Review: Tonic Watercolor Pans by Federal Color

Review sample provided by St. Louis Art Supply

Tonic Watercolor is artist grade watercolour hand-poured in large porcelain pans. These are made by Federal Color and are great for mixing large washes and painting big.

These watercolour are available from St. Louis Art Supply online store and at the time of review, the price of the Core Mixing Set is USD 132 and each individual pan is around USD 20 - 25.

The six colours in the Core Mixing Set are

1. Permanent Yellow (PY154)
2. Signal Yellow (PY65)
3. Quinacridone Magenta (PR122)
4. Federal Red (PR254)
5. Phthalo Cyan (PB15:3)
6. Ultramarine Blue (PB29)
7. One empty porcelain pan

The range of colours is currently limited to 10. The other colours I found on St. Louis Art Supply are Phthalo Evergreen (PG7), Prussian Blue (PB27), Carbon Black (PBk 7) and Titanium White (PW6).

Each porcelain pan measure 45 mm (1.8") in diameter and 19 mm (0.75") in height. They hold seven times the amount of paint compared to a standard half pan, and of course they weigh more than that because of the porcelain.

These big pans makes it easier to use with a big brush and you can pick up more paint easily for mixing large washes. Downside is they aren't gonna be as portable compared to a plastic half pan, and hence these are best used indoors.

A 15ml watercolour tube can also fill a half pan seven times, so the same tube can probably fill up an empty porcelain paint. If we compare prices, watercolour tubes will be more cost effective. For example, a 15ml tube of Phthalo Blue is just USD 12 and the porcelain pan is USD 21, but you do get a reusable porcelain pan.

To store these big pans, I will need to find a big box. I probably won't recommend bringing these outdoors since they are heavy, and you'll need to find a way to hold down the heavy porcelain pans so that they don't move around, hit anything and crack.

Quality of the paint is great. The paint is easy to rewet, colours are vibrant and they flow well and blend well with wet on wet techniques. The binder used is gum arabic.

The paint is triple milled to ensure there are no clumps and quality is consistent. No animal products are used to manufacture the paint.

Below are the colour swatches

Permanent Yellow PY154

Signal Yellow PY65

Federal Red PR254

Quinacridone Magenta PR122

Phthalo Cyan PB15:3

Ultramarine Blue PB29

All the pigments are lightfast. Ultramarine Blue is the only one that granulates in among these colours. The colours are mostly transparent while dry.

The mixes above are:

• Permanent Yellow + Federal Red
• Signal Yellow + Federal Red
• Permanent Yellow + Phthalo Cyan
• Permanent Yellow + Ultramarine Blue
• Ultramarine Blue + Quinacridone Magenta

This Core Mixing Set has a warm and cool version for each primary colour, and vibrant secondary colours can be mixed easily.

I don't really have many any negative things to say about Tonic Watercolor. This is quality paint that behaves like quality paint.

If you're interested in large pans, you can also check out the ArtGraf colour set, Gansai Tambi (also available from St. Louis Art Supply), bigger full-size plastic pans, Kremer Pigment and Blockx giant pans.

Availability

Tonic Watercolor is available from St. Louis Art Supply online store:

• Core Mixing Set - USD 132
• Other watercolour products from Federal Color