Sakura Xncw-18N, 18 Assorted Watercolors Field Sketch Set With BrUSh

Good product

Good quality

smooth, highly pigmented, and doesn't fadeevery watercolor artist journey set.people who are saying that camel set is better are a joke or must be Indian and used to the bad brand.camel makes the worst colors, oil, water, or acrylic. they smell bad and lack good color and pigmentation. they are NOT opaque.

Nice colors✨✨😍

These watercolors are amazingly pigmented and smooth. Koi student watercolors are any day better than "artist" grade Indian paints such as camelin. I am not facing the issues of patchiness, paper's texture becoming spoilt after a few layers and "dirty" look of colours with these watercolors unlike Indian brands.

i've had mine for nearly a year and it is a good little thing - for 30 colours [+ brush, mixing tray, sponge, case] the price does seem abit steep But it is a good pocket set... Un/fortunatly it does have it's draws/flaws.Unless you have large baggy pockets this won't fit in your pocket -11.4cm X 15.7cm with a depth of 3cm this is smaller then A5 size but not slim line enough like Winsor & Newton Cotman pocket set - but with the extra goodies it's no trouble to carry around and is slightly heavier then toilet paper.The case is made of good sturdy plastic and so is the mixing tray, it's a pitty the inlay tray is flimsy plastic that can easily tear/bend if your not careful.The colour blocks are of decent size for a pocket set [not as big as Winsor & Newton's half pans - you could roughly say it's about half size of a half size] and seeing all 30 in a compact space is pretty amazing. Unfortunatly because of this compact space there really isn't any room for when you wipe your brush over one colour you have to stop halfway otherwise you'll go straight onto the next [this isn't a problem if you want two tone and the blocks are easy to clean. The blocks are securely glued down which means if you want to take them out you'll have to prize 'em out and risk wrecking the inlay]. Being of a small size means that doing any work larger then A5 will give you a headache unless you take the blocks out or continuously deposit drops of paint into a larger contain - this will quickly wear down the blocks! BUT the easy of which you can achieve graduation/fades with the paint is unbelievable! it really is easy! The problem is even on A5 doing a large area can be hard as the paint doesn't seem to want to stay on the brush [this is why it's so good at fades]The sponge is of a decent length, is very easy to clean [run it under a tape or droplets of water, a little bit of soap for the more stubben stains] but it is of the type of material that if you're too rough you can easily tear it in half!There is no fault with the brush! It comes in two parts, the brush head with a cap and the bottle with a stopper - some would say the drawback to this would be that the brush screws on to the left but this isn't really a flaw as you can get used to that. And it picks up quite a lot of paint with one or two strokes! Alas the paints themselves will stain the brush fibres over time [how quickly it does depends on the colour and how long it takes you to clean it off]This isn't really a criticism of this product as it is a wonderful thing to have and use! it's just that it is nice to know about what you are getting - and what your getting is watercolour that is lovely to blend, nice colour shades [not too bright or dull], a waterbrush that can be stored with no fear of leaks. But unfortunately if you run out of one colour you have to buy a whole new set to get just that particular colour back! You can not, at this time, buy the colours separately [like you can with Kuretake's Gansai Tambi watercolours] - there is a tube set somewhere around on Amazon but the colours are limited to 18 I think it was. And that is what brings the star rating down.If you can afford it, do get any of the Sakura Koi pocket sets and give them ago! They maybe abit difficult at first as you try to get used to/and experiment with the brush [it's limits] and the colours but they are lovely to use.And now we come to the part about cleaning the brushmost would say just run the tip under the tap or slosh it in a tub of water - this is fine if it's just the tipbut what do you do when the paint has gone past the tip? travelled up past the nib and into the reservoir itself?you have to take it apart.Push the black part of the nib [not the brush fibres!] back into the clear plastic case, it'll click out. Keep pushing till it comes out the other end, if it gets stuck push it back down [don't click it back in] and up again or get some tweezers and grab/pull on the black nob with the white stalk [do NOT pull the stalk!]And what you'll have is the fibre brush, the black cage supporting it and sponge ring and the black cap with the stalk.it the paint has gone onto the ring, carefully remove it - you MUST be careful and make sure you do not damage or tear the sponge! [there are 'teeth' that stop it from sliding down, carefully lift it abit at a time over them] this ring is what helps control the water flow down the fibres. Gently tease off any paint with your nails or another brush.The black plastic cage is actually two parts - the frame holding the brush fibres/sponge ring and a cap with the white stalk. There is a join between the cap and cage, get you nail in that and pull [it doesn't click, it's just pushed in].With the cap off, push on the fibre tip till the sealed end comes out from where the cap was and TADA that is the fibre brush you have to clean ^^Now bare in mind, this is important, do NOT let ANYTHING damage/break/split/bend the sealed end of the fibres! it is this end that stops the whole thing from slipping through the black frame! When you clean the hairs make sure to keep hold of the end with your thumb and finger at all times - don't crush the end just hold it firmly. Clean the hairs either with your fingers [teasing the paint out or another brush], I used The Masters Brush Cleaner but soap will do just as good ^^It is worth baring in mind that the paints will stain the fibres so clean them as best you can, don't be too vigorous and don't worry about splaying the hairs - so long as you have hold of the end and don't bend any of the hairs they can be easily re-pointed when your finished. Also if you come across a hair that has been bent [either by you or from manufacturing] just snip it off abit above from where it bends - this is because of the material, once bent out of shape you can't really smooth it back into the rest and DO NOT cut the hair close to the sealed end your holding as if this gets caught it could damage the end, so atleast cut it half a centimetre away from the base.When your finished and are ready to put it all back together, just repoint the fibres and steadily insert it back in to the black cage - if any hairs get caught don't worry just take it out and repoint it - and put the cap back on [as the cap does not click into place make sure you firmly push it down till both edges of the seem are touching ALL the way round.]If you took the sponge ring off, you can either put it back on before you replace the fibres or after - just make sure you gently pull and tease it up abit at a time, over the 'teeth' and next to [NOT on] the base the bars of the frame connect to - REMEMBER it sits between the 'teeth' and base it does NOT go half on anything! [you have to realise that the ring is made of the same sponge as the one on the palette and it can be easily torn or stretched out of shape it put over something bigger then it's made for [it's not an elastic band that'll fit round anything bigger then it]]Then just push the whole thing back into the plastic case til it clicks [with tweezers or a pencil tip or anything thin]and VOLA you've cleaned the brush head :DThen all you have to do is get water flowing, fill the barrel, screw it on, give it a squeeze to start the water flow and wipe it across the back of your hand so you can see the trails - if nothing comes out squeeze the barrel harder [don't worry if water starts dripping out between the black tip and clear plastic] just keep squeezing til water goes down the tip and run it over your hand to make sure it keeps flowing when you stopHope it helps^^EDIT=====Tips for doing larger washes, A5+, A5 and smaller [with this brush]if you bought this set, or any of the Koi watercolour sets and have been trying to do 'large' washes on your A5 paper [as I mentioned above, this brush pen really can't do anything larger then A5 very well - actually it can't do A5 very well either, more like something small enough to fit in A5 space] the tip I can give is:1) Remove the reservoir sponge.This will let the water flow much quicker allowing you more time on your washes. The only problems with this method is that because there is no longer any control on the flow of water any paint you put on the tip of the brush will have to be more then you think as the water will quickly remove the pigment from the brush and your paper will get soaked more then usual. [this is no problem if you do fades, in fact it makes doing large colour fades Really EASY! But for flat colour work it can be abit difficult]This overflow will also affect any nearby sections of your picture that you've already completed [as it will quickly spill-over the boundary lines], to avoid this either mask-off what's already completed [Masking Film or if you can squeeze it in a gap, a line of Masking Fluid], wipe the brush repeatedly on toilet paper till it's removed the excess water in the bristles or replace the sponge [ doing so will no longer give you more time with your washes].2) dip the brush in water like you would do any other paint brushthis will give you extra water on the paint blocks, but again you'll have to use more paint then normal for a large area BUT doing large flat colour is easier this way BUT! you'll need to keep dipping and re-applying as the water on the paint seems to dryout abit quick3) Remove the black cap with the white stalkthis way will REALLY flood your paper! as as soon as you tip the brush upside down it'll drip like a leaky tap! This method is good for A5 and A5+ large areas but the colour will quickly leave the brush fibres and the water in the handle will deplete more rapidly.3a) Remove the white stalk from the black capjust pull out the stalk with fingers or tweezers [or push down into the cap and push out with a sewing needle]; this will give you roughly the same type of waterflow as 1 [Removing the sponge]or there's the alternative of buying a refillable watercolour brush that has a wider head, but if you can't here's a few small tips that might help with your art and experimentation ^^

