Review: Winsor & Newton Cotman Half Pan Studio Set 45

Introduction

There are some art supplies that feel like old friends: familiar, reliable, and quietly encouraging. The Winsor & Newton Cotman Studio Palette sits firmly in that category for me and its my go to pallete when I just want to have a play around and have fun. It is not flashy or intimidating, but it is the palette that I reach for when I just want to paint something without overthinking the process.

I recently used the Cotman Studio Palette for a small illustration created for SCBWI Artober. I quietly did every day of this challenge, even though it tok me longer than the month to complete. The final day's prompt on 31st of October was simply 'Bones'. My interpretation of that prompt for this piece was a quick 10 cm x 20 cm illustration of a boy wandering through a museum, painted on Lightwish Pontentate 100% cotton paper. This combination was great for something not too serious and it also offered me a useful opportunity to observe how these student grade paints behave on some entry level cotton paper for this review. I'll review the paper separately but here is my review for the watercolour paints.

My First Impressions

The Winsor & Newton Cotman half pan studio set. is compact and thoughtfully designed. It is very practical rather than being luxurious like the Winsor and Newton professional watercolour tubes. which I love but can be a bit too expensive to just mess about with for fun. The plastic case of this palette is lightweight but sturdy enough for travelling or for plein air painting. There are eight very generous mixing wells on a removable tray and a well-balanced colour selection that covers most illustration needs without feeling too overwhelming.

The colours appear relatively modest in the half-pans, with no dramatic sparkle or jewel like intensity, but the range of colours is great for most projects and they mix together with the kind of quality you'd expect from Winsor and Newton products. This sensible setup is very much in keeping with Cotman’s student grade character. These paints prioritise reliability and consistency over visual drama, which I appreciate. They are probably under-rated in terms of their performance and value. The pigments lovely to work with and the paints are surprisingly easy to use.

Overall Performance

As always, I began by swatching the colours. Most Winsor & Newton Cotman half-pans activated smoothly and were easy to control. They behave fairly predictably on the page although I found the Prussian Blue a little harder to activate than the other pans. It didnt beem to mix as well either so I am not sure if I got a dodgy block or if this is something common to this halfpan colour. On the Lightwish Pontentate cotton paper, the pigments flowed well and interacted nicely with the surface. Washes remained soft, edges behaved as expected, and the paints layered well without drama.

This pairing of pallet and paper did, however, reveal a limitation. While the pigments handled beautifully, the intensity of the colours appeared slightly subdued once dry. This might be partly due to the lower pigment load typical of student grade paints, but the paper likely contributed to this a lot too. The Lightwish Pontentate paper in the watercolour journal absorbed the paint quickly, which created softness but also reduced saturation and because I tend to be a bit heavy handed on smaller pieces, the pooling concentrated in the centre of the pages, causes a bleed that needed to be tidied up once dry.

For my little moody museum scene which focused on bones, shadow, and quiet observation, the restraint of the pallet worked well but I really wanted to try more of the pans than I should have with this piece so opted for hiding colours in the paintings which was fun. Overall though, I tried to keep with the muted palette to support the narrative tone of the piece. In a context that requires bold colour or immediate visual impact, the paints would require additional layering to achieve depth and strength though, but they are still great for study pieces and having a bit of fun.

Pros and Cons

Pros

- Reliable and easy to control

- Re-wets smoothly and consistently

- Well suited to small illustrations

- Predictable behaviour on cotton paper

- Thoughtful colour selection for illustrative work

- Loads of colours to choose from in this set

Cons

- Colours can lack intensity, particularly on absorbent paper

- Saturation requires careful layering

- Less suited to high impact or highly saturated colour work

- Some half pans more difficult to activate and not as consistent

as others

My Final Thoughts

The Winsor & Newton Cotman Studio Palette is a dependable and understated tool in my illustrators toolbox. It does not seek attention, but it performs consistently and allows the illustrator to focus on composition, mood, and storytelling rather than material challenges.

When paired with Lightwish Pontentate cotton paper, it produces soft, controlled washes and a gently muted finish. In the context of my quick ‘Bones’ SCBWI Artober illustration, this quality enhanced the atmosphere rather than detracting from it.

Overall, I think that this palette is well suited to emerging illustrators, sketchbook practice, and small narrative pieces, particularly where control and subtlety are valued. Sometimes, at least for me, clarity and reliability matter more than colour intensity, and the Winsor & Newton Cotman Studio Palette delivers precisely that.

To learn more about the Winsor & Newton Cotman Studio Half Pan set or to purchase these on Amazon, click here: https://amzn.to/4pCtNhM

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