Tube paint vs pan paint

ntl

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What's the difference? Why choose one over the other?
About 5 years ago I was given paints still in tubes, but all had about half the tube put into little plastic lidded tubs, which I'm just starting to use. Many of the tubes of paint have hardened, anyway.
 
I think, depending on the make and how they are stored (and closed back up), the tubes can harden at times.

Well, I use both, and here's the difference (for me, anyway): I like using the tube paint when I'm working on larger pieces, and with it, I will use a larger ceramic palette to mix colors with the water. I can make a lot more paint that will go much farther. Maybe I'll snap a picture for you in a sec here.

With the pan paints, I use a smaller plastic or metal palette and don't need as much paint.

The palette type does not matter, it's really the amount of paint and the size of the palette I'll use. Maybe the amount of mixing I'll do as well.

I bet Kay will have even better answers for this than I have.

wcpalette.jpg
 
Not so messy after all, :)
What are the little dishes (blue one on top), what do you use them for?

With a couple of exceptions, my tubes are pantels. Is that a good paint?
If I continue on with wc, I would probably get pan paint. What I have now is a student (8 color) Prang set. What brand would you recommend? Yours has a lot of colors, what is it?
 
Those are ceramic bowls that I use for gouache. When they're dry, I can stack 'em like that. :)

Pentels aren't bad. They're not the greatest, though. I have a small set of them that I don't use very much. Let me know if you want them.

My pan set was expensive. They are Holbein. I bought the set of half-pans of 36 ($350+) and a few extra colors that I wanted to add in there.

I would recommend any student grade. They are still very high-quality. Even professional-quality watercolors need to be protected from light, but the cheaper the paint, the faster the paint will fade. The less brilliant the color, too.

The Winsor Newton "Cotman" line pans are super, and very reasonably priced. Sakura Koi are also very good but think they might be more money. Maybe not for a big set, though.
 
LOL! I won't be getting Holbeins, LOL! I have a few tubes of their oil paint. I like it, but it's really thick.
I looked at the Cotmans several years ago, but didn't get any, I wasn't that interested in WC at the time. We/ll see. The prang and the pentel will last me a long time.
 
Either way paints are sold work well. Still use an old Winsor Newton compact travel kit that has tiny wells their cubes are in. I’ve a White Nights pan set from Amazon that are luscious. Travel kit was $67 in 1993 when purchased and Nights were even higher a year or so ago. Usually in the studio I use tube paints in a Frank Webb palette. Recently ordered a Daniel Smith pan paint in Moonglow to compare it to tube paint. They’re the same as far as I can tell. Tubes are juicier no doubt.
 
Their prices have gone up some in the recent year but I wholeheartedly recommend Rosa Gallery from Ukraine. They're definitely artist quality. Amazon has them. They're even better than White Nights, which I used to use. I emailed them and found out that they're still operating in spite of the war. I have most of the metal travel sets they offer and I especially love their plastic travel palette which comes with a full set of paints filling it. I found that the plastic travel set can be filled with White Nights, full pans of Sennelier and full pans of Schminke or can be filled out of tubes so I bought more than one. Mine holds a full set of travel brushes, a pencil, eraser, pencil sharpener and a little piece of sponge as well as a small pipette along with the 24 full pans.

Further, Baouhong from Amazon sells a very good 100% cotton paper block that's reasonably priced and each block of smaller sizes holds 20 pages, And then brushes---I decided to try real hair brushes and on Amazon you can get real hair brushes from Fuumuui. I think some of them say Kolinsky sable but I can't swear to that being the hair. All I know is that they're extremely affordable and don't lose hairs. They work really well.

Not to seem off topic here--I forgot to answer whether I think pans or tubes are better. I've used both but definitely prefer pans. Full pans, preferably because the full pans are easier on brushes. I'm not a prolific artist and tubes get dried out and hard to get the paint out of if they sit around. A filled pan will last me forever---long enough for the tubes to get dried sometimes. My first artist quality paints were White Nights and their paint is in full pans so I just kind of got set in my ways with full pans, even though I've seen the more prolific and experienced artists say the tubes are more economical. The lids of tubes get "glued" on, too, and I can't get them open easily so that's another reason I prefer pans.

Besides that, I don't like wasting paint and watercolors can be reactivated on the palette when they dry. The paint is going to dry on the palette anyway so I don't see much use in using color from the tube that's not dry. Pans are so portable for plein air too, and it's so convenient.

Oh and one other point----I live in an RV. It's quite roomy for an RV but still, my space is limited so I only work on small paintings. I might prefer tubes if I lived where I could do bigger works.
 
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Useable information here. I think (today) that I might stay with pans, I'll need more info. One question, can I buy pan paint individual colors? ie, a pan of cobalt blue? My prang box has oval holes for their oval pans. It seems most pans are squar or rectangular, so they won't work in a Prang box. Is there a "universal" box?
Arty, thanks for the offer, but the total cost of mailing would be too much--packaging, trip to PO, postage, etc. If you want to pass them on, if you have a "free library" box nearby, maybe stick it in there. :) One of the neighbors here put a box up about a year ago. Sometimes there's even a can of food in it.
 
Actually, Prang sells the refill pans for their sets. I saw on one of their sets that their paints are even semi-moist and I know there's one youtuber who even does lessons in watercolor using Prang paints. I haven't tried them but have heard only good things about Prang. Also, you can buy (very cheaply) empty plastic pallettes that hold square or rectangular paints. You can also buy the little pans without any paint in them to make your own set by filling them with tube paint and letting it dry.
 
I do like my prangs, but it looks like they have only 16 colors, the 8 standard and 8 secondary colors. So I will get tubes for refills. Having a wide selection of colors for oils, I really like having so ,amy, and want that variety in WC, so tubes it is, For now, now that the cobalt is about gone, I have several o ther blues to use. Prussian Blue sky, anyone? LOL! :p
 
I think Prussian blue would be quite strong for a sky. Ubaltramarine is a very beautiful color you might want to try. If diluted enough, I find it to be sort of cobalt-like. There are various blues you could try and you can mix in another color to change the main color or subdue it a little.
 
Thanks, Grizabella, just a joke there--the Prussian skies. I have a few other blues: cerulean, manganese, thalo, ultramarine, turquoise. I'm sure there will be plenty of paint to see me through. I chose cobalt for that piece, because it's a cold color, and that's what I wanted for that one.
I generally use oil paint, and have a variety of blues there, too.
 
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