Faber-Castell Polychromos Artists' Color Pencils - Tin of 120 Colors - Premium Quality Artist Pencils

Okay, here begins the fangirling over my took-me-three-years-to-get-them Polychromos coloring pencils. I LOVE THEM!!! I did buy them a special fabric case, since I did not intend to keep them in the tin (which is actually a nice tin, by the way). I love colored pencils, and have a lot of different sets. Cheapies, mid-ranges, and my beloved Polychromos. I do tend to save these pencils for special artwork I plan to display. Color-fastness and all that good stuff. Once you sharpen these, you quickly learn they hold their points for a good bit of time. I use a lightish touch with them, but it goes beyond that I'm not pressing hard; they are made to last, and they do. They blend well, layer well, have rich pigmentation, and have a good-sized lead so they aren't going to get you through one picture and need replacing. The colors are gorgeous, with a full range. They are not super-hard, but you can't call them soft, either. They are what you would expect an oil pencil to be. But these are a high quality oil pencil, so I applaud their functionality as versatile colored pencils. As stated, they are vibrant, layer and blend, and feel really good in the hand. They do cost a bit, and it took awhile for me to fit them into the budget. I'm poor, so some will just order these and not have to do without some other supply they need more. These are worth the price, and a plus is that they are available open stock. I find that very attractive. If you are not sure you will like a harder pencil like a Polychromos, try buying one of the small sets, or a few pencils open stock, and see if you like them. If you do, start saving and looking for sales. You won't regret it. Quality is worth paying for.

Let me start by saying that I am not an artist. I do, however, enjoy coloring in adult coloring books. I like trying different techniques with colored pencils, watercolor pencils, gel pens, and markers. I had purchased cheaper colored pencils such as Marco Raffine, Artist Loft, and a few other brands. Then I purchased Prismacolor Premier pencils and realized that they were much better than those cheaper sets. I can blend, shade, lighten colors, & deepen colors much more effectively. I had been looking at Faber Castell Polychromos, which are quite a bit more expensive than Prismacolors, and really wanted to see what they were like. I purchased just a few to start and then I decided to purchase the 120 ct set. Obviously, the Faber Castell pencils put the cheap sets to shame. But, I'm not sure I like them as much as Prismacolor pencils. Prismacolors are more vibrant and much easier to blend and shade with. That said, it's very hard to keep a sharp point on a Prismacolor pencil. They break easily if you apply too much pressure. Where as the Faber Castells do hold a point without breaking easily. They are harder than Prismacolor. So, they last longer. I highly recommend having both sets if you can afford them as they provide different colors and finishes. I can blend the Faber Castells. It's just more difficult. The Faber Castell pencils offer colors that can be used for skin tones that the Prismacolor pencils do not. While these are more expensive than Prismacolors, they are worth the price as they will last longer. To me, the cost will be the same in the long run. I'm happy with this purchase and will order them again in the future. At least Amazon makes them affordable. I priced them at several online art suppliers and couldn't have offered them anywhere but on Amazon.

