Etchr Watercolor Palette and Sketchbook Review

Etchr is an art supply company who designs products to be made for them in China. Their products include watercolor pan sets (standard and pearlescent mica colors), pens, watercolor paper pads, sketchbooks/journals and equipment/bags for traveling artists/urban sketchers.

Their porcelain palettes are lovely, but overpriced, and were designed by artist Stephanie Law. They have a large number of wells for traveling with many colors, or can be used empty as mixing wells for working with a lot of colors at once. I particularly love this product for cramped desks rather than travel. They are about 3" circle and come packed in a metal tin. The color wheel style organization can really help with color mixing and color theory/paint picking choices while working.

I believe that their watercolor paints are produced for them by Superior brand, a company that commonly re-brands its products and makes knock offs of other brands. They mimic Paul Rubens, Kuretake Gansai and others, often at a lesser quality but only sometimes a lesser price.

-superior knock offs image, similarity py150 pg17 pb17 clues-

The Etchr 24 half pan set was initially released as a professional watercolor, which I judged them harshly for as one of the initial reviewers of this set. They later clarified it to be a student grade set, but many false claims about the set containing lightfast pigments remain. The pigment load, chalky feel, more than a couple fugitive colors and difficulty re-wetting it make me inclined to agree - these are not for pro art to sell or long term wall art.

I found that the binder in this paint is sub-par leading to streaky gel-like application in masstone. There is an unusual opaqueness, like a chalk-additive, in many colors - leading to muddy color mixing and unusually quick dirtying of your brush water. There is at least two colors that are typos or just very very non-standard versions of a pigment. PY150 is an odd opaque orange instead of the useful transparent mustard seed-like yellow. PG17 is the opposite, normally being an opaque granulating chromium oxide green, instead here a gritty transparent deeper green. This would be a terrible set for a beginner learning what to expect from certain pigments, as these are not proper representations of these code numbers in any reputable brand (such as Schmincke, W&Newton, R.Szmal, D.Smith etc.)

Masstone lightfast test results from Miranda Watson show that even full strength the colors "Royal Purple" PV23 and Lime Green PG36, PY74 will have drastic fading wtihin 6mo-1year.

-lf test image coming shortly-

I am running a masstone and diluted wash test as well and will update this page in the future. I expect to find fading in the following unreliable pigments - PR177, PB17, PY101, PR123. 

Swatch card color chart with pigment codes:

-swatch cards coming soon- 

Where to buy? You can find Etchr products on Amazon USA or Jacksons (UK/worldwide). This page contains affiliate links. All product opinions are my own. I am committed to honest reviews showcasing both the pros and cons of each product. I have not received payment from any brand for a review. I only recommend stores I have personally shopped with and had a positive experience. I earn a commission from sales made through this web page's clickable banners or other links to Amazon or Jackson's. 

Jackson's carries the watercolor pan sets and sketchbooks:

Amazon USA continues to offer more and more art and craft supplies, here's some links to what I've found there. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

-ama etchr direct links coming shortly-

 

 

Want to compare each swatch card to the same color in other brands of paint? See each pigment numbers side by side on the pigment database pages.