Honest Pentel Watercolor Review [12 Colors Set]

I was traveling and walked into a local art store. I saw a lot of paints and colored pencils from Pentel and thought to myself that I’d never heard of this brand. When I was about to walk by, I kept thinking, how often do we overlook some art supplies because they seem cheap, unknown, or less promoted? So I decided to test the paint and I’ll share my findings in this Pentel Watercolor review.

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Pentel Watercolors Characteristics

Pentel paints are extremely affordable yet are great for complete beginners, kids, and watercolor as a hobby. Once a Japanese brand, they are now produced in Taiwan and mostly distributed and popular in South East Asia.

I’ve tried to google the two websites mentioned on the paint box, but both expired 🙁

It is worth mentioning that the watercolors by Pentel Arts also come in a 24-color set and the brand also has a travel watercolor brush which is super convenient.

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My Pentel Watercolor Review

1. Coverage 8/10
2. Consistency 8/10
3. Colors 6/10
4. Opacity 10/10
5. The dry time and finish are 6/10
6. Tubes 5/10
7. Price 10/10

A quick note on the packaging. There are two packages with quite different tubes and from my research, these two packages differ in colors a bit and may differ in quality.

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Read also: Pentel Oil Pastels Review [12 Colors Set] Great Travel Oil Pastels

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Colors

Pentel Watercolor 12 colors set comes with the following colors:

1. White
2. Yellow
3. Lemon Yellow
4. Yellow Green
5. Viridian
6. Cobalt Blue
7. Prussian Blue
8. Red
9. Vermillion
10. Brown 
11. Yellow Ochre
12. Black

I’m not sure if I like all colors. For my personal preferences, Vermilion is too orange, and both blues are quite dark. I would prefer a lighter blue. All colors seemed a bit dull to me.

I saw someone mention that the Pentel watercolors are hard to rewet, I cannot agree with this. I left some paints on paper sitting for 5 days and I retweeted them just with a touch of a wet brush. So definitely, easy to rewet.

Consistency

I’ve read some reviews online and I saw people mentioning that binder and pigment were divided in the tube and binder was leaking out first. I saw it being mentioned for another type of packaging also. I had no issues with separated or runny paint.

The paint seems to be creamy and soft.

Coverage

Coverage is good, smooth, and easy. However, when the painting is dried I think the coverage seems less even

Finish and drying time

Drying time depends on home much water you used. Wet-on-wet dry up to a few minutes. Wet-on-dry application dries almost immediately.

Colors dry to a duller, slightly darker, matte, smooth finish.

Opacity/Transparency

As watercolors in general Pentel watercolor is more transparent. However Prussian blue if applied with less water can be quite opaque, as well as white.

The colors for the opacity swatch didn’t lift each other which means you can layer Pentel watercolor without creating mud.

Tubes

All colors come in 5 ml plastic tubes with a screw-on lid with a bit of ventilation.

After a rebranding, the tubes were downgraded from metal tubes to plastic ones. Metal tubes are often used for professional paints and certainly are more expensive to produce, so I think the brand decided to cut costs.

Another thing is that there is no membrane. When you buy the paint in tubes, often your first use starts with ripping off the membrane that was keeping the tube airtight. Maybe Pentel has a special lid design, but there is no such protective membrane.

Lastly, 5 ml is good for kids, students, and occasional hobby painting but it wouldn’t be a good size for the long run.

Pentel Watercolor Price

The Pentel watercolor is very affordable, on Amazon it costs only around $11, but as I said the paint is popular in SEA, where it costs much cheaper. I bought it in Thailand for only 186 baht (roughly $5.4), I saw the prices for pentel watercolor in Sri Lanka being closer to American – around 7 to 10 dollars. In the Philippines, you could get the paint for as low as $3.5.

It is indeed a cheap watercolor paint.

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how to use pentel watercolor

I think Pentel watercolors can be somehow a travel paint set. I bought them while traveling and I’m going to use them miles away from all my art supplies. I only have my Sakura brush pen with me and I bought some small-sized Canson watercolor papers.

You need to get some paper towels or a regular old towel, and a separate jar with water if you are working with regular brushes.

My Sakura watercolor paintbrush holds water inside 🙂

Step 1 (Optional) – Sketch

With watercolors, you don’t have to sketch. Especially if you are painting loose flowers or loose landscapes. Any pencil will be visible through watercolor. But it may be your intention. For ex., for portraits painters often leave pencil lines.

Step 2 – Paint light areas

Working with watercolors we move from light to dark, unlike acrylics or gouache, meaning we first paint everything that is transparent and has very light colors.

Step 3 – Paint dark areas

Only when light areas are dry we are adding accents, shades, and everything that is dark.

Step 4 (Optional) – Adding mixed media

When the painting is done, we can add accents and highlights, for example, stars, with pastels, acrylic paint, markers, or brush pens. You can add small details nicely without interfering with watercolors.

Done!

Painting with Pentel watercolors is overall easy, I think they are a bit blocky, the water control is not perfect, and the colors dry duller than they are wet. The colours seem bright when wet. But overall, decent easy paints for beginners.

I also have to test them again as this time I noticed that blend, and mixing colors is a problem. Maybe it was just my mistake and my first time using the Pentel brand.

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FAQ

I hope your kids or even you can enjoy watercolor painting using Pentel watercolors if you buy 12 or 18 or 24 colors set. Happy painting!