The Essentials of Watercolor Paint

To avoid disappointment when you start watercolor painting, you should know what different kind of paints are commercially available. I say commercially because it is possible to make your own paint, but that is another story. I wanted to tell you something about the two kinds of paint and their main differences. After reading this it should be clear what the advantages and disadvantages are of liquid paint and dry paint. After that you can decide for yourself what suites you best.

The first big difference between liquid watercolor paint and dry paint is the packaging. Now packaging is not the only difference the price is also a BIG difference. Dry (cake) paint is more expensive than liquid watercolor paint for the amount of pigment in it. As for quality difference I didn't find them. If you did please let me know, send me an email. Now as for the packaging difference that’s something else.

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Dry pan watercolor paint is packaged in so called pans and look like a dry cake. By adding water to the cake and mix it, the paint becomes liquid and you can start painting if it is the desired color. If not you will have to mix different colors to get the color you want. Liquid paint is package in tubes from which you can squeeze the paint and start painting right away if it is the desired color. If not you will have to mix different colors to get the color you want without adding water. Now you can add water to liquid paint and most people do so just for the sake of the money. And that is where the disadvantages and advantages of the two types of paint come in.

One of the disadvantages of liquid paint is that it is hard to judge how much paint you need to squeeze out of the tube for a partial painting. So you'll end up with excess paint on your palette which will become dry paint anyway. Another problem is ones contaminated with another color it is hard to retrieve. But don't judge yet, to every disadvantage there is an advantage.

One of the advantages of liquid watercolor paint is that it is easy to mix large quantities of paint. As I said before they don't need water beforehand so you can mix them with any other color right away and add water later. This brings me to the next advantage liquid paints dissolve quickly in water. After all this you will say well I will take dry pan watercolor paint then, but wait dry pan watercolor paint has its disadvantages and advantages as well.

What is not to dry pan colors advantage is that it takes time to moisten and mix up large quantities of watercolor paint. Having said that think about the work your brush has to do for mixing and picking up the paint. Exactly it is harder on your brush than liquid paint. Now there are people think that pan paint is for little kids but don't led that fool you, There are great artists that preferred pan colors over tubes. Here is a good place for watercolor paint

Now as for advantages there are a few of those as well. Pan colors are easy to clean just to name one. They are very compact, very nice to take along on a plein air trip. If handled properly they can be stored indefinitely. What is important to you I don't know, you will have to experience both and then you will be able to say what fits you the best.

As you can see there are differences between the two types of paint. The dry paint has different disadvantages or advantages than the liquid paint. And it is for you to decide what bothers or suits you more. The Quality of the watercolor paint shouldn't be an issue, as long you buy the artist grade paint of both. To see what the difference is between student grade and artist grade watercolor paint go here.