The Best Watercolor Set Isn't What Most Guides Tell You (It Depends on How You Paint)
By Dalton Scolman
If you search for "best watercolor set" right now, you'll find the same five brands listed in slightly different order on every single page. Daniel Smith if you want the best. Winsor and Newton Cotman if you want reliable student grade. Van Gogh if you want something in between. Arteza if you want inexpensive. And so on.
None of that advice is wrong. But almost all of it is missing something important: the best watercolor set for you depends entirely on how you actually paint. And there's a whole category of painter whose needs aren't served by any of those recommendations at all.
This guide is going to be honest about what the best sets in each category actually are, and then it's going to tell you about a format that most of those guides don't even know exists, but that might be the most natural fit for how you want to paint.
First: What Makes a Watercolor Set Actually Good?
Before we get into specific recommendations, it's worth being clear about what actually matters in a watercolor set, because most reviews focus on brand reputation and miss the things that affect your day-to-day painting experience.
Pigment quality and concentration. The pigment load in your paint determines whether colors are vivid and vibrant or chalky and dull. Student-grade paints use less pigment (and sometimes cheaper alternatives) to keep costs down. Professional-grade paints pack in more pigment, which means richer color from less paint. This difference is genuinely noticeable and affects how enjoyable painting feels.
Transparency. Watercolor's signature quality is luminosity, and that comes from transparency. Paints with good transparency let light through to the white paper and back out again. Opaque paints block that light and look heavier and flatter. Most of the best watercolor brands are known for their transparency.
How quickly and fully the paint activates. Pan paints need to be wetted and allowed to soften before they give you their best color. Some pans activate quickly and generously. Others are stubborn and chalky until they've been worked quite a bit. This matters more than most reviews acknowledge, because slow-activating paint is genuinely frustrating when you want to paint spontaneously.
Portability and setup time. If you paint at a desk every day with your supplies laid out, setup time doesn't matter much. If you paint on the go, in coffee shops, while traveling, or spontaneously when inspiration strikes, a format that requires minimal setup is worth more than a slightly higher pigment rating.
The format itself. Tubes, pans, liquid watercolor, DryColor sheets: the format determines how you interact with your paint on a daily basis. Most guides treat this as a minor consideration. It's actually one of the biggest factors in how much you enjoy painting.
The Best Sets by Category
Best Student-Grade Set: Winsor and Newton Cotman
Winsor and Newton Cotman is the benchmark for student-grade watercolor and has been for decades. The paint is predictable, the colors are honest, it wets and rewets cleanly, and the quality is consistent enough that beginners can actually learn proper technique without fighting unpredictable paint behavior.
The Cotman sketching pocket box is a particularly good format: compact tin, twelve half pans, lid doubles as a mixing palette. It's not perfect (some colors are substituted with cheaper alternatives compared to the professional line), but for learning, it's genuinely excellent.
If you want to step up from Cotman without going all the way to professional prices, Van Gogh watercolors by Royal Talens are a strong middle option with better pigment concentration than most student-grade paints.
Best Professional Tube Set: Daniel Smith
Daniel Smith is the gold standard recommendation for serious watercolor artists and for good reason. The pigment is incredibly well-ground, the colors are vivid and transparent, and the range is enormous (over 230 colors). Their Essential Dot Card set is a beautiful way to sample their range before committing to full tubes.
The tradeoff is price, and the format: tube paints require a palette and more setup than pan paints, which makes them better suited to studio painting than spontaneous or travel work.
Schmincke Horadam and Winsor and Newton Professional are both worthy alternatives in the professional tube category, each with devoted followings among serious painters.
Best Professional Pan Set: Winsor and Newton Professional or Daniel Smith
For a pan set at professional quality, Winsor and Newton's professional compact sets are very well-regarded. Pre-filled half pans of artist-grade paint in a sturdy tin with a good mixing area. The paint activates well and the color is significantly richer than the Cotman line.
Daniel Smith also makes a beautiful half-pan set if you want their pigments in pan format.
Best for Travel and Outdoor Painting: This Is Where It Gets Interesting
Here's where every "best watercolor sets" guide falls short. They recommend the same compact pan tins for travel, which are fine, but they're all making recommendations from within the same format category. They're comparing tins.
And a tin, even a very good one, has some real limitations for painting on the go. Pan paint needs time to rehydrate before it's at its best. In direct sun or dry conditions it dries out faster. The tin is often heavier than it looks. And most tin palettes weren't designed for one-handed use while you're perched on a curb or leaning against a railing.
The format that actually solves these problems is one most of those guides have never tried: DryColor sheets.
Why the Peerless Sidekick Belongs in This Conversation
Nicholson's Peerless Watercolors has been making DryColor sheets since 1885. They are flat cards coated in highly concentrated watercolor that activates the moment a wet brush touches them. No rehydrating, no waiting, no mess. The color is there instantly, vivid and ready, every single time.
The Sidekick is the format that makes this format most compelling for serious painters. Forty-five colors in something the size of a checkbook. It weighs almost nothing. It fits in a jacket pocket. And because the paint is dry, it clears airport security without a thought and doesn't spill, ever, under any circumstances.
For outdoor painting, urban sketching, plein air work, travel, and spontaneous painting sessions, the Sidekick does something no tin palette can do: it removes every friction point between you and painting. No setup. No rehydrating. No spill risk. Just open it, touch your wet brush to the sheet, and paint.
The colors are highly transparent and beautifully vivid. The format is intuitive within the first few minutes of using it. And because the color is dye-based rather than pigment-based, it mixes cleanly without the particle interactions that can make pigment-based mixing feel unpredictable.
