I've never worked with watercolor markers before but am completely horrible at using traditional watercolors. Luckily, these markers have made it soooo much easier. It comes with the colored markers and also with an empty one that you add water to in order to lighten the color from the colored marker. I'm absolutely still working on learning how to use them. So far, they have been much easier to use than traditional watercolors. I'm still working on getting them to look just the way that I want them to look but they are getting easier and easier to use.