Winsor and newton Cotman water colours are a range of water colours that are made to Winsor newton's quality standards, but costs are reduced by substituting traditional pigments with less expensive modern pigments. The range offers excellent lightfastness, good tinting strength, good transparency and true optical working properties. Cotman water colours come in 40 beautiful tones. They're but uncompromising on quality - they have excellent tinting strength and are easy to work with. Cotman watercolour compact box is pocket sized lightweight box is ideal for the outdoor artist. The set offers a number of mixing surfaces, a slide out palette and a mediums dish. It contains: 14 half pans of Cotman water colour, 1 Cotman series 111 water colour brush. The Cotman water colour range has a more uniform consistency than the professional water colour range and this benefits beginners as there is less to learn about each individual pigment. The Cotman water colour range also relates to the Winsor newton professional water colour range, e. G. Burnt sienna in both ranges has the same hue. This enables artists to use colours from both ranges with minimal adjustment to their technique. Costs are kept to an economical level by replacing some of the more costly pigments with less expensive alternatives. Pigments derive from a number of sources: Some are natural products, notably the earths, eg. Umbers, ochres, others come from metal compounds and are sometimes termed 'traditional' or 'genuine', eg. Ultramarine. The range offers a balanced spectrum of 40 colours which are available in half pans, 8ml tubes and 21ml tubes.