Marco Colored Pencil Pastel Shade Set | Marco Square C820 Coloured Pencils
Marco Colored Pencil Pastel Shade Set | Marco Square C820 Coloured Pencils.
In this review we take a look at the Marco Square C820 Coloured Pencils Pastel Shade. I have long admired the Holbein coloured pencils and in particular the 50 set of pastel shades they provide. However, about a year ago, give or take a few months, I noticed the Marco Pastel Tone Colored Pencils and knew that they would be an interesting set of pencils to review.
With this particular set of pencils I was unable to complete any demonstration artwork for you which I will explain why further along in the review. I have also purchased a 48 set of the Marco Square C800 Assorted Colors Coloured Pencils. I will of course be reviewing the Marco Square C800 at a later date, but I will be incorporating the Marco Pastel Tones in said review.
Marco Square C820 Pastel Tone Colored Pencil Characteristics
As I am sure you can guess judging by the name of the pencils, the barrel of the Marco Square C820 is indeed square. When I first opened the pencils, for some reason I thought with the barrel being square, that there might be an issue when sharpening. I know this sounds daft and in fact there is no issues whatsoever when sharpening the Marco Square pencils.
The core of the Marco Pastel Tone Colored Pencils is an ample 3.3mm diameter, housed is a 6.8mm square barrel. The Marco pencil is uncapped on the end of the barrel, exposing the core of the pencil. Personally I am not a fan of this, I think it makes the pencil look a bit unfinished, however the good side of this is we can clearly see whether or not the core is entered. Of the 24 pencils in my set, everyone of them displayed bang on centre cores. For those of you new to colored pencils, an off centred core will potentially cause issues when sharpening and in particular using a hand held sharpener.
Each barrel is color coded to match the core of the pencil and given that the set is dedicated to pastel tones, the set when brand new is quite eye catching and of course makes color selection visually easy. Along one side of the barrel is printed in silver metallic print the pencil brand “Square C820”, this is followed by the company name and logo “Marco”.
On the opposite side of the barrel is printed the pigment name along with a number, which I assume corresponds to the pigment. I have tried to find out whether or not the Marco Square C820 are sold open stock but as of yet I have been unable to confirm one way or the other. Marco are manufactured in China and so it is a possibility that in China they are available in open stock, but again, there is no information confirming this on their own website.
Despite the Marco Pastel Colored Pencils having a square barrel, they are really comfortable to use, in fact no different to any other pencil be it round or hexagonal. I personally think because we are not used square barrels, anything new conjures up all sorts of notions.
Marco Pastel Colored Pencils Performance
The first thing I always do with a new set of colored pencils is create a swatch and as you can see from the Marco Pastel Colored Pencil swatch, the palette is absolutely gorgeous. On completing the swatch despite being impressed with the overall palette, it did occur to me that It was going to be difficult creating darks with the set given just how pale all the colors were and I know that may sound like a very obvious statement to make when reviewing a pastel tone set.
The actual core when using feels soft, but not Prismacolor soft, the core does crumble slightly when pressure is applied, however, this is the case for a lot of softer cored pencils. You all know my stance on cores being wax or oil based, that being said, if there is ever a core that epitomises a 50/50 mix of wax and oil it would be these pencils.
The softness of the core means that turning the pencil quite often to maintain that sharp point is required, but when using the pencil you can feel the consistency of the pencil as it is applied to the paper and it feels like matt silk. There is no tackiness or bloom when layers are applied, except when heavy applications are applied, only then can you feel a slight resistance when applying more layers on top of a heavy application. Regarding the layer test I completed, the Marco performed really well.
However, with the blending test I wasn’t able to do very much on this test, ordinarily I would showcase blending two colors together to create a third, but with the colors in the Marco Pastel Colored Pencil set, I wasn’t really able to blend colors together. This of course was down to the palette and not the consistency of the core.
I was able to apply applications of the Marco Pastel Colored Pencils to both black paper and some Toned Tan paper Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media Paper. I have submitted images of the Marco Pastel Colored Pencils on such papers for you to take a look at but I also apply the colors on said papers throughout my YouTube video review.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the review and touched on when discussing the palette when swatching, I was unable to complete any artwork. Originally I tried to draw an Ice cream Cone with a multicoloured pastel ice cream and I also tried to do a similar style drawing of a Cup Cake. However, due to the lack of dark tones in the set, no matter what I did, I was unable to create shadows and darks in order to give the image form. Every time I tried the drawing it just looked flat.
This is the reason I have decided to complete the artwork when I review the 48 set of assorted colors in the Marco Square C800 set. Combining the 24 Marco Pastel Tones with the 48 Marco Assorted colors I think will provide a wonderful overall palette to complete something special whilst demonstrating how well both pencils work together.
After I gave up trying to draw something using only the 24 pastel tones, I came to the conclusion that I think the Marco Pastel Tone Colored Pencils are best described as a complimentary set of pencils. I think the Marco Pastel Tones are best suited as an complimentary set, on their own the pigments are just too pale. Adding the 24 Marco pastel tones to any set of assorted colored pencils is only going to enhance and create a wonderful collection of pigments.
