Mission Gold Water Color Palette Set, 36 Colors

I bought this over 5 years ago now (closer to 6) and it was my first actual artist grade watercolor set. They have held up great and honestly they might preform even better now than when I got them. I haven’t used them all up yet because a little truly goes a lot way but I’m definitely going to be a little sad when I have to restock lol. They’re VERY pigmented and vibrant which I have come to love. You can water them down, sure, but I love how opaque they can be. Not gouache opaque but opaque for watercolors. I didn’t know what I was doing at first but I fell in love with just playing around with paint on the paper doing abstracts. You can get some amazing effects because of the paint quality and characteristics. They also mix REALLY well together. The only drawback for me personally is how big the container is. It makes it awkward to work with on my desk with everything else out. It has lots of mixing space if that’s important for you but I don’t think I’ve ever even used the lid portion to mix. I have recently put them in a more traditional palette which is smaller (but holds more paint) and sturdier metal and it works a lot better for me. I’d love if they offered these exact colors without the palette for that reason and for when I have to buy more in the future. Anyways, you get an amazing range of colors of high quality paints for a reasonable price (for professional watercolors). I love this brand and how the paints preform. They’re highly pigmented, able to be used in a wide variety of techniques, and easily mixable. They’ve also lasted me a very long time without losing quality - I also still have a little left in the tubes because they last so long. The tubes are small compared to most average tube sets or individual tubes though - that’s mainly so they can fit more colors without upping the price. I definitely recommend getting a separate palette to hold the paints though just to save space (I have one that holds 48 half pans and is still significantly smaller than the plastic one I originally got). 10/10 recommend especially if you’re just getting into artist grade watercolors.

I am absolutely and completely in love with these watercolors. I've used different brands of watercolors for years and I can honestly say that I've never had any paints that are as vivid and "full" as these colors. I am really just blown away. Besides these Mijello watercolors, I have a palette full of colors from other brands (Sennelier, DaVinci, Shin Han, etc.) and figured that I was done. But when I saw the Mijello Mission Gold paints demo'd, I had to get a starter set to try for myself. These are my new favorite paints. You get 36 mini-tubes (enough to fill a half pan, or the wells in the included palette, which is very nice) of a wide range of colors in the line. And most of the colors included are shades of ROY G BIV- not a ton of browns. Sometimes when you get starter sets, half the colors are shades of brown (which I feel can easily be mixed...), so it's nice to get a set where most of the colors are bright. The colors offered in this set are so lovely that when I went to the art supply store to fill out the collection, I could only find 12 of the range of 105 total colors that I felt were different enough from the 36 colors in this set that I felt were a good addition to the set (normally, I have "full set syndrome"). I just can't recommend these enough. Just use a GOOD quality watercolor paper- they work well on scratch paper, but to see the true vibrance and intensity of these paints, only a decent watercolor paper does them justice. But even on Strathmore 300 (used for a little experimental color blending) the colors were insanely beautiful, and the paint literally danced around the page. These watercolors truly make me a happy, happy artist. Splurge on them- you won't regret it.

If you are upgrading from economy watercolors this is an excellent set. It contains 15 single pigments, including black and white. If you are new to watercolors it is important to have single pigments so you learn to mix your own. The rest have more than one and they are good convenience colors as far as you used them as they are. If you start mixing them too much you don't get nice clean colors, rather muddy. I find these to be one of the most pigmented bright watercolors. They are mostly semitransparent, which explains the luminosity. They sometimes can be too bright, specially if like painting nature. More water than paint will show great undertones (light version), at that's probably the best way to start using these. Even though the browns are not varied they are nice for basic things like bark and mountains. They re wet super nicely, like butter. If you plan on making pans with them they dry nicely, don't remain sticky yet they re wet right away. It is probably my favorite part about them. I know I won't have a soupy palette on the go. That being said if you mostly do nature, landscape things be patient because this palette is very bright. To achieve more contrast can be a challenge if you don't know how to paint well yet. The palette itself is a hard, durable true white, like the white from most lotion bottles. I didn't have much beading happening. I don't particularly enjoy the wells, it is personal liking because we all hold the brush so differently. It is a big palette, so you have plenty of room for mixing, it is big enough that I place smaller rectangular plastic palettes on the flat side to keep some mixes from getting dirty. I have enjoyed this set very much for learning more about watercolors, and the paint is so pigmented that a little goes a long way.

I wanted to expand my watercolor collection after learning about Mission Gold, I went ahead and took the plunge to try these out. 36 vibrant, professional water colors, along with a great 36 slotted palette made into a box to hold everything, such a great deal! After trying these, they remind me a lot of my St Petersburg White Nights watercolors. They blend nicely, dry vibrant, no chalkiness, just an overall great experience! Pros: they are a controlled watercolor which makes them easy to lay down on paper and great for a beginner, blend well, dry nicely, vibrant, just beautiful and well worth the price at just $55 Cons: they don’t spread around the page as much as say Daniel Smith, Sennelier or QoR, maybe not as transparent as some of the other brands, but overall that’s not really a con that bothers me. The only other con maybe would be it wouldn’t be as easy to travel with these- but a cheap palette at a craft store that’s smaller would work just fine if that is an issue for some. Highly recommend these for price, if someone is just starting out this would be a better purchase than buying student grade, you get a nice range of colors and a set that will last a good long while.