This set is the best colored pencils ever produced. Let me explain the big reasons why, from where I'm coming from. I have been a hardcore Prismacolor fan from 2001 onward, and their quality has gone extremely downhill. Originally Prismas were made by Sanford which then became bought out by Rubbermaid-Newell. Their products are now consistently off-center (making sharpening hell- you repetitively lose segments of leads which can then only be used by fingertip and friction action), the leads are brittle, they only take 4-6 layers with extreme pressure which makes their colors harder if not nigh-impossible to blend smoothly (and the colorless blender is a joke- picks up colors, etc), and the wax bloom is *ridiculous*, which- if you're sharing your work online- makes decent scanning somewhat troublesome despite excellent DPI. (That's a whole other side topic.) I just got this set of Polychromos for Christmas as a gift, and I'm not looking back at Prisma. Polychromos (Let's call 'em FC for short after the company name) are awesome. There's a really insignificant amount of bloom, but it's an oil base so this really isn't an issue. The laydown is even more buttery than Prisma. They are softer due to the oil-base, and the colors are very rich. Quirks I discovered were the names. I'm coming from a Prisma background so to me, "Pompeian Red" is "Salmon", and "Mauve" is actually their very rich purple hue- which to my former mindset is usually that pale pink/lavender mixup color. So the names will take some getting used to since they're more in line with "painterly" names such as Pthalo Blue, Hooker's Green, etc. So that at least will benefit you if you come from a painting experience. (I do also so it's at least semifamiliar, but still something to get used to). It says something when I have six of the same colored pencil by Prisma and they're all in various states of use/disrepair/broken- and the money behind that does add up. It's frustrating to say the very least, and although that company accommodated my needs by fixing the issue every time (which was often!!) I had flawed items that were interfering with my professional work, honestly just go for the FCs- they're a lot higher quality, plus the leads are bonded and securely centered as well as 3.8mm thick- thicker than say, Crayola (*gag*) colored pencil, so you're getting more product for the money and less wood (which, let's face it: is just a disposable casing). Same amount as per Prismas, but with much less breakage/sharpening issues. To clarify: Someone called Geri B. in the Q&A says that FC don't glue their polychromos pencils. From their own website: " SV Bonding is a process of gluing the full length of the lead to the wood casing of the pencil. This strengthens the lead and prevents breakage which allows for better sharpening, and produces a fine point. SV Bonding is a Faber-Castell trademark. " They're 45c more expensive per pencil than Prismacolors (1.74 vs 1.29 as of this writing) on dickblick.com for replenishment. But considering on average I've lost at least 5 5mm-long leads per pencil (yep: terrible!), that translates to something like a half inch or more lost. One pencil is 7 inches brand new and sharpened, ie almost 178mm. After breakage, you're paying $1.29 for 153 mm (or less than 158 depending on number of breaks), and you're losing 18c per pencil. Some are outright unusable and splinter. Polychromos are the same length. .009c vs .003c; less than a penny either way, but those pennies do definitely add up- and the bottom line even after doing the numbers for the heck of it is- that you're losing product and money every time a Prismacolor pencil busts or fails to perform. I'm totally not a penny pincher. I'm providing this as a breakdown moneywise for the innately curious. And people should NOT have to pay for items to break repeatedly. Prisma tried to address this issue by making pastel-like colored pencil sticks with no lead, as long rectangles- this didn't fix the issue as they're too unwieldy for detailed use; that's a side rant. PROS: -FC are not too much more expensive per pencil than Prismas (buy 10 of each; spend only $4.50 more for world-class quality) -Outstanding laydown -Oil vs wax-based: better blending -VIVID colors, yet not overwhelmingly bad -Traditional style naming conventions as a throwback to the formal pigmentation for artistic references -More realistic results (google up some of the prisma vs polychromos showdowns on Youtube- the video with the grapes painting is what I'm referencing here in particular) CONS: -Haven't seen any yet, will update this review if I do

Muy buenos colores como siempre pura calidad

I am truely beginner for using the pencils, but this has been a really fun using these pencils as they are vivid and highly pigmented in nature. They shine and blend very well. The only thing is required a lot of practice to get the desired results and you need patience with the pencils as they are hard and techniques to use them is going from light shade to dark shade and putting layers and layers. In that way they do not get smudged. But, the guide book which comes with the colors should contain the knowledge about mixing colors to produce a different color. So, u need to produce colors by experiments. As comparing with the Derwent vex based pencils, they are very different and stay sharp and long time. No need to sharpen frequently. The have become my facourite. The price u pay for them is really fade in front of the quality of these pencils. One and last thing u can use the paraffin oil like baby oil for smooth blending.

THE PACKAGE FOR THIS SET OF FABER-CASTELL -120 POLYCHROMOS COLOURED PENCILS WAS STURDY, WELL ORDERED, PERFECTLY DISPLAYED, AND VERY WELL PACKAGED FOR DELIVERY. THE RANGE OF COLOURS IN THIS SET IS STAGGERING! THE PRINTING / IDENTITY ON EACH PENCIL WAS PERFECTLY PRINTED AND COLOUR NUMBERED, AND LOOKED EXPENSIVE AND TOTALLY PROFESSIONAL. I HAVE USED THESE PENCILS NOW FOR A WEEK, AND THEY ARE AN ABSOLUTE DELIGHT TO HANDLE, THE COLOUR IS VIBRANT AND SMOOTH, AND JUST A PURE DELIGHT!

I really liked the range of colours and the smoothness of the pencils. It gives a soft effect to the drawings. I am very exited to use this set. I did not require to put much pressure on the pencils while drawing. They glided smoothly on the paper.

Simplesmente maravilhoso! Parece uma obra de arte. Pigmentação excelente