Horadam Watercolors, 12 Color Travel Tin (Summer 2023)

This chic white travel tin is a special edition for 2023, featuring a bright and complex selection of Schmincke professional-grade watercolors for the adventuring artist. In our studio test, we loved that this set can produce very bright or beautifully muted tones, with surprising mixes available as a result of Schmincke's intriguing color selection. For example, try Quinacridone Gold in a mixture where you'd usually use yellow—you'll get warmer, earthier colors.

The box itself is also quite clever: a squarish, bright white enameled steel tin with a finger loop on the back, a large mixing area hinged to each side, and three rails inside for a maximum capacity of around 20 half pans (it depends how you wedge them in.) Bend the clips down over each pan once you unwrap and insert it, so they can't move around in transit.

The colors included in this limited-edition set are Ultramarine Finest #494, Quinacridone Gold Hue #217, Helio Cerulean #479, Scarlet Red #363, Lemon Yellow #215, Madder Red Dark #354, May Green #524, Phthalo Green #519, Burnt Umber #668, Burnt Sienna #661, Ivory Black #780, and Titanium White #101.

Made in Germany.

Learn about Schmincke Horadam Watercolors:

Schmincke Horadam watercolors are among the world's finest professional-grade colors. First patented in 1892 by Schmincke co-founder Josef Horadam and continuously improved over more than a century of effort, Horadam watercolors are vibrant, smooth, and easy to apply to any kind of watercolor paper. Only the best artist pigments are used for the 140 colors that make up today's Horadam lineup. They're milled until the paint becomes creamy and utterly consistent, and each color shines in its pan when water is applied.

Even the process of filling Horadam pans is special. Each pan is liquid-filled from the same watercolor that's in Horadam tubes, then allowed to dry four times in a process that takes several weeks from start to finish. You can see how it works in the video we've included in this listing. The result is an incredibly concentrated dry pan that reactivates instantly when you touch it with a wet brush. Scrub a little bit and you'll have intense color, ready to apply to your notebook or pad.