Really bright colours it is quite an extensive range of colours in 24 set.colours stay bright when mixed although not sure about transparency.Great for botanical, landscape, even portraits. Smaller than the half pans in other brands however they are well filled. There is plenty of mixing room.thanks to a separate pallet inside with good sized mixing wells that attaches securely to the box with pegs it can be postioned on the right or left of the box when in use. Well positioned thumb hole.I have yet to paint a picture but from the mixing chart i have done the colours lift easily from the pan. Love that it has two sponges included for brush drying. Good for beginners, students, the more experienced artist and children who really want to paint. Box although plastic it is very solid which is a bonus. Water brush has a stopper for the barrel for transport, the brush is split for travelling,which is a great idea. Worth the wait to arrive in uk. Posted a photo of foxgloves i painted using these water colours to help with how they layer and wash also added a sunset landscape hope this helps decide for you

The box was smaller than I thought (pen in third picture for scale), but then again its a field sketch box so that's understandable. Some colours' textures feel different from the others. For example the yellows and oranges felt smoother than the browns? Idk.I bought this as more of a general watercolour set to replace my Camel one, so that's my perspective. The colours definitely feel better than the Camlin set (4th picture) and they're a bit more pigmented too.I'm not gonna lie though, I don't see a very big difference. If you're someone who's upgrading from Camel or something, then I suggest you look for more options I'll use them to do some actual paintings and then add more to this review if it's any better than the first impression. Hope this was helpful.

I'm a beginner watercolour user and the range in this set is perfect for getting to grips with colour theory, mixing etc. The mixing pallette that comes with it packers nicely inside and can be rested to the side of the colours to paint in the go. The water brush included isn't great, mine leaks. The paints themselves do tend to dry a little chalky on the paper I have used (cold pressed watercolour paper) but I mainly use them in my sketchbook so that doesn't bother me really but anyone looking to make sellable peices might be bothered by this. Great little kit for great price.