Miya Himi Watercolor 18 36 Solid Paint Diamond Set Color Chart Brush Review + LIGHTFAST TEST RESULTS

Miya is a company from China that makes a variety of art supplies including paint brushes, watercolor, acrylic and gouache paints. Their HIMI brand name has appeared on multiple of their product lines, including the HIMI gouache (which is possibly also branded as Arrtx, which offers very similar jelly cup style gouache sets). These bargain paints are of such a high quality that they defy typical standards and expectations. I highly recommend them for kids, students, crafters and beginners wanting to learn techniques at a bargain price without being hindered by poor quality supplies (these do NOT suffer from low pigment load/streaky/texture issues or chalkiness). They are very affordable. The main trade off being that many colors would fade over time if hung on a wall (window light/uv sensitive). Ideal for sketchbooks and practice paintings without fear of wasting expensive paint.

 

Both the watercolors and gouache are premium quality paints that have professional performance (smooth, finely ground pigments, flow well, high pigment load, vibrant and quickly re-wet with a damp brush etc.) but they do not include expensive pigments. The watercolors do not include ingredient codes. While the quality gum arabic binder and high pigment load in their watercolors is equivalent to the best paints on the market, they do not use pigments like cobalts, cadmium, viridian or potters pink so you will see more staining and less granulation overall than pro grade paint lines that offer many granulating colors. Like most paints in this bargain price category, about a third of the colors are not lightfast meaning they are ideal for sketchbooks and print reproduction.

 

I offer coloring book style line art from all of my videos, so you can paint along with me! Printable high res scans of the color and line art for this video can be found on my Patron post here.

 

 

 

Their synthetic brush sets are available in pointed rounds ideal for watercolor and filbert flats for gouache. They have a good capacity, point, are soft and are of good quality for a very inexpensive price. They are packaged in beautiful containers with colorful handles and bird-nest style padding with illustrations on the boxes. All of these things make their products one of my first go-to recommendations for beginners and as a gift idea for artists.

Their 36 color set in a unique rhombus diamond pattern is my favorite product from them. The paint goes down very smoothly, an ideal practice set for student painters that do not require lightfastness: 

Amazon USA links below, but may also be available in other countries on your local Amazon or Ali Express.

They also offer also smaller sets, bundles with their gouache and a new style of set which I have not yet tried:

Miya himi 36 solid watercolor set rhombus paint swatch color chart lightfast test

After one year lightfast test (right side of each strip was placed on the indoor side of a south facing window). Most of the reds started fading within 3 to 6 months, some fully disappearing in diluted range by 1 year (compared to little to no fading you see in the LFI-II colors).

Miya himi watercolor lightfast test fading fugitive colors

As expected, many of the cheap red pigments, orange and a dark violet (bottom left, likely PV3) have faded. Overall I would say this set performed extremely well for such a dirt cheap paint. I was impressed to spot a stable yellow PY3 as well as a PV19 and PV23 (top right). There's not usually a lightfast violet and cool red in this type of student/bargain price set. 

Swatches with salt reaction:

miya himi color chart watercolor paint set 36 solid color rhombus diamond pan salt texture effect

Miya himi watercolor painting example art demo video kimberly crick art youtube 36 rhombus

 

Where to buy? I get my art supplies from Amazon, this page contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The gouache paints that included pigment codes have been swatched for the pigment database. Until they provide this information for the watercolors they can't be directly compared to the same pigment in other brands (see pigment database).

 

Note: this page contains affiliate links. All product opinions are my own. I am committed to honest reviews showcasing both the pros and cons of each product. I have not received payment from any brand for a review. I earn a commission from sales made through this web page's clickable banners or links to Amazon, Arteza, Scrapbook, Jackson's or Blick Art Materials websites.