Is this a good buy?

[Jenna Jenks]

I got a notice from Amazon letting me in on a sale they're having, but I have never used this brand before. I typically use India Ink, although I'm open to trying new mediums. Has anyone used these, and if so, what are your thoughts?

[Kuarahy]

I don't know about Arteza ( I've heard of it, but never used it), but I find buying all the premixed colors in a set like that deceptively more difficult than just mixing from a few. Maybe the wide variety is good for some people, but I've heard painters complain that it's simply a marketing ploy to sell more paint. Maybe it depends on style! I don't know. But that's my first thought when it comes to sets of paints. I would lean towards buying a few tubes of the high quality pigments. I feel like in one of the foundation classes Will gave a list of 5 or so pigments that you can mix basically everything else from. Can't remember which class though, sorry I do love gouache though! It's a forgiving medium.

[Phil Cullen]

I did a quick google search of that brand, it depends what you are looking for really. They would not be of the higher end quality so for playing around with a new medium they looks good because you wont have that fear of wasting money when playing around with them. However all that choice of colour could be a bit overwhelming, when I started using gouache I just got a white a cool blue/red/yellow a warm blue/red/yellow and some earth tones and then started buying a tube here and there of colours I liked, I used winsor & newton.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@Jenna-Jenks i’ve seen it around a lot but I haven’t tried it for myself

[jdubz]

My understanding is that Arteza is a decent brand that's worth getting (medium quality but not garbage). The only problem is that as @Kuarahy mentioned the sets are not great once you get used to mixing colors, and as far as I can see Arteza ONLY sells sets.

If you've never used gouache before and this is you dipping your toe into it, I'd say go for it and it's not a bad way to start exploring if you like it as a medium. If you end up liking it a lot, what you'll end up doing is buying higher quality paints anyway so at that point you could just get the specific ones you need to mix with at that point.

[StudioLooong]

Arteza sent this set to just about every art Youtuber a while back so if you are interested in checking them out in action I'll include some links. Keep in mind these reviewers say that they were not paid to do the review but they did receive the product for free which may influence what they think of the quality (you expect more from something when you spend your own $$ on it).

I'd second the sentiment that you should take Will's advice (in this podcast episode) in buying a few high-quality paints to mix with as opposed to a rainbow of cheaper paints. When I initially encountered this brand I tried to look up what pigments they were using and in what ratios and it doesn't seem like they put that info online or on their products but it does appear to me that these are more of a beginner or student-grade product.

Danielle Phelps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VyZe-OUGqQ

Leigh Ellexson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd5GdBgM0A0

Doodle Date (they actually bought it themselves): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_s1Kohbu-g

[Jenna Jenks]

@Kuarahy

Yeah, some of the premixed paints can be rather much. I like some for lack of wasting paint trying to get the right shade for say an eye color (or trying to rematch the same shade if you end up needing to use more of the pigment than you made ) I do prefer high-end quality over cheaply made, but that doesn't necessarily mean cheap money wise I've come to find ️ All that said, I am honestly still rather new to color all around having done mostly all graphite, but I do believe capabilites with all tools also depend on the quality of those tools to be sure, and gouache is definitely one I want to play with!

[Jenna Jenks]

@Phil-Cullen
Windsor and Newtown is a good brand ️ I bought a small travel set of watercolor paint from them, and I liked the quality although ultimately decided I preferred India Ink due to the deep colors (water colors just felt too light.) I will check out their gouache on your rec though! Thanks

[Jenna Jenks]

@jdubz

It really is quite a large set (and I noticed that they like to sell sets over singles from watching a YouTube on their markers, but I think they sell singles now? Not sure, but that is problematic.) They had a pretty high rating on Amazon, but when it comes to art supplies, I've found it is definitely better to consult fellow artists over the average consumer ️ I think I will wait and research them more and go all out for the better brand. Thanks for your feedback!

[Jenna Jenks]

@StudioLooong

Thanks so much for the YouTube links! I'll be watching them shortly! Yes, that is good advice I wholeheartedly agree with too! Although high quality sometimes you can find at a cheap price, but they are few and far between.

[jdubz]

@Jenna-Jenks Well, don't forget that gouaches are going to take some time to get used to because of the differences in opacities from one pigment to another. So I almost think if you haven't done much of that medium before, it's probably a good idea to actually have a bunch of additional paint you don't care if you just experiment with just to become really familiar with how it goes down and dries using the various opacity indicators.

[Jenna Jenks]

@jdubz I watched a few of the YouTube videos shared up above, and from looking at them, they look kind of similar to water colors (which I'm not a huge fan of.) I think I still lean more towards India Ink, so I will hold off on playing with this particular medium. Besides, I just spent about $250 on Faber Castell pastel colored pencils (I've only done a four pieces with them so far. One I shared here with baby Groot, but also baby Yoda which I really like the results of. I will share attached Love vibrancy! And I probably should invest more time in them before jumping into more mediums LOL