Roman Szmal Watercolor

Roman Szmal Aquarius Watercolors are a premium, artist-grade line of watercolor paints handmade in Poland. Known for their exceptional purity, pigment quality, and artist-friendly price point, they have quickly gained a strong reputation among professional watercolorists and urban sketchers worldwide.

Key Technical Characteristics

• Binder Formulation: Crafted using premium gum arabic, glycerin, linden honey, and distilled water. The inclusion of linden honey allows the paints to re-wet quickly and smoothly with minimal brush scrubbing.

• Single Pigment Focus: The line strongly emphasizes single-pigment formulations. This ensures extraordinarily clean color mixes without muddying.

• Pan Format: Unlike many major brands that package paint primarily in tubes, Roman Szmal Aquarius paints are predominantly offered as full pans (and select boxed half-pan sets). Each pan is individually hand-poured and wrapped in paper featuring a hand-painted swatch on real watercolor paper.

• High Permanence: Almost all colors in the extensive range (180+ shades) carry high to maximum lightfastness ratings (equivalent to ASTM I or II).

Special & Unique Offerings

• Rare & Historic Pigments: The range features uncommon historical or specialty single pigments that are rare among other manufacturers, such as Glauconite, Goethite, Natural Sienna, and Azo Red (PR144).

• Granulating & Separating Shades: Roman Szmal offers a wide array of multi-pigment granulating and color-separating shades (similar in behavior to Daniel Smith's PrimaTek line). Standout examples include Shadow Violet, Mineral Violet, Aquarius Green, and Przybysz's Grey.