Opus Essential Watercolours offer intense permanent pigments that have the highest tinting strength and pigment concentration available, at an outstanding value.
Formulated to meet professional quality standards, our watercolours are made in small batches in North America and feature high concentrations of permanent, intense, and reliable colour. Lightfast and finely-milled pigments allow you to paint with confidence, knowing you'll achieve the vibrancy and permanence with every stroke.
Mixed in a base of natural gum arabic, these paints offer a wonderfully soft and creamy texture with smooth and easy dispersion in water. Use them at full strength, or thin with water, gum arabic, or other watercolour mediums without the addition of ox gall.
These watercolours are perfect both for painting in the studio and out on plein air adventures. They move across the page beautifully with a brush and make a welcome addition to your palette, mixing beautifully with other brands of watercolour.
We invite you to compare the performance of your preferred brand with Opus Essential Watercolours. Experience their outstanding pigment load, professional performance, and excellent price per millilitre. Make Opus Essential Watercolours your watercolour of choice!
Lightfast colours
Finely milled pigments
Formulated without ox gall
Soft, creamy consistency
Permanent, intense pigments
Matte to semi-gloss when dry
Customers praised these 15ml watercolours for their "vibrant color," highlighting the product's strong pigmentation and visual appeal. The positive 5-star review indicates satisfaction with the paint quality for artistic applications.
Vibrant color
5 stars: 38 (84%)
4 stars: 7 (16%)
3 stars: 0 (0%)
2 stars: 0 (0%)
1 star: 0 (0%)
Some of the reviews shown are from related products the merchant grouped with this one.
E
E.Y. (Richmond, CA)
Brown / Burnt Umber
Very rich colour
Very rich colour. Wonderful to paint with.
D
Dana H. (Victoria, CA)
Opus Essential Watercolours.
It’s my “to-go-to” brand of watercolours. It’s priced right, they last forever and the pigments are in perfect concentration. I like the choice of sizes too.
C
Carol K.
Purple / Crocus
Great watercolours
Crocus is a lovely colour. I like the option of the 8ml size.
S
Sandra G. (Vancouver, CA)
Black / Lamp Black
Vibrant
Vibrant color
A
Anonymous (Hounslow, GB)
Yellow / Nickel Azo Yellow
Nickel Azo Yellow is great!
I love the Opus Essential Watercolors because of the smooth texture when you squeeze some from the tube. I’ve used the Nickel Azo Yellow that is really quite lovely and very interesting how the yellow changes with the amount of water one uses. For sure I recommend it.
A
Anonymous (Maple Ridge, CA)
Ethereal!!!!
Ethereal is a beautiful colour! granulates very easily, a cool grey with red in it, it's stunning! so glad i opted to get this instead of a simple payne's grey
T
Tosha (Vernon, CA)
Blue / Ultramarine Blue
Great price, very pigmented
I like this color, but the dispersion wasn't my favorite
L
Laurie A. (Duncan, CA)
Blue / Aquamarine
Gorgeous
Looks so good with metallic gold or silver accents
L
Lucy C. (Toronto, CA)
White / Titanium White
.
K
Kurtis L. (Creston, CA)
Blue / Atmos Blue
Recommended
Nice color-- great for some sky and/or water scenes.
Color rewets well, and all Opus watercolors have nice pigment concentration.
A pleasure to use, and at a very good price.
M
M.H. (Surrey, CA)
Brown / Mixing Gold
Mixing Gold
Very,very, useful
K
Karen B. (Surrey, CA)
Opus essential watercolours phtalo green
Good colour but I prefer Daniel Smith paints. You did didn’t have phthalate green by Daniel Smith.
C
C.K. (Osoyoos, CA)
Good quality
Much better than student grade but affordable for a beginner like myself.
K
Kurtis L. (Creston, CA)
highly recommended
I got a selection of five colors, and they are all excellent paints. Very well priced, and the paints are very bright and vibrant-- a pleasure to work with.
W
Wayne W. (Pender Island, CA)
Was replacing some of my Winsor Newton's, very pleased with the results with Opus watercolors!
Ps Staff always polite & more than helpful over here in Victoria.
D
Daniel M. (Langley, CA)
The opus brand water colours are always beautiful quality with a fair price.
C
Carla F.F.
Opus watercolour
These are great watercolors. They are professional grade. Every bit as good as the more recognized namebrand watercolors. Highly recommend.
J
Judy Y. (Victoria, CA)
They work well
B
Bonnie L. (Vancouver, CA)
Opus Essential watercolors colors
Colors are great - good coverage!
G
Greg P. (Delta, CA)
Opus watercolours
These are my goto pigments, even over the other big brands. Wet very well in pans. I'd recommend these pigments to anyone.
S
Sharon W. (Vancouver, CA)
Good paint quality in the coloured tubes
D
Debbie R. (Richmond, CA)
Lovely set
Love these Opus watercoiurs, richly pigmented, great palette, definitely would recommend
V
Vivian X. (Vancouver, CA)
Nice set of muxing colors.
I thiught the palette looked cute and i been meaning to try the opus essentials paints and im glad I did it had a nice selection of colours and room to add some more
L
Lou C. (Salmon Arm, CA)
Opus Essential Watercolour
Good quality paint at a reasonable price
D
D.R. (Calgary, CA)
great quality!
I am pleased with the vibrancy and colour payoff. It's a joy to paint with these watercolours. Ethereal is an especially marvellous option. I will be purchasing more in the future.
L
Linda J. (Aldergrove, CA)
Opus watercolours
Great product for a reasonable price.
P
Peter G. (Vancouver, CA)
Good colour; good value; remains homogeneous; ****-on cap easy to remove & replace
S
Sheila C. (Langley, CA)
Opus Essential Watercolours
M
Megan H. (Vernon, CA)
Water colours that can do the job
These water colors are true to the sample marks in the store and last. Rehydrates well, good pigmentation. If your looking for a decent water colour you’ve found it!
A
Andrew R. (Vancouver, CA)
Great paints
These are great paints in rich beautiful colours! I love them :-)
M
Marion W. (Vancouver, CA)
Opus watercolors
Good mid grade, similar to Cotman watercolors.
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