Roman Szmal Aquarius Watercolor Review Color Chart Swatch Card Lightfast Test

Roman Szmal runs a watercolor company based in Poland. He calls his professional watercolors "Aquarius" and has mentioned this part of the name indicates professional quality, as they may expand to include a second name in the future for a student grade line. I'm excited to see what happens with this company, as they have had the most incredible success in 2019 to 2020, gaining popularity with artists worldwide.

These affordable colors come in dry full-size pans (no tubes at this time) and are available in 140 colors. My first purchase to test the brand was their set of 5 basic starter colors:

The following colors are included in this set:

Here's my video review and painting demo using it!

Roman Szmal has created a few paints that are similar to Daniel Smith (imitating Imperial Purple, Moonglow and Shadow Violet colors). These dupes are close, but not exact, so it's personal preference if it's worthwhile to own both company's mixtures. 

 

 

Where to buy?

Roman Szmal Aquarius Watercolors available here.

Swatch cards:

  

See how each color compares to other brands in the pigment database. See my swatch cards side by side with other paints made from the same pigments, organized by color here.

 

As with all of my paints, a lightfast test is currently being done for this line and I will share further information once it becomes available. In general about 1-3 months will show the most fugitive colors, while about 1 year shows everything that will fade in a minor way over time. I do not expect much fading from this brand due to their huge amount of high quality single pigments, that are mostly rated high on the blue-wool scale where 8 is the most lightfast (equivalent to LFI to II for the ASTM here in the USA, where the scale goes in the opposite order).

 

I recommend buying Roman Szmal's Aquarius watercolors from Jackson's below: