Tobio’s vs. Arteza: Which Is the Better Beginner Watercolor Buy?

The quick verdict

Mainly want a lot of paint for very little money? Arteza. The pan sets are good value, the metallics are fun, and you can pick one up almost anywhere.

Never painted before and want something that actually teaches you? The Tobio’s kit. You get the paints, a walnut wood palette, cotton paper, a water brush that holds its own water, and a digital guide — so there’s nothing else to buy before you can start. That’s the comparison in two sentences; everything below is the detail.

The core difference: a paint set, not a starter kit

Arteza sells paint. The half-pan sets come in a metal tin with a water brush pen and a mixing area in the lid, and that’s the product — a good product for what it is. It just means the paper, the plan, and the teaching are still on your shopping list afterwards.

The Tobio’s kit is built the other way around: one box containing every physical thing you need plus the instructions for using them, sized to fit in a pocket so you can paint on a train or at a kitchen table without setting anything up.

One fair caveat: Arteza does sell larger art sets that include a paper pad, canvas, and brushes alongside the paint. Those are a different proposition from the pan sets — if you’re looking at one of those, check the listing carefully, because what’s in the box varies a lot across their range.

Side by side

• Price: Tobio’s Kit $36 · Arteza half-pan set around $21 (24 pans).
• What’s included: Tobio’s — 12 paints, walnut wood palette, refillable water brush, cotton paper notebook, wristband towel, digital guide, gift box. Arteza — half-pans, a water brush pen, and a metal tin with a mixing area (paper and guidance sold separately).
• Colors: Tobio’s — 12 curated beginner colors, chosen to mix. Arteza — 12, 24, or 48 half-pans depending on the set, with lots of metallic and shimmer options.
• Guidance: Tobio’s — digital guide covering the core techniques. Arteza — none bundled.
• Paper: Tobio’s — cotton paper notebook included. Arteza — not included with the pan sets.
• Reviews & returns: Tobio’s — 4.8 stars across 6,801 reviews, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Arteza — widely sold and reviewed at major retailers, and labeled non-toxic.
• Best for: Tobio’s — a total beginner who wants to be taught and wants everything in one box. Arteza — a painter who mainly wants a lot of affordable color, including metallics.

What Arteza does well

• Color count for the money. Twenty-four half-pans for around thirty dollars is a lot of color per dollar, and nothing I sell competes on that number.
• The metallics. Arteza leans hard into shimmer sets, and they’re genuinely lovely on dark paper and in lettering. I don’t make anything equivalent.
• Availability. You can find Arteza in most places you already shop, which matters if you want to start this weekend.
• The tin is well thought out. A water brush pen and a mixing area in the lid means a pan set travels well on its own.

If you already know how to paint and simply want more colors to play with, Arteza is a smart buy — and I’d rather tell you that than pretend otherwise.

Where the Tobio’s kit wins

The gap is guidance and completeness. A beginner who buys paint alone tends to hit the same wall: the paper buckles because it wasn’t made for water, the first wash goes muddy, and the set goes in a drawer — not because the paint was bad, but because nothing in the box explained what to do next. That’s the problem the kit was built for (the Tobio’s kit review is the outside version of that if you’d rather not take my word).

The cotton paper is included and made for water, so your first wash behaves. The digital guide walks through the core techniques in order. The palette is walnut wood with real mixing space — the part people underestimate until they try mixing on a tin lid. And the whole thing is covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee, which takes the risk out of finding out whether painting is for you.

New to all of this? Start with the watercolor for beginners guide before you buy anything. You can also browse watercolor kits to see the range, or read the Tobio’s story to know who you’re buying from.

Do you actually need 24 colors?

This is the real question hiding under the price comparison, and my answer is probably not, at least not at the start. Twelve colors chosen to mix will get you further than twenty-four chosen to look good in the tin. Mixing is the skill; owning the exact shade is a shortcut around it — I go through the reasoning in the guide to how to set up a palette.

Metallics are the honest exception. You can’t mix a metallic, so if shimmer is the thing you actually want, no amount of curation replaces it, and Arteza is where I’d send you. Want more range once you know what you’re doing? That’s what the 50-color paint set ($34) is for — the upgrade path, not the starting point. There’s more in our guide to watercolor supplies for beginners.

The honest weakness

Twelve colors is fewer than twenty-four, and no framing changes that. If your goal is maximum color variety per dollar, Arteza wins that comparison outright, and it isn’t close. There are no metallics in the Tobio’s palette either. The pigments are student-grade — which suits a beginner and suits painting for pleasure, and which will eventually feel limiting if you fall properly in love with this. The notebook is mini-sized because the kit is built to travel, so it isn’t the thing to buy if you want big sheets to experiment across all afternoon.

The bet Tobio’s makes is curation and teaching over color count. That’s a real trade, and it’s the wrong trade for some people.