Fugue- Trevor Garrod

#artistloft #Artistloftwatercolors #cheapwatercolors

[DeneceTheSylcoe]

I know this is old but I'm happy to see you review this. I can't say much since I work at Michael's but thank you for the honest review and honesty confirming my own experience with artist loft.
I never would have thought the brand of paint would matter too much, but man when I finally tried some better quality paints it completely changed my view on watercolor. Same with paper, once I got good paper and decent paint I absolutely fell in love with watercolors! But that's just my own experience.
Thanks again!
Also it will never cease to annoy me that I can't find pigment information for artist loft paints.

I do have a funny story with these. I had someone return a set and I had to ask why, mainly just to see if they just changed their mind or it's damaged/doesn't work. The customer told me it didn't work at all! I was surprised, because she said she couldn't lift any paint from the pans at all and they had a waxy feel.
I did the return and later examined it, turns out the little paper seals on the paint pans were all there and intact. One had a wet smudge on it. So yeah, nothing was "wrong" with the set. They just didn't realize you had to lift the seal off the pans before painting lol.

[jenniferarted]

Even at $20, there are so many better options. I avoid all Artist Loft products!

[paustkochecke]

Hi, thank you for the video! I really like the watercolor watch 🙂 And I saw that your brushes have some sort of cap (?) or hook. What is that for?

[Shaze-haze]

I am definitely watching this for amusement 💯 You are hilarious 😂 😂 😂

[derxderdraws]

I think reviews like this are still super useful, at least now the information is out there so if anyone is just getting into watercolors and is thinking about this set they can tell just by your title alone to avoid this one. :)

Also the travel brush that comes with this set is...an interesting choice for watercolor I can't see myself ever using that for watercolors.

[thefrugalcrafter]

The Pebeo watercolors are so disappointing. I wondered if these were the same. Thanks for the teview.

[LunaBianca]

Eeew, good to see you reviewing this or else others might buy these and get complete discouraged from using watercolours or discovering it as "their" medium.

I like the basic idea of the tin but I hate this type of thin plastic liners... And then if the paints are that smelly and the quality's just horrid - yeah that definitely speaks against them and for spending a bit more money to get something much nicer. I'm nowhere near being any kind of professional artist, I mostly use my watercolours to colour my inked drawings and don't do as much glazing or anything, and I still use my student grade paints along my higher grade ones. My first student grade paints were Pelikan transparent watercolours, which are still quite nice, but I usually suggest Van Gogh's 12+3 pocket box for starters. Those are easy to get by here in Germany and they usually cost around 15 -20 Euros - though they might be a tad bit more expensive in the States :/

[Lauraisabelgonzalezart]

"I'm here to dance for your pleasure!" Lol.... you have a great sense of humor!

[annbate]

TBH I bought the Artist Loft set of gouache tubes and I enjoyed them. BUT I think watercolour is much more "picky" and they don't even look good before you wet them!!

[talimediaart]

I’m glad you reviewed them. They are not going be useful to me. Especially when I’m doing collage and I like mixing my colors to get different colors to make different colored papers.