I am a watercolor artist. Over the past 8 years I've dabbled in many different brands: Winsor and Newton, Sakura Koi, Daniel Smith, Qor Modern, Dr. Ph. Martins, and Schmincke watercolors. Now I'm trying Mission Gold watercolors since another artist I know primarily used them. Honestly I'm extremely impressed! I've spent a lot of money on watercolor sets, but this is probably one of the least expensive sets I've gotten, especially for the amount of colors you get. The quality of the paints are definitely of the professional level. I feel inclined to say that you would be getting the best value for a professional brand with these paints. They are vibrant, lightfast (meaning they don't dull or change in the sunlight), and they blend well into each other. In terms of individual colors, the oranges and the reds are my favorite out of all the other brands. I highly recommend this for intermediate to advanced watercolor artists who may be looking for colors that stay vibrant and are lightfast for a good value! PS. the photo attached is a piece where I only used the mission gold watercolors.

I was first introduced to Mijello watercolors when I got a free sample in my air-right traveling palette (which I absolutely love). I had been toying with the idea of trying others and then came across this listing on Amazon which had the paints available at a deeply discounted rate and had to go for it. I spent a lot of time swatching out the colors, arranging them in my palette and finally comparing them to their counterparts in my beloved existing palette, made up of primarily Daniel Smith watercolors (see attached photo). Here are my thoughts: the colors are extremely vibrant and many of the direct comparisons between pigments (i.e. PY3 "hansa yellow light" in Daniel Smith to PY3 "permanent yellow light" in Mijello) favor the Mijello colors. The yellows seem brighter and clearer, and the blues seem more intense and crisp. However, watercolorist and hobbiests alike should both be aware of the fact that Mijello's color names do not always match up with their traditional counterparts when it comes to the common name vs the pigment. The most glaring in this set is that PB 15:3 which is phthalo blue to every other manufacturer is called cerulean in this line, which wouldn't be a problem if it was something generic like "ocean blue" except that cerulean is another pigment color in watercolors (not included in this set). Another oddity is that burnt sienna and burnt umber, traditionally made from PBr7, are each made up of three different pigments, and in fact Mijello's burnt sienna doesn't even contain PBr7 in its formula. Also, Mijello's "sap green" is nothing like the sap greens from other lines as well, but their "olive green" is a closer match. There are other discrepancies that can be found on my attached picture as well. All in all, these are beautiful colors that remoisten very well and are luscious and fun to paint with, but there are some puzzling choices when it comes to the names and formulas making it difficult to know what to expect when mixing colors and the like. I reccomend them just be aware of the differences between these and traditional watercolor formulas.

I've been painting in watercolor for more than 30 years and have used most brands. I'm not very picky, nor am I one of those "single pigment" purist snobs. (Like most watercolor artists, I mix colors and use what's leftover on my palette to mix other colors, so there's no knowing how many pigments are in the mix.) I find Cottman, Koi and Van Gogh watercolors great value for the money and for my style of painting. My go to paints lately have been Holbein watercolors. I love Holbein because of their intense pigmentation and how easily they reactivate. I gave in to my temptations on this set and I'm finding I really like how intensely pigmented they are - even more pigmented than Holbein. The Mijellos are so pigmented that I have to be careful to use enough water to get the shade I'm expecting. I love how these paints blend easily in wet on wet applications and they reactivate easily on the paper too. The way they reactivate on the paper reminds me of my beloved set of Gansai Tambi paints but without the annoying shine GT paints often leave. The colors in the Mijello set are a balanced spectrum and the palette provided although an awkward design, is very high quality. If purchased alone the palette would cost around $30-$40, so I consider this set to be a great deal. Overall, I'm happy with this purchase.

This is my second Mission Gold set; I purchased it to add a few more colors to my current selection and, with the palette, this is an unbeatable deal (when it's on sale). Traditional water color artists seem to have a few issues with Mission; they've relabeled some colors and they've done a different take, in general, on their line in some ways. I am not a traditional water color artist. I only started painting with them about 6 months ago after a life time of oils and acrylics. I started with Mission and Dr. Martens - both highly pigmented and saturated brands. I've since tried all of the major players: Holbein, Schmincke, Sennelier, Cotman, Koi, etc. And, while I love all of those sets for specific things, I always come back to my Mission Gold sets. It could be that's because they're what I started with but I think I just really love the intensity of the colors and the ease of use (they rewet beautifully). The palette with this set is great and large. I've been using it as my "at home" palette because of its size. I have a smaller Mijello airtight palette that I take with me when I want to be out and about painting. This palette does not appear to be airtight and water tight. The color assortment is pretty great; it's a wide, diverse set of colors for most artists. Overall, very happy with this purchase and totally in love with Mission Gold paints. When on sale, they are the best value for painters wanting pro-grade paints with saturated, modern colors.