Hi Kate, I’ve had similar experiences with companies in Victoria,BC. When I went in over ten years ago to get watercolors I explained that although I didn’t have a huge budget, I DIDN’T want junk. If that meant spending another hundred dollars then so be it. But I explained that I knew nothing about watercolor yet. They recommended W&N Cotman. I bought a dozen colors, all which were useless to me within a month as you just cannot get any professional results with student paint (excluding Van Gogh, they’re awesome). Students should never use student paint, they’re the ones who don’t already have ” best practices” to offset not such great supplies. Professionals know how to correct for problems that come with cheaper supplies, students by the very nature of being a student don’t. I was sooooo angry. The saw and helped me buy a fifty dollar brush but didn’t know enough about their own product to suggest upgrading even to W&N professional watercolors which would have been a fine choice, at lest the paint would have useful. Grrr, still ticks me off.
