Derwent Chromaqua Watercolour Pencils

Well, Derwent have done it again. Don’t get me wrong, as excited as I am about this brand-new set of water soluble pencils from Derwent, its an up and down relationship with Derwent. I make no bones about the fact that I love Derwent and the products they create, however, recently they have been taking away with one hand and giving back with the other hand; only problem is, the giving back is always secret and can take a while to manifest.

Taking away the 120 count of Derwent Artist Coloured Pencils really hurt as this is a set I have always loved, I should say reduced the set to 72 from 120 rather than taking away completely. But then they hit you with the amazing 150 set of Chromaflow and pretty much all is forgiven. Same for the Derwent Studio and now the Derwent Watercolour Pencils. However, the 72 set of Derwent Watercolour pencils has been replaced by this amazing 150 set of Derwent Chromaqua Watercolour Pencils.

I know I have kind of let the cat out of the bag regarding my feelings towards the new set of Derwent Chromaqua 150 pencils, but stick around and find out exactly why I love them so much. Here in the written review I touch on information not included in my YouTube video review and vice-versa. So if after reading this review on the 150 Derwent Chromaqua water soluble pencils, you would like to see some realtime demonstrations, click the link and you will be automatically taken to the YouTube Review.

30% Discount Code AQUA-TAGG

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30% Discount Code AQUA-TAGG -

Before we go on with the Derwent Chromaqua Watercolour Pencils review it is important to tell you, Derwent has so generously provided 30% Discount to all readers, viewers and supporters of The Art Gear Guide. When you visit the Derwent online store, anything you purchase between now and the 31st of January 2027, you will receive 30% off. Once you fill your cart and go to pay, there is a section to input a discount code and for 30% off the code is AQUA-TAGG.

Derwent Chromaqua Water Soluble Pencils Characteristics

As you can see from the images, the tin has a bright a vibrant art piece, created by the wonderful artist, “Katie Bute”, which depicts the pencils perfectly. I am fortunate enough to review for you the 150 count of the Derwent Chromaqua, the largest count in the range.

On opening the tin, you are presented with the first layer, starting with a wonderful selection of yellows, peaches, vermilion’s, reds, pale pinks and into the lilacs. The second layer is a continuation of lilacs, violets, gorgeous dark purples and then fading into pale blues such as Blue Orchid, Periwinkle and Carolina Blue. This continues with aqua blues and greens and finishing with a beautiful selection of greens.

The third and final layer continues on with a few more greens such as Leaf Green and Lincoln Green, this continues on into the pale earth tones and the darker earth tones such as Burnt Sienna. Finishing of the third layer we have a beautiful selection of grey tones, but before the greys we have the most gorgeous colour in the set, Liquorice. The greys finish off with, Lavender Ash, Almond Frost and Red Storm, the final four colours in the set are metallic Silver, Gold, Silver Mint and Ice Blue. We will take a closer look at the palette when I introduce the swatches.

The Derwent Chromaqua Watercolour Pencils are hexagonal in shape, lacquered in a dark charcoal grey. The girth of the Derwent Chromaqua barrel is an ample 7.2mm, housing a 3.6mm, pigment packed core. The print along the barrel of the Chromaqua is a metallic gold type font, which like all metallic fonts can be tricky to see in certain light, however the contrast of the dark barrel and font makes it pretty easy.

Along the side of the barrel, we have in print “Made in England”, the home of Derwent being in Keswick, the heart of the Lake District here in the UK; this area of the Lake District is the most visually stunning location in the UK, in my opinion. Further along the barrel we have the company name printed “Derwent”, followed by the pencil range “Chromaqua” and a brush icon to indicate a water soluble product.

Toward the very end of the barrel we have the pigment name along with the number corresponding to the colour. The very end of the barrel is capped and in the same fashion as all Derwent pencils, the iconic diagonal flash. For the Derwent Chromaqua the pigment identifier on the end of the barrel, is separated from the dark barrel by a decrotive metallic ice blue band.

Derwent Chromaqua Water Soluble Pencils Performance

In this section of the review we take a look at how the Derwent Chromaqua performed throughout the various tests. The very first testing I do is provide a swatch. As you can see from the images, I apply the pencils in their dry form first, I also provide a black marker band across the centre of each colour, to test the translucency or opaqueness of the individual pigment. In this test you can see each color in its dry format first.

In this series of swatches you can see that I have activated the dry pigment with water, helping to demonstrate the pigment in its true watercolour state. As with the dry format, you can clearly see which colour is opaque and which is translucent. It is in this format that you can see some of the most gorgeous colors from the entire 150 palette.

