Have I told you guys how much I love watercolor painting? It's something that has captured my heart at an early age. I am into artworks & crafts in general. But my childhood passion has been dampened by my extreme shyness being a child so it was never nurtured. I just recently rekindled that passion. And when I say 'recently', I mean just right after I got married. That's roughly only 6 months ago as I am writing this post. I can't tell you enough how good it feels to be starting out again. Because I am just a beginner, I did not immediately jump into investing costly art tools and materials.

For those who are also just starting out like me, I want to share to you one of my cheap (but really good) art material finds. I'll start with my current favorite poster color.

It was not easy looking for an affordable & quality poster color. That's because I'm living in a very small & young city somewhere here in North Cotabato. The art tool resources here are very limited which makes ONLINE SHOPPING the best option for buying most of the art tools I need. Luckily, I didn't have to order online because I found COLLEEN POSTER COLOR at a nearby mall.

BRAND: Colleen Poster Color

MARKET PRICE: Php.264.50

PURCHASED AT: Gaisano Grand Mall Kidapawan - Department Store

MADE IN: Thailand

Packaging

The product comes in a very innovative packaging. It's a white box, filled with 12 poster colors. It's also indicated in the box that it is non-toxic and one of its sides shows the color names with their corresponding numbers. This product is made in Thailand which is why every significant English word has a corresponding foreign label.

Upon flipping the opening of the box, you will find more details about the product printed in its lid. I like that the instructions were also illustrated making it more understandable.

Now here's why I call this packaging innovative. This box can be transformed as your brush holder too. The instructions about how to do it is also illustrated. Your box should look like the photo below:

There's only 1 brush inserted in my photo but you can actually put in 4 brushes in there because there are 2 holes in each side. Inside the box are twelve different poster colors in a 12ml bottle. Every bottle is very innovative too just like the box. If the box can be transformed into a brush holder, so are the bottle lids. Each of the bottle's lid is specially designed to hold a brush as seen in the photos below:

I used a #10 brush in this sample.

Product Quality

True to its promise, Colleen Poster Color has premium quality despite the cheap price. I am actually impressed with the consistency of the product. It's not too thick but not too runny either. The pigment concentration is really good making it easier to achieve different level of shades by gradually adding some water. It produces brilliant colors making it easier to emphasize vividly the details of my painting. I didn't have any problem either with the drying time of the paint. And more importantly, the color doesn't really changed that much after it dries up. It has a very little odor which is not bothersome at all.

Proper Usage

As seen in its illustrated instructions, stir the product very well before adding it to your pallette. I used a toothpick as my stirring rod but you may use the handle of your brush too. I prefer a toothpick so I can keep my brush handles clean. A little goes a looong way, so don't get too much paint out from the bottle unless that much is required to your painting. Always wipe the bottle opening  after using it so there won't be dried up paints that will stick up to the bottles' lids.

What I love:

What I don't love:

The container or the bottle makes it really hard to get the product out. It's also hard to control the amount of the product I want to take out from the bottle. Other than that, I love everything else about this poster color.

Will I purchase again?

DEFINITELY!

Tips:

Now here's a sample of my watercolor painting using Colleen Poster Color.

By the way, I followed a tutorial from YouTube in painting this tree. CLICK HERE to watch the video tutorial.

Do you also know some art tools or products that are this cheap yet delivers quality output? If yes, then let us know! We would love to hear about it. Leave your comment below.

'Til then, see yah!