Crate Color Aqua Bricks Review: Compact Watercolor Blocks That Punch Above Their Price

Introduction

Crate Color Aqua Bricks are a small-format watercolor set that has quietly earned a lot of goodwill among artists who like compact, travel-friendly painting tools. The set comes in a metal case with ten chunky blocks, each larger than a standard half pan, plus a small sponge for drying your brush. They are made in Austria, and the company advertises them as museum-quality paints with excellent lightfastness, using single pigments throughout.

What makes this set interesting is the format: the blocks are solid enough to be used like a crayon directly on a surface, then activated with water. In this review we look at how they swatch, how they behave on paper, and whether they live up to the claims.

What Is Crate Color Aqua Bricks?

Crate Color is a smallish company based in Austria. It was bought out by an actual pencil collector, and it is somewhat better known for its colored pencils, but these Aqua Bricks watercolor blocks have become a notable part of the lineup. The paint is water-based and can behave like watercolor or, depending on the surface you put it on, like gouache. Mixed with white, the colors can also go opaque, while most of the swatched colors lean transparent.

Each set contains ten colors in chunky blocks, delivered in a compact metal case that you peel open from a plastic seal. There is a small compact sponge included. The blocks hold noticeably more paint than a half pan, so a light user could reasonably expect this one set to last for years.

How They Perform on Paper

The colors lay down beautifully. Tested on Bristol-type watercolor paper, the pigments dissolve cleanly and produce strong, vibrant washes, and cold-press paper should give similar results. The company claims the pigments are lightfast and of museum quality; that claim cannot be verified in a single sitting, but the use of single-pigment paints throughout should support both better lightfastness and cleaner color mixing.

The blocks can also be used dry, crayon-style, directly on a surface and then worked over with water. The manufacturer claims they will draw on all kinds of surfaces, including metal, wood, and porcelain, though paper is the most practical test bed for most sketchers. Pulling a block out and sketching with it before wetting the mark is an unusual and genuinely fun way to work.

Mixing and Color Range

One of the strongest points of this set is how well the ten colors mix. The selection covers the basics well enough that most painters will not feel a need for additional colors. In practical testing, mixing a little black with blue produced a convincing Payne’s gray, while burnt sienna blended with yellow delivered a usable yellow ochre for landscape grounds. Greens can be pushed across a wide range by blending the emerald and spring green with other colors in the set.

One small frustration: the colors are not clearly labeled. Working out the official names takes some digging, and some had to be guessed at. It is a minor annoyance in an otherwise well-thought-out set.

Who Should Buy Them

These blocks suit urban sketchers, travel painters, and anyone doing watercolor and ink work on paper. In a test sketch of a farm and barn scene, the colors mixed well in the clouds and handled a sunrise sky with no trouble. The generous block size means the set should last a very long time for casual painters, which improves the value proposition further.

Price is another clear advantage: the set typically lands around 20 to 25 dollars, which is modest money in today’s competitive watercolor market. Of the watercolor products tried recently, this one genuinely stands out, with strong pigments and easy mixing throughout.

Buying Advice

If you paint occasionally and want a compact, durable set that will not need replacing for years, the Aqua Bricks are an easy recommendation. If you need precisely labeled color names or a broad ready-made palette of specialized pigments, the unlabeled ten-color selection may require some compromise. For sketching, mixing-based painting, and travel work, the format and quality are hard to beat at this price.

Conclusion

Crate Color Aqua Bricks deliver real quality in an unusual, practical format: chunky single-pigment blocks, excellent mixing behavior, a compact metal case, and a budget-friendly price. For anyone looking to try a fresh take on portable watercolor, this set earns its place in the bag.