Along the top swatch, pencils from the first layer, you can see the selection of yellows, such as SunFlower and the beautiful Sienna Gold, finishing with Flame on the top line. The second line continues with the oranges, leading into the reds. If I had any critique of the Chromaqua at all, and I would be nitpicking, I would like to see more reds. The Scarlet and Pure Red sway too much to the orange side of the spectrum. The second line finishes with Shiraz and the pale Turkish Delight and Salmon.

The third line continues on with the pinks, with magenta and jazzberry, with the paler tones Orchid, Rose Pink and Pink Heather, finishing of with Holywood Pink. The fourth and final line on the first sheet continues with the violet and lilacs, sporting vibrant colors such as Aztec Purple and finishing with Egyptian Blue and Violet.

The first line on the second sheet continues on into the dark violets, purples and pale blues such as Blue Orchid, Periwinkle and Carolina Blue, finishing the line off with Blue. The Second line again sports beautiful pale blue tones, flowing into aqua blues and aqua greens, such as Caribbean Green and then finishing off with Cactus.

The third line started with Field Grey and Obsidian Green, two absolutely stunning greens for botanical, leading on to the foliage green, grass green and again finishing the line off with Light Olive. The final line on the second swatch sheet continues on with greens, again showcasing beautiful greens like Pickle, Leaf Green and Lincoln Green. This leads into pale earth tones such as Peach Sand, Burnt Sienna and finally Redwood.

The first line of the third and final swatch sheet displays the selection of beautiful earth and grey tones. Starting with Rasin, leading to Liquorice, one of my own personal favourite colors, a rich, deep reddish brown tone. The line finishes with the greys such as Almond Frost, Red Storm and Lavender Ash

The second and final line starts with Rose Quartz, onto Slate Grey, Winter Lace and Oxford Grey; finalising with the dark greys such as Charcoal Grey, Neutal Grey and Black. If you look closely at the Charcoal Grey, I see a tinge of green to the color and it looks amazing. There is a white pencil and finally finishing of with four metallic colors, Silver, Gold, Silver Mint and Ice Blue. All of the swatching was completed on St Cuthbert’s Mill Millford Cold Pressed Watercolor Paper.

I completed a botanical piece of art to help demonstrate the Derwent Chromaqua, I used for this piece of art, Paul Rubens Hot Pressed Watercolour paper and the only issue was that I selected a 200gsm weight rather than a 300gsm. This meant that the paper buckled a bit more than I would have liked, however the surface was perfect for the genre of art.

As you can see, I selected to paint an image relating to the season we are currently in, Autumn, the end of October ie Halloween. This piece allowed me to display the various methods of implementing water-soluble pencils in general, as well as showcasing the pigment quality and strength. Viewers mention in my previous water soluble review that the colors look too saturated, however my main aim is to display and review the products, if I provide light washes of water soluble products, it will be more difficult for the camera to actively display the colors. I provide heavy coverages of the product to help display on camera the qualities, but all that is needed is more water to dilute the wash and therefore the pigment strength. I will endeavour to complete this in demonstrations for water-soluble products.

If you would like to see more of the painting I created to help demonstrate the Derwent Chromaqua, you can check out my speed painting video on YouTube or if speed paintings are not your thing, I have also added a selection of images from the artwork, taken at various stages throughout the painting to The Art Gear Guide website, follow the links to the appropriate review element and you will be automatically shown the information.

On my YouTube video review of the Derwent Chromaqua, I completed a real time demonstration, I selected a group of colors from the 150 Derwent Chromaqua set and after applying them dry, I activated them using a Derwent Water Brush. I have showcased a few still images from that demonstration, but if you would like to see the demonstration as it was intended, select the link.

The Derwent Water Brushes are among the best water brushes I have yet to use, if you would like to know more, click the link. This link will take you to my review of the new Derwent Water Brushes where I provide a detailed and honest review of the full Derwent Water Brush range.

Derwent Chromaqua Lightfast Information

Its important to remember that Derwent use the Blue Wool Lightfast information, with the exception of their Lightfast pencils which are rated under the ASTM lightfast system. The Blue Wool system is rated 1 to 8, with 1 being the least lightfast and 8 being the highest lightfast information, however, some ratings span two different classes, for example.

