DerwentInktense Paint 24 Pan Palette

First impression: Meh, but may have potential for some things.Nothing really that special about these, except that they are permanent when dried and they look like watercolors, which is why I was interested in trying these out.The colors that were selected for this palette are not what I consider to be intense, as the name "Inktense" seems to imply, and they are much less intense than my artist grade Winson & Newton and Daniel Smith watercolor paints when applied as a graded wash. So I was disappointed about this. To get a comparable intensity I needed to lay down a pretty heavy coat of the inktense, with the exception of the red, which is very bright and intense. Alternatively I would have had to apply multiple layers for the same effect as my watercolor paints.Because they are permanent once dried, and look like watercolors, for me I think they will be good for underpaintings or backgrounds to work over with watercolors, acrylics, pencils, pastels, collage..,... Also, you can get a nice permanent wash, whereas acrylics diluted that much water will tend to flake off a canvas, and you would need a special dilution medium to make acrylic washes. This is a definite plus.The Inktense do wet up instantly from the pans, but once you put it on paper, you must work with them quite quickly and spread them around before they dry and become permanent. If you don't work quickly they will leave a darker, very defined mark, where you first apply them onto watercolor paper.They also work over acrylics, and you can get some nice transparent washes as well as opaque layers depending on how heavily you apply them.Watercolor artists who like to work with transparent paints and layering will probably like these paints. Those who like to work with straight or fairly undiluted paints might also like these, because if applied heavily that's when they are most intense. The range in between may require a learning curve to figure out the nuances of their uses.The colors provided in the palette might seem limited at first glance, but they are actually pretty versatile when you factor in color blending and the transparent color layering you can get with these. Just playing with these for a short time, so far I have been able to get quite a wide range of beautiful greens. One of first the things I look for in a palette is the variety of convincing greens that can be made from it.I really would have preferred to have a white pigment on this palette in place of the black, since black is very easy to mix from a combination of the colors, so putting black in this, or any palette for that matter, was a waste of space IMO. You simply can't create white. So from this standpoint the palette was not well thought out. Yes, I can buy the white separately, but only as an Intense block, and is pretty pricey with the shipping. It would need to be combined with a future larger art supply order in order to make it economical for me. It will be awhile before I need to make a large order. So, I'm stuck without a white inktense for awhile.Summary:Compared to my regular watercolors and the way I use them, these are not as intense as I was lead to believe. Overall I think I will enjoy playing with this travel palette though. It's also a good way to get introduced to Inktense before deciding whether to purchase the bigger very expensive sets of the Inktense blocks, or individual blocks. I like that they are permanent and I can work over them without disturbing them. It's unacceptable that there is not a white pan of paint in the palette. Yes, traditional watercolor artists typically don't use white paints, but these Inktense paints are not traditional watercolors, they are INKS, and I am a mixed media artist as well as a watercolor artist. Adding the white would have make this set much more versatile and practical.I can neither recommend or discourage you from purchasing. If you like the idea of permanence with the ease of watercolor, the ability to make permanent washes without using acrylics with special mediums, you might consider buying, which is why I did. I thought the travel palette was pricey.Finally, I though it was extremely strange, and very hairbrained thinking, to not include the cap for the waterbrush for child safety reasons. I don't have kids in my house, let me decide if I want a cap or not! I would have appreciated having it to protect the bristles, and from leaks inside the palette box. The really hairbrained part is that the small removable plug that goes into the brush was included, as well as all the other small parts, like the half pans, and the paints themselves that are easily removed from the pans, and the small sponge, all of which could easily find their way into a child's mouth, if that's what the concern is. If you're concerned about child safety, maybe you shouldn't be selling this travel palette at all! Sheesh!------------------------------------------------------------------------------UPDATE: Nov 6, 2019, raising it from 3 to 4 stars:I've had this set since June 2019, and have since bought some white Inktense blocks, and put a piece of it into the palette where the sponge used to go since I never used the sponge and prefer a rag or paper towel.    I also stuck a small piece of kneaded eraser in the brush compartment and I stick the capless waterbrush to it to keep it from moving around inside the palette. It protects the bristles very well (I would still prefer to have a cap for it!), plus I also have a piece of kneaded eraser in my palette when I need it. The waterbrush is watertight and hasn't leaked inside the palette and it actually works quite well.  There's even room for another small regular travel brush inside the palette next to it.What's interesting is that over time I have found myself using this Inktense travel palette quite a lot more than my watercolors for my urban sketchbook outings now.  The palette has sort of grown on me!  So, I decided to buy a set of 36 Inktense blocks, that I can use to replace the ones in the palette as needed. I have grown to love the 36 inktense blocks, but that tin they're in is just way too big for travel, so the travel palette is a great way for using those, even around the house.  Unless they're woodless, I'm just not a big fan of pencils, period.  I hate wasting lead in a sharpener, so my preferred way of sharpening pencils is, the labor-intensive way with a knife.  I can deal with sharpening just a few pencils like that, so I decided to limit my Inktense pencils to the open stock white, black, sepia, paynes grey and outliner. I can easily manage that small number, they're colors I seem to use a lot for small details, and I can have a few sharpened and ready to go.  I carry one of each in my bag with my travel palette.

