TLDR; These are great paints for a great price.
Roman Szmal is a Polish paint company and they have only recently become more available through Jacksons art. I was so excited to try them, as people have said good things!
The range has 140 colors, where 117 are single pigments. They are also made with honey, so they are not suitable for vegans.
I got 7 colors: Nickel Azo Yellow, Quinacridone Pink, Ocean Blue, Cobalt Coelin Blue, Aquarius Green, Shadow Violet and Przybysz Grey.
These come in full pans and the prices range from 2.70gbp to 4.80gbp on Jacksons art (as I could see). This is very reasonable for professional paints, especially the cheaper colors! It’s more expensive than the White Nights, but still worth the price imo.
Keep in mind that I only have 7 colors and this is more of a first impressions review.
Some observations:
- The pans have some wax paper residue, so it takes a bit of time to get the paint going. As the paint is used more this is not a problem. After this it rewets really well.
- They dry really evenly! So they are great if you want flat washes.
- The Nickel Azo Yellow has a weird kind of texture that might be good or bad. This goes away the more water is added.
- The paints flow nicely in water, and layer really well.
- They mix beautifully.
- Their speciality mixes are soooo good, I love them!
Below you can see some paintings I have done with these paints!
Update January 2022
My Roman Szmal love continues and I have increased my collection a bit! Here is my updated palette:
I ended up removing Przybysz Grey as it turned out it is not lightfast. One of my new favorites is Misty Morning. It is stunning for skies and prompted a series of landscape paintings. Lazurite is another new one which is perfect for when you just need the palest of colors and don’t feel like watering down paint for ages. Perylene Violet is the most beautiful version of this color I have ever seen! Needless to say, this has become one of my favorite brands and I reach for this paint a lot.
In this painting I have mainly used Shadow Violet, Misty Morning and Manganese Violet (Just see how misty morning separates in the sky!):
I hope this was helpful and that you have a great day!
-Ellen