Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Disclaimer: I am a professional illustrator/artist who has every major brand of watercolor known to man (i.e., M. Graham; Winsor & Newton Daniel Smith; Sennelier; Holbein; and I wouldn't even think of writing a review of a watercolor unless it was done on the bumpy side of Arches 140 Cold Press watercolor paper. (watercolor is only as good as the paper you put it on. Having listed my bonafides, I should also say that I have never once offered my opinion of a watercolor product... EVER. The reason I'm doing so now is a result of how SHOCKED I was at the quality and performance of this little kit. Let me explain how this all went down. I'm sixty-five, unmarried, no kids. I usually spend Christmas buying new toys for myself, but this year I decided to spoil a friend of mine's nine-year-old. I got her an Arches cold press block, some good brushes, the Winsor & Newton Cottman 24 set, and decided to throw this in, just to give her something to let her friends use when they come over. So, we opened these first, and filled up the brush with water, and laid out the colors on Arches 140 lb Cold Pressed. The color comes up easily and the "creamy" quality is the result of calcium carbonate, (an inert pigment that spreads the color). I was expecting that, but... what shocked me was how vibrant the color was in spite of that. When I was done, I realized that all the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors of a twelve tone color wheel are represented -even a beautiful blue-green that looks like Winsor & Newton "Cobalt Turquoise Light" (PG 50) and a perfect magenta like Winsor & Newton "Permanent Rose" (PV 19). Of course, I have no idea what these pigments are, or if they're permanent, but, since the majority of my work is sketching out ideas in journals (which rarely see enough light to worry about permanence) and my end product is an iPhone photo (which I can print or distribute digitally,) none of this matters. What matters to me, (and the nine-year-old) is the color. Period. So, If I had to guess, I'd list the colors in this order, using names that any amateur will recognize from the Winsor & Newton lexicon: Lemon Yellow Cadmium Yellow Medium Cadmium Orange Vermillion (Cadmium Red Light) Permanent Rose Winsor Violet (Dioxizine Violet) Ultramarine Blue Winsor Blue red shade (phthalo blue red shade) Manganese Blue Hue (or Winsor Blue green shade) Cobalt Turquoise Light Winsor Green yellow shade (phthalo green yellow shade) Phthalo Yellow Green And the neutrals are pretty complete looking: Yellow Ochre Burnt Sienna (bordering on Venetian Red) Burnt Umber Payne's Grey Bone Black Chinese White So, to sum up... I'm just SHOCKED that a little set can be so we'll thought out, and be so VALUE priced. I suppose I may have accidentally received a better than normal set, but I'll know soon enough: I'm only here because I ordered two more of the 18 color for myself, and the small 12 color (JQ-112) and that's only because after me and the nine-year-old got done comparing the Winsor & Newton 24 half-pans... she put the Jerry Q in her purse. And I was bummed. Oh well, only five days to go. (And free shipping!) Love Amazon Prime. :-) Jerry Q Art 18 Assorted Water Colors Travel Pocket Set- Free Refillable Water Brush With Sponge - Easy to Blend Colors - Built in Palette - Perfect For Painting On The Go JQ-118