Tubes come in different sizes. Regular tubes of watercolor are quite small, but some manufacturers make larger sizes.

If you paint often and your paintings are big, the larger tubes may be cost-effective. Be sure to screw the caps back on after use, to keep the paint from drying out.

Paints are priced according to the value of the pigment used in their manufacture, so some colors are more expensive than others. Watercolor paints are available in two basic qualities: students’ and artists’ colors. Students’ colors contain less pure pigment and thus don’t achieve the same brilliance of color as the artists’ paints.

For my paintings, most of the time I use the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue, but sometimes I also use burnt sienna and burnt umber.