1 and 2 equal (Very Poor / Fugitive)

3 and 4 equal (Poor to Fair)

5 equal (Good)

6 Equal (Very Good / High Resistance)

7 and 8 (Excellent / Exceptional)

For some colored pencil artists, they will only use colors with an 8 rating, even though, 7 and 8 are pretty much the same lightfast value. This is where the confusion with both lightfast standards fall. My advice to any artist, especially new artists, would be, do not get too wrapped up in the lightfast issues. Unless you are going to sell you own original artwork, lightfast issues have lots of alternative options. You can create beautiful art using non lightfast products and still sell lightfast prints, the prints use archival ink and paper, thus generating the high lightfast values without the need of incredibly expensive products.

That being said, the lightfast ratings for the Derwent Chromaqua Water Soluble Pencils are as follows.

9 Colors are rated one star (1 *)

10 Colors are rated two stars (2 **)

19 Colors are rated three stars (3 ***)

20 Colors are rated four stars (4 ****)

21 Colors are rated five stars (5 *****)

26 Colors are rated six stars (6 ******)

18 Colors are rated seven stars (7 *******)

27 Colors are rated eight stars (8 ********)

Derwent Chromaqua Water Soluble Pencils Set Sizes and Pricing

Derwent have released the Chromaqua in the following set sizes, 12 set, 24 set, 36 set, 72 set and 150 set. As I mentioned in the YouTube video review, it depends completely on how well you know your color theory, as to the set size you need. A good understanding of color theory, due to the Derwent Chromaqua being water soluble pencils, could see an artist make excellent use of the Derwent Chromaqua 12 set. However if you are like me, I just want to select the color I need and use it, there is nothing wrong with this approach, art is supposed to be fun, you are supposed to crave doing art, not fear it or feel you have to follow a certain pathway.

Purchasing directly from the Derwent website will always be a bit more expensive than purchasing the set on Amazon. However, Derwent has so generously provided a discount code for all those who watch, read and support The Art Gear Guide. Using the discount code AQUA-TAGG will get you 30% of any product you buy from the Derwent shop, which is just an amazing opportunity coming up to Christmas. There is no limit on the products you buy and whilst the code has been delivered on the Chromaqua review, the code is valid on any Derwent product. The code is valid until the 31st of January 2027, this allows artist the time to spend any Christmas money they may have received on some Derwent products they have been after.

Here on the UK Amazon store, to purchase the 12 set of Derwent Chromaqua you will spend £15, for the 24 set of Derwent Chromaqua will cost £36, the 36 set of Derwent Chromaqua will cost £67, the 72 set of Derwent Chromaqua will cost £94 and the 150 set of Derwent Chromaqua will cost £170

For artists in the UK purchasing from the Derwent store, minus 30% on all sets, you can expect to pay the following. The 12 set will cost £22, the 24 set will cost £44, the 36 set will cost £67, the 72 set will cost £134 and the 150 set will cost £284.

For artist in the US, you can expect to pay the following on the Derwent Store, minus 30% on them all, the 12 set will cost $30, the 24 set will cost $56, the 36 set will cost $81, the 72 set will cost $158 and the 150 set will cost $330.

For artists in Europe purchasing from the Derwent store, you can expect to pay the following, minus 30% on all sets. The 12 set will cost €27, the 24 set will cost €55, the 36 set will cost €82, the 72 set will cost you €165 and the 150 set will cost €345.

Derwent Chromaqua Conclusion

Its important to note for those who might like to know, the colors in the 150 Derwent Chromaflow set are the same as the colors in the 150 Derwent Chromaqua set. The Derwent Chromaqua pencils provide an excellent pigment load. As I said for the Chromaflow palette, the Chromaqua palette is absolutely gorgeous.

For botanical and landscape artists, the selection of colors is perfect, other genres of colored pencil art and water soluble art is also well catered for in the more than generous 150 palette range. The only issue I had with the overall palette is with the reds, most of them sway more to the orange tone and only a few to a dedicated strong red, with the Shiraz the only strong deep red.

Whether you use the Derwent Chromaqua in the traditional sense, applying the pencil dry to the paper surface and activating the colors with water, or using the plastic Caran d’Ache palette or even taking stronger pigment directly from the core of the pencil, all methods produce an excellent coverage of pigments. I personally love the Derwent Chromaqua and really enjoyed the process when creating the art to help demonstrate the pencils.

If you would like to watch my YouTube video review, simply click the link and you will be automatically taken to the video, alternatively if you would like to watch the YouTube speed painting video, this link will automatically take you there. Finally, if speed drawing videos are not your thing, I have added a selection of still images, taken throughout the painting process, to The Art Gear Guide website which you can view by clicking the link. This will allow you to inspect and view the demonstration art in your own time and without interruption.