Youtube fed me a million and one videos about the Arrtx watercolors over the last month. I know this is because Arrtx is heavy into getting their products into the hands of influencers and youtubers. I am unsure what their review terms look like but given that the reviews and videos all premiered around the same week made me think that Arrtx pushed for them to come out on the same day/week.

Anyway, I bought my set on a Prime Day deal. They were about $21 and regularly are $26. The set contains 24 full plans of color that are pretty normal colors for just about any art style. The range of colors leans toward the warm side and has only 3 shades of green, though enough blues and yellows to mix plenty of shades of green when needed. There are the usual shades of brown, orange and red. There are 2 shades of magenta and one violet.

Let’s get the negatives out of the way. The set is labeled as non-toxic but there are cadmium colors in the set. Which cannot be. Another youtuber contacted Arrtx and was informed that these are HUE colors and not true cadmium colors. Which tracks, no set with true colors could be this cheap. A single pan of real cadmium red/orange/yellow would cost $20. The various pigment colors for the cad colors are also for the cadmium hues and not true cadmium colors.

Another mis-label is the cerulean blue, it is the wrong color blue and does not granulate. It is instead a blend of pthalo blue and titanium white. Violet is labeled as PV23 which is Dioxazine Violet but it does not behave like dioxazine violet. It stains and doesn’t move on the page the way my other dioxazine violets behave. It does mix as it should but it’s off. I don’t trust that the purple is true dioxazine purple, and the downside of that is that the other option is a fugitive pigment.

IMO the Payne’s Gray acts more like a neutral tint than payne’s gray.

For the positives, the various shades do mix as I expect the various colors to mix. The various blues and browns mix to make nice grays and browns. The yellows and blues make the usual greens. The magenta shade mix to make purples and to dull down green and blue. The violet mixes with blue and other colors to make deep darks.

The colors rewet really really well. It’s easy to get a strong and intense color as well as thinner washes of color. The pan size means you can really get BIG brushes into the colors, allowing for larger paintings. 

The range of colors is also great. The black could have been replaced with white or something else. But a good black is always good for Notan sketches and other value studies. I have been able to mix almost any color I need from this set. The set isn’t super deeply pigmented but at $21-$26 a set it’s a great value.

The intensity of the colors is good but not as great as say Holbein, which is a high standard, but you can layer the colors to get additional intensity. I did find that the colors layered pretty well and lifted when I needed and wanted them to. They also moved on the paper as a professional watercolor does- that is to say they use something to create flow.

So who is this set for? I think if you are new to watercolors this is a good set to get you started. It’s got a full range of colors that mix as they should, even if the colors are mislabeled for their hues, they mix as they should for hue pigments. It’s a large amount of paint for a low price. It’s good to learn with. The pigment load isn’t the same as with professional paints, but it doesn’t have that pudding like texture that paints have when they are filled out with a huge amount of chalk. That is to say that for the most part they behave like typical watercolors.

This is what I’d consider a starter set that serves as a good base for someone to replace the colors as used with good professional colors. The huge amount of paint means that someone can do a lot of en plein air or art journal pages and not run out of paint. I’ve made 7 images- 3 postcard size and 4 larger 8×10 inch size and barely made a dent in most of the colors. The colors I’ve really used the most are Indian Yellow, rose, ultramarine, pthalo blue, pthalo green, olive green, yellow ochre, and raw sienna, raw umber, and burnt umber. I have made an utter disaster of the storage box they arrived in. I am using them with a small plastic tray to use as a mixing well. They would fill a pretty decently sized tin.

Overall, I’m really impressed with the way these paints behave especially at their price point. The big question I have is about their labeling and if the pigments are true.