Akashiya CA200/20V Sai Watercolor Brush Pen - 20 Color Set (1, DESIGN 1)

Many of the colors in this set are very similar to the Kurecolor Real Brush watercolor 24 marker set, so, I recommend that you buy one or the other but not both. I felt overall, the quality of these markers is better than the Kurecolor markers (I've heard others say this as well). The color seems to flow better with these markers and I liked the formulation and brush tips better. Since the actual marker colors from the two brands are almost identical, I thought they might have been made by the same "white label" company and then sold under different brand names but one is made in China (the Sai markers) and the other brand is made in Japan. I thought they were reasonably priced for the quality and there is a "fun" factor in using them if you just want to play around with them, but obviously not for serious art work. This set really gives you all the colors you need, the basics. The colors are very "bright" as compared to the more muted/vintage colors from the Tim Holtz Distress Marker line. They come in a very secure package, don't worry if you can't read the color names as there are no other marker colors sold by this company so you don't have to worry about buying duplicates on accident. If you look at the back of the package, it looks like this set is marketed to children in Japan, a high quality marker set for students.

I don't have a ton of experience with a huge variety of watercolor products, so I relied on the superior review of these brush pens to guide me right. I have not been let down.I used to art a lot in a wide variety of mediums, but watercolors were never my strong suit. Sure, I made some passable portraits in art class 15-some-odd years ago, but I hadn't touched the watercolor medium since. Let's cut a long story short and say that, when I made a resolution to carve out more time for artistic endeavors, I realized watercolors are amazing for a handful of reasons: they're easy to push around on paper, comparatively quick to dry, easy to to layer, and beyond easy to clean up. We'll be honest and say it's the final reason that makes them so appealing.These brush pens made oiling those rusty arting muscles SO much easier. I'm still learning, but I'm enjoying learning. Coming from a person who gets frustrated by failure easily, this is quite a statement.I love these so much that I ordered a set for a dear friend of mine and have every intention of purchasing more for myself once these run out! Thus far, I've made 12 smallish paintings and haven't struggled at all with pigment loss, so no complaints on the amount of pigment. They have fine tips for detail and are easy to "bleed" out with a paintbrush dipped in water.All in all, for the novice and intermediate painter, I highly recommend these brushes! I'd probably recommend them for the master painter too, but I can't really speak to that level.

I am a watercolor painter and frequently paint while I am traveling abroad. I love the freedom and spontaneity of watercolors and they are the easiest medium to travel with, but still difficult in some situations. I've never been a fan of markers and was thrilled to hear about the new watercolor markers that everyone is talking about. Luckily, the Akashiya Sai are wonderful in nearly every regard. They're more portable, less messy, and I can accomplish nearly every technique I use when painting with watercolors. Big washes are hard, but that's completely understandable. Mixing colors both on paper and on a pallet works very well. Blending on paper is a breeze, especially with a travel water-brush, and the colors are consistently bright, but never crazy neon (a problem I've run into with the Kuretake Fude watercolor brush pens). The only truly negative I can find, and this is more because I'm used to traditional watercolors, is that the pens do not put ink down on the paper when it is already very wet. Wet on wet doesn't work so well - the pens just soak up the water from the paper. However, this is a small complaint and is very easy to work around in most situations. The pens are a great addition to my toolset, but won't take the place of traditional watercolor. Overall I would definitely recommend this to a broad range of artists - experienced, beginner, and everyone in the middle too.

I don't regret theses at all! Now it took a bit to learn how to use these so let me save you some time. These are more background watercolors/writing beautifully with watercolor to stay in the same media. In the picture I put up you can see the green and gray which are these watercolor brush pens. These pens don't blend well but the pigment sure moves but I recommend going at these with more of a color pencil style that you plan to blend. What I mean is you want to work from the darker areas first and spread it out because sometimes the pigment is absorbed so well into the paper the original line will remain transparent in the background through the lighter watercolor.You can really see that in the Easter Egg card with the gold background.I tend to go over the background watercolor with either color pencil or watercolor pencil (working in layers)These pens don't come marked so I highly recommend you leave them in the order that they arrived and make a color sample for your own reference. My own sheet is not equal in size square if squares but you can see the difference in the amount of pigment willing to move on cold press watercolor. I have had these markers for 6 months, none of my arrived dried out. They still work as good as I got them but I do make sure I double snap the close, it is very easy not to fully cap these markers. If you just keep putting them back in the case, you will know if they don't fit that they are no closed.I love these markers and I plan to buy these when I'm out!!! <3