If you're curious about whether Caran d'Ache watercolor pencils are worth the price or just want to see some watercolor pencils in action, I'm swatching and reviewing the 40 piece set of Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle Watercolor Pencils. I’ll go through all the colors, show you how they look with full pressure applied and light pressure applied, and then how each of those pressures evolve into watercolor when water is added afterward.
I recently asked people what medium they’ve been wanting to try but haven’t actually tried yet, and naturally, it made me reflect. I’ve dabbled in a lot and certainly have my favorites, like this gouache, this watercolor, these drawing pens 😉, omg the best paintbrushes of all time 🥹, these markers, and most of all, my favorite sketchbook ever in allll the land (I should really do a blog dedicated to this babe because gosh I love her). Oh and I can’t forget paint pens ( 👈these ones are refillable). One of my favorite-favorite supplies is also about to be name dropped 👀 👇
But it’s time to come along the adventure, and my answer to “What medium have I been wanting to try” is watercolor pencils. I’ve avoided them because I wanted to prevent the hard lines that can happen with watercolor pencils when applying water, but then again, I realized I’d only ever tried random off-brands when I was a kid. Anyway, I haven’t been in any hurry, but then Laura (wife!) buys me a set of only my favorite brand of aquarelle delights: A set of Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle Watercolor Pencils — have you snagged their Neopastel II set?! 👈 FAVORITE!!! She didn’t even know it was my favorite brand for this stuff. She just did her research 🕵️♀️
So now I have no excuse. And I’m not mad about it. Without further ado, I’ve swatched these beautiful colors, and *spoiler alert* the Caran d’Ache watercolor pencils are worth the hype.
Watch the Aquarelles swatch video
Museum Aquarelle colors
Colors included in the 40-piece set of Caran d’Ache Musem Aquarelles:
- 240 lemon yellow
- 010 yellow
- 530 gold cadmium yellow
- 030 orange
- 850 cornelian
- 571 anthraquinoid pink
- 560 light cadmium red
- 070 scarlet
- 350 purplish red (this has a hint of blue that peeks through when it’s more transparent)
- 131 perwinkle blue (this one has that blue granulation too)
- 120 violet
- 640 dark ultramarine
- 162 phthalocyanine blue
- 670 permanent blue
- 171 turquoise
- 161 light blue
- 181 light malachite green
- 710 phthalocyanine green
- 210 emerald green
- 720 bright green
- 470 spring green
- 015 olive yellow
- 542 butternut
- 034 yellow ochre
- 037 brown ochre
- 077 burnt ochre
- 044 terracotta
- 065 russet
- 599 - crimson aubergine (Note: Somehow, the color "Crimson aubergine" was mislabeled in my set so the swatch is inaccurate! I emailed Caran d'Ache so we shall seeeee!)
- 059 brown
- 046 cassel earth
- 058 umber
- 225 moss green
- 719 dark phthalocyanine green
- 808 french grey
- 902 sepia 10%
- 001 white
- 004 steel grey
- 508 payne’s grey
- 009 black
Honest thoughts
My overall thoughts: The Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles are seriously incredible watercolor pencils. It was even more effortless to blend colors with water than my favorite Neopastel IIs. So I can definitely see this set making its way into my regular art practice, and I’m pretty dang excited about it.
