If you have decided to try watercolour this year and you are hunting for the best watercolor set to start with, two names come up again and again once you start searching: Tobio’s and Emily Lex. They are both aimed squarely at beginners, but they take very different routes to the same destination, and the right choice depends entirely on the kind of starter you are. This is the honest, side-by-side guide I wish I had read before spending any money, so you can pick the best watercolor set for you rather than the one with the loudest adverts.
Two different philosophies
The most important thing to understand is that these are not quite the same type of product, and that is the whole story.
Emily Lex is, at heart, a teacher. The Emily Lex studio is built around beautiful classes and the popular Emily Lex watercolor workbook range that walks you through simple, modern watercolour, things like flowers, pumpkins, houses and little landscapes. A watercolor workbook like this is essentially a guided practice book. What it generally does not do is hand you the paints and brushes. You follow a recommended supply list and buy your materials separately, usually a tube or pan set, a couple of brushes and proper paper, then learn alongside the book.
Tobio’s comes at it from the opposite direction. It is a physical, all-in-one kit. You get pan paints, a self-contained water brush, watercolour paper and a guided workbook in a single tin, ready to use the minute it arrives. The teaching is built into the box rather than sold as the main event.
So one sells you the lessons and trusts you to gather the tools. The other sells you the tools and builds in just enough teaching to get you going. Neither is wrong. They suit different people.
Getting started: which is quicker?
If your worry is “I will buy this and then need to buy ten more things before I can paint”, Tobio’s wins comfortably. There is no supply list and no shopping trip. You open the tin, squeeze water into the brush and start on the first guided page. For nervous beginners, gift recipients and anyone who has abandoned a hobby because the setup felt like homework, that zero-friction start is genuinely the deciding factor.
The Emily Lex route asks a little more of you up front. You will spend an evening choosing and ordering supplies, and there is a small risk of buying the wrong thing if you are completely new. The upside is that you end up with materials you have chosen, which can be a better long-term setup if you already know you are going to stick with it.
Depth of teaching
This is where Emily Lex pulls ahead. The Emily Lex watercolor workbook and her classes are lovely, generous and clearly made by someone who teaches for a living. If your real goal is to learn proper technique, build a skill steadily and have a library of projects to work through, the depth is hard to beat.
Tobio’s teaching is deliberately lighter. The guided pages are there to get you a happy result on day one and to keep you painting through the wobbly first week. That is exactly what most beginners need at the start, but a determined learner will eventually want more structured lessons than the kit alone provides. Many people, sensibly, start with a kit and add tutorials later.
Quality of materials
Honest answer: both can produce lovely work, and at beginner level the paints are not your limiting factor, you are. This is also where a lot of beginners get stuck, because if you search for the best watercolor paints you are met with hundreds of options and conflicting advice.
The Emily Lex approach lets you spend up or down on materials because you choose them, so your quality is whatever you buy, which is freeing if you enjoy research and paralysing if you do not. Tobio’s gives you a fixed, beginner-friendly set: vivid pans that rewet well, a clever no-spill water brush and a pad that stands up to a few layers without buckling. It quietly answers the “which are the recommended watercolor paints for me” question by simply handing you a sensible set, so you skip the research rabbit hole entirely. The tin and pad are compact, which is perfect for small paintings and travel, and a little limiting if you love big, loose washes.
A note on travel and everyday use
One underrated difference is portability. Because the all-in-one kit is sealed and compact, it travels brilliantly, so it doubles as the thing you throw in a bag for holidays, journaling or a quiet half hour in the garden. The Emily Lex approach lives more naturally at a desk, since you are working from a book with your own supplies spread around you. If you already know you will mostly paint on the move, or in the small pockets of time a busy week allows, that portability quietly tips the balance toward a kit.
Cost, simply put
The two add up differently. With Emily Lex you pay for the workbook or class, then separately for paints, brushes and paper, so your total depends on how much you spend on supplies. With Tobio’s you pay one price for the whole bundle, and when it is on one of its frequent sales it usually works out cheaper than buying comparable bits individually. For a clean, predictable spend, especially as a gift, the all-in-one kit is the easier maths.
Which should you choose?
Here is the simple decision.
Choose the Emily Lex route if structured lessons are your priority and you do not mind doing the legwork first, researching a supply list, ordering paints, brushes and paper separately, and spending more before you can actually paint. It suits people who enjoy studying a technique step by step and treat the shopping as part of the fun.
Choose an all-in-one kit if you want to start tonight with zero fuss, you are buying for a beginner or for a gift, or you simply want a calm, low-mess hobby you can pack away in seconds. If that sounds like you, these watercolor painting kits for beginners are the most beginner-proof starting point I have found, because everything that works together is already in the box.
And honestly, the two are not enemies. A very sensible plan is to begin with a complete kit so you are painting immediately and building confidence, then invest in deeper lessons once you know you love it. You get the easy start and the proper teaching, just in the right order.
The bottom line
There is no single best watercolor set for everyone, only the best one for how you like to learn. Tobio’s is the better starting line. Emily Lex is the better classroom. If you are the type who needs momentum before commitment, start with the kit. If you are the type who likes to learn properly and gather your own tools, start with the lessons. Either way, the best watercolour setup is simply the one that gets you actually painting, and now you know which path matches you.
