Latest addition to my watercolor collection: the Derwent Inktense Paint Pan Travel set.Strictly speaking, guess they are not true watercolors. Yet they look and perform close enough to a regular watercolor compact kit. It comes in a white plastic box and is a tad smaller than the Sakura Koi Watercolors Pocket Field Sketch Box set of 24 colors.The twelve colors arranged in two plastic holders that hold six half-pans each. Did not like how the yellow and green blocks look smaller than the rest and seemed a bit loose in their pans.Fresh out of the box, some of the Inktense blocks fell right off their plastic pans. After the first use, the first wash of color was bound to fix them to their containers. Not willing to wait, I just dipped each block bottom in clean ... MoreLatest addition to my watercolor collection: the Derwent Inktense Paint Pan Travel set.Strictly speaking, guess they are not true watercolors. Yet they look and perform close enough to a regular watercolor compact kit. It comes in a white plastic box and is a tad smaller than the Sakura Koi Watercolors Pocket Field Sketch Box set of 24 colors.The twelve colors arranged in two plastic holders that hold six half-pans each. Did not like how the yellow and green blocks look smaller than the rest and seemed a bit loose in their pans.Fresh out of the box, some of the Inktense blocks fell right off their plastic pans. After the first use, the first wash of color was bound to fix them to their containers. Not willing to wait, I just dipped each block bottom in clean water and pressed them firmly to their pans.Oddly despite being shown on the packaging picture with a plastic cap, the included waterbrush arrived without its plastic cap. Luckily, this Derwent waterbrush is an exact match to the Sakura Koi waterbrush (even their plug designs are identical), so I have spare caps to correct this oversight.The Inktense line differs from standard watercolors in that their dried washes are permanent. Thus second passes with another color do not mix and glaze beautifully without contaminating each other.The included waterbrush affords adequate control and much convenience while on the move.Just take care to protect the nylon brush head with a cap or make sure that the disasembled brush fits snugly in its compartment without rattling around.This coloring kit is quite fun to use, so it would make great gift for beginners and budding artists. Used the paints straight to sketch the background in color without a black outline in the pop-up card sample below.Young students during this week art camp seemed to enjoy them as well. Drew the griffin and its background with a Sakura Pigma Sensei 06 pigment liner pen. and then colored them both with Inktense washes.

A Must Have! These Derwent Inktense Paint Pans are a must have! The color is rich and the paint applies well. I prefer to use a regular paint brush, but the water pen that comes with it works just fine. I bought the set of 24 colors because I always wish I had more colors, although less colors makes you get on your creative game. The pans are tinier than I thought, but Derwent now offers refills. Beginning artists should use professional products and this is one of them. I can't wait to share what I will create with these paints. #sweepstakes

This paint set is a fantastic little find! I wish JoAnn would sell the Inktense blocks in-store, but this set is very useful, with all the colors you'd need to make all sorts of paintings. I especially like how opaque the Antique White is! If you want to know how to get the most out of your Inktense products, look up Lachri Fine Art on YouTube. She has loads of great videos demonstrating the Derwent Inktense line.