Half Pans vs Full Pans

Half vs Full Pans

Some artists use half pans in watercolour boxes while some others prefer to use full pans.

Half pans are small, and hence the box that carries them is smaller and more portable. That's probably the one advantage half pans have over full sized pans. But there are more benefits to using full pans.

A half pan has a capacity of around 2ml. With a 5ml tube, you can fill it 2.5 times, and with a 15ml tube, you can fill it 7.5 files. Regardless of whether you fill half or full pans, using tube paints go a long way and saves a lot of money than buying pan refills.

Some boxes are designed in such a way that you can mix half and full pans. Those boxes are good. There are some colours that are more suitable for use in half pans, such as colours that have extremely high tinting strength, e.g. Phthalo and Quinacridone colours. You just need a tiny bit of those colours and you can create a really strong wash. So you don't really need a huge amount of paint for those colours.

Another advantage of using full pans is you can use larger brushes with them. Using larger brushes means it's easier and quicker to paint on larger area. When you can fit the whole bristle into the pan, you can pick up more paint, and you can mix paint faster as well.

With larger pans, you also have the option to load your brushes from the side, thereby protecting the tip of the brush. When you load paint this way, you can also load more paint.

Large pans can also help your brushes last longer.

Standard 12 half pan boxes provide a nice number of colours for mixing. You can have numerous primary colours as well as convenient colours such as earth tones and greens. If you use full pans instead, then the total number of colours you can fit in the same box is going to be fewer. It's not a big deal because you can choose to include some good primary colours that will provide you with wider mixing potential. The downside if you have to include less convenient colours and have to mix them yourself.

In the end, it's really a matter of personal preference as to which size you find more useful.