Marco Pastel Purchasing and Pricing
I mentioned in one of my reviews that I really wanted to review products from all over the world and not just products available here in the UK, US, Canada or Australia. I know from my analytics that I am incredibly fortunate to have viewers from all the wonderful countries across the globe, as a result I would like to also provide reviews of products viewers in the likes of India, China, Brazil etc can get. However, in doing this I do want to make sure that we here in the UK, US etc can at least purchase and have them shipped to us.
Ali Express Experience
All of the pencils I have recently purchased to review, I have ordered them from Ali Express and Banggood, I had heard of Ali Express for a while now but never actually used the service, but in purchasing these new sets I wanted to also provide an account of my own experience using the service and portray it to you guys.
I have so far ordered three sets of pencils, which resulted in two separate orders, both orders arrived in fantastic time, approximately 10 - 15 days from China to the UK and postage was free. The packaging was perfect, well bubble wrapped and the product well protected. When you are actually ordering from Ali Express and you have selected the item you want, depending on the product, you will be given an option as to which country it is being delivered from, China, Spain or Poland for example. Obviously selecting the country closest to your location will more than likely result in faster delivery. The option isn’t always available and you simply have to select the country on offer.
Ordinarily I provide links to Amazon for people to purchase their products from as I know this is safe and secure. I obviously had to use Ali Express myself before I could recommend or warn against and given my limited experience with Ali Express, I have been very impressed. There are of course measures in place for you to claim if for some reason your parcel does not arrive. Despite my own positive experience using Ali Express, it is important that you check the terms and conditions before using the service yourself and make sure where you live doesn’t have different terms and conditions to adhere to. As I say, thus far my experience has been very positive but if anything should change I will of course keep you all informed.
Marco Prices and Sets
As with so many good things in life, they all come in small packages or in this case small set. The Marco Pastel Colored Pencils are only available in sets of 12 and 24, obviously with a set dedicated to pastel tones you are limited to what can be included.
If you are purchasing from Ali Express and having them delivered to the UK, you can expect to pay the following prices. For the 12 set of Marco Pastel Colored Pencils you can expect to pay £7.36 and for the 24 set of Marco Pastel Colored Pencils you can expect to pay £11.96
If you are buying from Ali Express and having your items shipped to the US you can expect to pay the following prices. For the 12 set of Marco Pastel Colored Pencils you will pay approximately $11.00 for the 24 set you can expect to pay approximately $17.62 and these prices include shipping to the US.
If you are buying from Ali Express and having your items shipped to the EU you can expect to pay the following prices. For the 12 set of Marco Pastel Colored Pencils you will pay approximately €8.55 for the 24 set you can expect to pay approximately €13.89 and as with above, prices include shipping.
If you are buying from Ali Express and having your items shipped to Australia you can expect to pay the following prices. For the 12 set of Marco Pastel Colored Pencils you will pay approximately $13.28 for the 24 set you can expect to pay approximately $21.57.
Marco Pastel Colored Pencils Lightfast Information.
As I have explained a few times before, when a pencil company want to have their pencils lightfast tested in accordance to either of the highly regarded standards, the Blue Wool and ASTM, the companies have to pay a lot of money for this arduous process. As a result, the companies costs are reflected in the pricing of the products, with the Marco sets costing £8 and £12 respectively, you can sense that lightfast testing has not been conducted.
Aside from the low cost of the pencils, there is no lightfast information either on the Marco home page or their packaging.
Marco Square C820 Colored Pencils Pastel Tones Conclusion
It was such a shame that I didn’t have the skills to create some artwork with the Marco Pastel Colored Pencils, I know I stated that I was unable to create some artwork and that I thought the pencils were perhaps best used as an additional set to other colored pencil sets of assorted colors. That being said I know there are artists with the ability to create beautiful art with just the pastel set on its own, one such wonderful artist on Instagram is Rainbowmastery from New Zealand
I actually really enjoyed the Marco Pastel Colored Pencils and I am really looking forward to using them along side the Marco Square C800 Assorted Color Colored Pencils and trying to create artwork that clearly incorporates both the pastel shades and assorted colors of the Marco range. The Marco name has for the most part been synonymous with budget pencils, but it is important to make the distinction between budget and poor quality pencils. I personally have so far reviewed the Marco Renior Colored Pencils, Marco Rafine and now the Marco Square C820 Pastel Colored Pencils and whilst the quality of said pencils in comparison to the high end pencils is clearly budget, but they are all still pencils I have really enjoyed using.
I think the Marco Square C820 Pastel Colored Pencils would be an excellent set for artists working on Adult Colouring Book Art and as I have already alluded to, I think they are a fantastic set to compliment other assorted color sets of pencils. If you are getting the impression that this review is a tad indecisive, I apologise for that and you might be right to a certain extent. I have certainly grown accustom to providing art in my reviews and I have not done that in this review, so I think that when my review of the Marco Square C800 is complete, that review will also help complete this review and provide readers and viewers with an overall better understanding to what can be accomplished with both pencils.
