Viviva Colors was kind enough to send some of their product to me to try out. While the watercolor sheets and the sketchbook were a gift, I am not being paid to review them.

Here's what I think...

The Sketchbook

The sketchbook has a beautiful faux leather cover which seems to be pretty durable. There's a pocket on the back cover where you can store color sheets watercolor paints and a water brush that I think is genius. That little pocket turns your sketchbook into a travel watercolor kit.

I really like the way the sketchbook opens flat for easy painting and drawing and there's a nifty elastic band to hold the sketchbook together for travel. 

The paper is 120 lb hot pressed watercolor paper. This is a good weight for a sketchbook and the hot-pressed paper makes it easy to create fine details with the paint. The paper isn't as durable as 140 lb paper, so be careful not to damage it with excessive erasing or scrubbing. 

A handy "palette" for mixing colors is included with the Original set to be attached to the back cover. It also adds to the appeal of using these colors as a travel kit. 

The Water Brush...

The water brush was not as easy to use as other water brushes I have in my toolbox. The paint didn't rinse out of the tuft very well. This caused unwanted color mixtures. I finally gave up on using it with the color sheets and used one of my regular watercolor brushes instead. 

The Colorsheets...

The color sheets were very cleverly made, with attention to portability, messiness, and ease of use. I tried out the Original Colorsheets Pad and the Spring ColorSheets Pad. Each had 16 different colors. 

The colors are made from dyes and are very vivid and saturated. All of the colors I tried were transparent but I had trouble lifting the colors. So they are definitely staining colors and care must be taken not to paint too dark, too quickly. Better to go very light and gradually build layers to a darker color.

Some of the colors didn't blend out as smoothly with the addition of water as I would like. This could be frustrating for a beginner watercolorist.  With practice and getting to know each color and how it behaves this could be managed and become less of an issue.

Overall, the colors are pretty good for beginners and for sketching. I wouldn't replace my professional tube colors with these color sheets just yet though. I couldn't find any information about lightfastness or exactly what the product contains on the packaging. 

As a travel kit, this sketchbook and color sheets are excellent. The portability and ease of clean-up make it so easy to paint whenever inspiration strikes.  

If you want to check out Viviva Colors Just click on this link: VIVIVA COLORS