Watercolor in tubes or pans – which is better?
When buying watercolors, many beginner artists face a choice: tubes or pans. In reality, the same manufacturer uses the same pigments and binders. Therefore, these paints do not differ in any fundamental way, except for consistency and the fact that pans undergo additional drying.
## Features of tube paint:
- Ready to use immediately after squeezing out;
- Very convenient for picking up large amounts of paint for large-scale canvases;
- Retains its qualities for a long time;
- You can squeeze the paint into pans and let it dry.
- A downside is the potential for paint waste if you squeeze out too much. This happens quite often – if you press the tube too hard, it's impossible to stop the paint.
## Features of watercolor in pans:
- Paints have practically no expiration date; - Easy to pick up the required amount of paint; - Convenient to take on the road, and you don't have to worry about them getting crushed or squeezed; - Sometimes they need to be re-wetted before use; - A downside is that pans can collect dust if left open. In that case, they need to be thoroughly cleaned, which leads to paint waste. If not cleaned, the dust ruins the painting and creates dirt. -
Personally, I prefer pans. I rarely paint large works; most often my drawings do not exceed A4 format. What do you think about this?
