Jerry Q Art 12 Assorted Artist Grade Premium Water Colour Travel Pocket Set with 2 Brushes, Half Pans-JQ 12 Professional

My 1st set of Jerry Q pro paints from Amazon were a bit hard & gritty, so I exchanged them. The 2nd set arrived and the paints were creamy and smooth, containing different, unusual colors, which was happy and surprising!In my 2nd set, the cap on the larger of the 2 brushes didn't fit snugly, quite loose over the other half of the cap, and fell off continuously. Ordinarily not a big deal, but I really really utilized the larger brush both on site and studio. Rather than be without my paints, I contacted Jerry Q through Amazon to simply replace the larger brush. I didn't want to waste the pans from the 2nd tin.Give or take a week, I not only received 2 new brushes, but also an entirely new pro set kit from Jerry Q, with a lovely personal note enclosed. I was touched at their surprising level of customer service, as it's rare these days for companies to care so deeply about buyers, ensuring a happy product. I felt it important to let other reviewers know this too.Aside from loving and recommending their student kits, I truly like their new pro field kit very much, and now own TWO! Fixing a small situation such as mine goes a long way in my book, and I could not be more pleased at Jerry Q's efforts to ensure a happy customer. And btw--I really DO love the new pro set (see my attached swatch chart photo). A small drop of water instantly rewets the colors into a melted chocolate consistency. My smaller washes with lighter values provided a beautiful transparent color on smaller paintings and paper.The half pans are smaller than typical half pans (see my 2nd photo), so that was a bit disappointing. I hope Jerry Q is working on a lid logo, as I have many boring black tins to paw through. If the seller placed their pro set in a quality box (like Kuratake--not the fave I mention here!), they could absolutely notch up their paints for a bit more money. Who doesn't love opening a superbly crafted paint box? As for no logo, I've printed out an adhesive Dynamo sticker for now to identify the black tin more quickly from the many I already own. (I'm an art supplies addict). I'd prefer to see a somewhat heftier version of their student palettes, as they are far superior to ANY palette I own, both field and studio.Their student palettes were clearly well thought out. I personally don't think a tin is necessary, as Jerry Q's different sized palettes prove. I'd love to see a different color pro palette, such as light green, pale gray, pink, anything light, pale, or muted would really ramp up the desire to own and gift many of these pro sets, even if they cost a fraction more.While I am pleased at Jerry Q's gift set to me, in no way does it compel me to write anything other than an honest review. There are a few bugs to be worked out, such as: lid logo, larger half pans, testing brushes, pro kit palette color, etc., but having made the swatch chart twice now, has made for an honest, side-by-side comparison of this particular half pan set against another favorite of mine. Both provide beautiful colors, washes, highly pigmented and saturated colors. I am unsure about the lightfastness (fugitive) of the half pans.Overall, I am genuinely happy to own this field kit (2 now), and have faith that it will perform as well as my other many favorites. Let's face it: for $15, (two lattes) it's one of the finest pro kits out there. And the customer service has proved to be excellent as well. I look forward to many paintings utilizing this sweet little kit!

This set is priced so low, I expected the quality of paint to be poor - but that was not the case. The color selection however, leaves a lot to be desired. For a 12 color travel set you really want it to have a Magenta in order to have floral pinks and to be able to mix purples. Instead you get Prussian Blue (sadly a fugitive color) and two convenience greens. It would have been perfect if they swapped out Prussian and one of the Greens to give you Magenta (or Permanent Rose) and Phthalo Blue. Color selection aside, the paints re-wet easily, were creamy, flowed well and reacted to salt as expected. I had no issues with the paint quality. This is a nice way for younger people and students to be able to afford an artist grade professional quality paint without a big price tag.What I did have problems with is the packaging, case and brushes. I admit, I am not a fan of metal travel tins, especially with the sharp edges this one has. Not all corners are rolled over, so the tin is razor sharp in several spots. The packaging looked a bit dingy and banged up when I received it, and the tin had a minor dent. The travel brushes included had nice brush heads that held a lot of paint. The small one fit together snugly, but the large brush fell apart in half when doing gentle motions like dipping it into water for rinsing. You could glue it, but then it wouldn't be a travel brush. You could still use it just holding the small half of the brush while traveling. Those few things that were not paint related I took a star away for. In the end, it's still a great value for the money.

This set isn't bad for a starter set of "professional" quality paints. There's no pigment or binder information on the packaging to really clue me in on what they're made of to really determine if these are really artist grade or not. The cadmiums are definitely hues, for instance. That said, i compared some of the colors in this set to their professional equivalents (I use Lukas 1862 aquarelles for the comparisons) and you essentially cannot tell the difference. They mix well without getting muddy. Some colors like ultramarine and yellow ochre are always going to granulated as that's just a trait of the pigments they're made of.I deducted one star because the set lacks a good red and a magenta. You get light red (which is basically a deeper opaque, oxide red) and a cadmium red pale (which is more orange than red). You cannot mix a good purple with the reds and blues provided in this set. Also, the inner mixing tray was stuck under the main part of the palette when i first opened it. Not sure if that was intentional or not, but it was impossible to dislodge the smaller inner mixing tray without bending it. But it was also flimsy enough to flatten back out easily. It is just a mixing tray, after all, so I dont expect it to be made of adamantium. It still serves its purpose well.The brushes it came with are actually really nice and springy. The larger brush comes to such a sharp point they honestly could've left the smaller brush out! I removed the metal clips and was able to fit 12 more half pans in my palette and add a better red and some other colors I personally consider essential.So to recap:Pros:- really close to professional quality at a fraction of the cost- great brushes- colors are clean and not muddy when mixedCons:- inner mixing tray is fairly flimsy but still does its job- needs a better red