The honest caveat: the dye-based format means the paints aren't rated for archival lightfastness in the way that professional pigment paints are. For work you plan to frame, display, and sell, that's worth knowing. For sketchbooks, travel journals, urban sketching, and personal creative practice, it's genuinely not a meaningful limitation. Nobody is exhibiting their field sketches under gallery lighting. They're painting for the joy of it, in a journal they love.
A Format Comparison That Most Guides Don't Include
| Student Pan (Cotman) | Professional Tube (Daniel Smith) | DryColor Sheets (Peerless Sidekick) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Color quality | Good | Excellent | Excellent |
| Transparency | Good | Excellent | Excellent |
| Activation speed | Moderate | Immediate | Immediate |
| Portability | Good | Poor | Exceptional |
| Setup time | Minimal | Significant | Zero |
| Spill risk | Low | Medium | None |
| Granulation | Yes | Yes | No |
| Lightfastness | Good (rated) | Excellent (rated) | Not rated |
| Best for | Learning, studio | Studio, serious work | Travel, sketching, journaling |
What About Sets Marketed as "Complete Kits"?
You'll often see sets that bundle paint, brushes, and paper together at what seems like a good price. These are almost always a compromise: the paint is mediocre, the brushes are low quality, and the paper is too thin for real watercolor work.
The better approach is to buy each component separately at the quality level that makes sense for where you are in your practice. Good paint. Good paper. One or two good brushes. The total cost isn't that different, but the experience is significantly better.
The one exception is if you want to try watercolor with the lowest possible commitment and cost, just to see if you enjoy it. In that case a budget bundle is a reasonable way to find out without much financial risk. But most people who enjoy it quickly outgrow those kits and wish they'd started with something slightly better.
The Recommendation That Fits Most People Reading This
If you're a beginner learning at home: start with Winsor and Newton Cotman (12 half pans, pocket box format) and good paper (Strathmore 400 or Arches 140lb). Add one good round brush. This setup teaches you real technique without fighting bad materials.
If you paint regularly and want to level up: Daniel Smith tubes or Winsor and Newton Professional pans with a proper palette and Arches paper. This is the setup most serious hobbyists and working artists land on.
If you paint on the go, travel, sketch outdoors, or want to paint anywhere without any setup: the Peerless Sidekick is genuinely the best answer. Not because it's the most professional-grade paint in the traditional sense, but because it's the format that's most aligned with how that kind of painting actually happens. Fast, spontaneous, portable, joyful.
And if you're unsure which category you fall into, you might be both. Many painters have a studio setup for serious work and a Sidekick in their bag for everything else. These formats complement each other rather than competing.
FAQ: Best Watercolor Set Questions
What is the best watercolor set for beginners?
Winsor and Newton Cotman is the most consistently recommended student-grade watercolor set because it's reliable, predictable, and good quality for the price. If you want something more portable and instantly ready with no setup, the Peerless Sidekick is a genuinely excellent alternative that removes a lot of the friction that makes painting feel complicated early on.
What is the best professional watercolor set?
Daniel Smith tube watercolors are the most widely recommended professional option for their pigment quality, transparency, and color range. Schmincke Horadam and Winsor and Newton Professional are both strong alternatives with devoted professional followings.
Is it worth buying an expensive watercolor set as a beginner?
Paper quality matters more than paint quality for beginners, so if you're choosing between spending more on paint or more on paper, spend it on paper. A good student-grade paint on excellent paper beats expensive paint on cheap paper every time. That said, the cheapest possible paint (the kind with almost no pigment) makes learning significantly harder, so a mid-range student set like Cotman is a better starting point than the cheapest option available.
What is the most portable watercolor set?
The Peerless Sidekick is one of the most portable watercolor setups available. Forty-five colors in a checkbook-sized format that weighs almost nothing, with paint that activates instantly and requires no setup. For travel and outdoor painting specifically, no tin palette can match it for convenience and portability.
Are DryColor sheets as good as traditional watercolor paints?
They're different rather than better or worse, and the comparison depends on what you need. For vivid, transparent color that activates instantly with no setup, they're excellent. For archival lightfastness rated work meant for gallery display, traditional professional pigment paints have an advantage. For everyday painting, journaling, travel, and urban sketching, DryColor sheets are a genuinely wonderful format that many painters prefer precisely because of how immediate and mess-free they are.
What's the difference between student-grade and professional watercolor paint?
Professional watercolor paints use higher concentrations of higher-quality pigments, which produces more vivid, transparent color and generally better lightfastness. Student-grade paints use less pigment and sometimes cheaper pigment alternatives to reduce costs. The difference is noticeable but not always significant for beginners: learning technique matters more than paint grade at the start, and a good student-grade paint is more than adequate for building skills.
Find the Set That Fits How You Actually Paint
The best watercolor set is the one that fits your painting life, not someone else's. A beautifully rated professional tube set is the wrong answer if you mostly paint in sketchbooks and coffee shops. A compact pocket tin is the wrong answer if you paint large studio pieces and need big, saturated washes.
Think about where and how you paint most naturally. Then choose the format that serves that life rather than the one that ranks highest on a generic list.
If you paint on the go, want instant vivid color with zero setup, and want the most portable watercolor setup that actually exists: The Sidekick is genuinely worth trying. The Prism Pack gives you the full 80-color range if you want everything available for more serious studio work in the DryColor format.
Shop The Sidekick at peerlesscolorlabs.com - Explore the Prism Pack at peerlesscolorlabs.com
Paint the way you actually want to. The supplies should make that easier, not harder.