I feel like some of the space in this box is not used as efficiently as it could be. I thought maybe I'd be able to swap the pans around and add additional paint but it's really not manufactured in a way that allows for you to really change it around at all, even with blue tak it's going to be a challenge to fit additional pans into this box in any effective way. I took everything out and tried.I love Inktense. I have about 30 pencils and about 20 sticks. And I really love the medium quite a bit, I think for the amount of paint you get in each cake it's less than one intense stick, I would say it's probably half of a stick in these half pans and obviously it's a little bit less versatile because it's a little half pan size chunk. It does come with a water brush so it's a handy little set. I think in the future, I would have just bought the colors of the intense sticks that I wanted singly from Dick Blick, because they're way cheaper than Amazon, and use an exacto knife to cut them and fit them inside of half pans or full pans if I wanted to make them into a travel kit and I basically end up with the same thing in a more efficient format that I could tailor more to my own individual needs.That said, it's a cute little set. I think their color choices are a little bit non-standard. The plum for example is an awfully warm brownish purple instead of including something more like a dioxazine mid cool purple. the kiwi color is a very lime green instead of a more springy leaf green or a sap green. The mango is kind of similar to a new gamboge warm yellow, and the lemon is a good cool yellow. I think their choices of blues were a little bit funky also. the ultramarine included is really not very satisfactory, it's much more of a pthalo blue and warmer. did you not include pigment numbers of the hues that are included in this set. Overall I feel like it's a very warmish / yellowish palette to use as a standalone item. It's a good introduction to using inktense as a brush-on medium. I really love being able to use the inktense pencils (as opposed to this set of cakes or the individual sticks) and then add water to the pencil drawings once I finish them, I think that's really where intense gets its strength as a medium. If you've heard a lot of good things about inktense but you despise pencils, and you want to give it a quick cheap try I would say go for this set. If you already love the pencils and have a method that you want to use them, I would say stick with the pencils and just use the other type of wet media that you like with it. if you don't have your heart set on a brushable medium, I would really recommend getting the set of 12 inktense pencils first. It's an excellent mix of colors and it has some more traditional primary palette included in that set than this one does. Like I said the color choices they included are a little different then your standard pigments that are included in most basic beginner primary sets of 12 colors.I don't think you're going to get anything additional out of this set, the box is really nothing too special. If you're looking for the style of box there's any number of cheap-- magic fly-- Sakura-- art -n- fly-- etc-- Chinese manufacturers that have generic watercolor extruded pans of paint that you can reconfigure better than this particular box. It's a nice box and it has the Derwent name on it, but it's really one of the less versatile plastic pallet boxes I've seen. If you're looking for a good plastic pallet box I would highly recommend the van Gogh set of 15 paint in the white box it has a removable tray and can you use winsor Newton style half pans. the paint that comes in the van Gogh box is superior to the cottman paint in terms of student grades, and it comes with one of the best portable pallet brushes I've seen. You can get a hell of a Sharp point with the paintbrush that's included in that you can also buy these boxes empty for under $10 and they include a removable palette and the brush. if you're wanting like me to experiment with different watercolor boxes and you're interested in this kit for the box specifically, I think you can do better in a number of ways with other brands.

Always love ink color are great love to work with them

I'd been using ink from bottles for years, until I discovered this palette. It's more convenient as the inkis in solid form, easier to control than using ink from bottles. Less messy too. There is enoughspace on the small palette to mix the paint. I had bought the first palette, and now with the second one,I'll be able to use ALL the colors. Derwent, being an old British brand, has always been reliable. For methis item is a must have.

Produto novo e entrega perfeita. Cores intensas.

Super palette d'aquarelles de chez Derwent, il y en a 12 plus le pinceau brush, l'éponge, les plaques de mélanges et le nuancier, bref une palette super pratique pour se déplacer, on y retrouve la bonne qualité des produits Derwent. Comme c'est une Inktense paint on obtient le même fini qu'avec les crayons et les craies du même nom donc un aspect encre, c'est différent d'une aquarelle classique qui elle peut se retravailler en lavis, celle ci s'applique en couches translucides successives comme une encre, donc idéal pour les paysages, les portaits d'animaux ou autre, les couleurs sont permanentes une fois sèches. très contente de cette palette je ne regrette pas mon achat. J'espère que ce commentaire vous sera utile...

Me han gustado mucho los colores, la textura... mezclan bien, algunos granulan mucho (el ocre amarillo y el negro), secan rápidamente y, al ser tinta, ya sabemos que no admite retoques posteriores.Los godets son un poco más pequeños que los habituales medios en acuarela y las pinturas, que son trozos de las barras inktense de esta misma marca, vienen sueltas: si giras la caja se descoloca todo. Tendré que pensar algo para fijarlos.El pincel de agua viene con tapón de seguridad, para que lo lleves lleno sin temor a derrame, y su capuchón. Comentarios en Amazon.com decían que lo habían recibido sin tapón... parece que han corregido el defecto, pero ahora el pincel montado y con capuchón no cabe bien en la caja, como se ve en una de mis fotos. Por otro lado, es un pincel aceptable, perfecto para un uso rápido en esbozos.Lo peor que veo es la presentación, venía todo sucio... la caja por fuera y por dentro, la carta de colores que trae hecha también está manchada...Si, como yo, es la primera vez que vas a usar las barras de inktense, creo que es más recomendable comprarlas enteras, en lugar de esta presentación simulando acuarelas, porque tampoco la caja que trae vale lo que cuesta. Es lo que haré cuando estas se me agoten, pues la verdad es que pintan fenomenal y combinado con tinta o rotulador indeleble dan mucho juego.