i recently started growing a interest in watercolor painting and I read so many reviews on a affordable travel palette to start my journey. I had some indecision fever and had a hard time picking one from the a list I had narrowed down. Finally, I became so inpatient that I drove down to a local craft store (hobby lobby) to see if they had one from my list because I just wanted to get started.

The retail price for the 24 piece palette was quite high in store but I was able to use a coupon. Even so, the price here is better. Why did I choose this one? Well the reviews were fantastic and the removable palette seemed handy. You could remove it completely and put it off to the side or place it to the right or left (see picture). I love this feature. The colors were described as pigmented and I would agree with that. The pan needs just a little water to be able to lift the color. And I've been able to mix colors no problem. In my picture you'll see some dark color mixed on my palette. This is a mixture of utlramarine, Crimson lake, and yellow ochre. I use this mix to get a perfect shadow color (as seen on the lemon picture).

The palette itself its a fairly study plastic palette. It does stain over time but that is to be expected with any plastic palette. The sides of the palette have little strips of yellow foam that can be used to wipe off the brush. I find these to just be ok. I prefer to carry a small cloth or napkin with me instead. And it is possible to store the included water pen inside the palette if you keep the little black stopper (seen in the open palette photo) to hold the water in the tube. Unless of course your destination has a water source or you carry water with you. And the included water brush? I have been fairly impressed. The brush hold water with next to no leaking. I would say that it is about a medium water brush so it might be useful to pick up a small brush was well for detail work. My brush has taken a lot of abuse as I lost the cap during my travels but the brush still works great. I used it (along with a smaller waterbrush) on the lemon painting.

For what this palette is, I am extremely impressed. Sakura designed a highly functional and portable palette with fantastic watercolors for a great price. I made the right choice for my starter palette. I will say that in the future I plan to invest in a palette that have removable paint pans. This will allow more customization and allow me to use the palette for years to come. The only downfall of this palette is that once the pans on my most used colors are empty, I will either attempt to fill with tube paint or have to buy a new palette altogether. Given that this palette is so affordable, I certainly wouldn't be opposed to buying a new palette, but it would seem pretty wasteful