Reply To: Da Vinci watercolors

[Tonya L]

Okay so do you want my professional opinion or my personal one? 😀 Husband (who is an architect) compares watercolors to house paint. There are only a few manufacturers but lots of paints, so hmmm… many of these are made by the same manufacturers but on different lines with different formulas.

As a Cheap Joe’s/American Journey Ambassador, all I can say professionally is that Joe isn’t talking. (I just saw him today, by the way.) Employees who deal with these issues have to sign a nondisclosure agreement to whoever the manufacturer is, and I’m sure other paint companies require this also. All they are officially saying is that AJ paint is an independent brand and is exclusive to Cheap Joe’s, and that is totally true. There isn’t another paint out there that will totally match AJ. I’ve tried.

DV is just the same – exclusive to that company and no other paint will totally match it.

Now for my personal opinion… AJ tins are the same color as DV. The pans are the same. They have many overlapping colors. Same tube size, etc, etc, etc. Hmmm…

But they do not paint the same. Nor are they the same.

I see this all the time… lots of paints are in the exact same package but perform differently. What can I say? It’s a small world.