Marco Raffine Pro Review
Marco Raffine Pro - What Makes The Marco Raffine Pro Coloured Pencil Professional Over The Marco Raffine?
Marco have been releasing some incredibly interesting sets of colored pencils over the past six or seven years now. The Marco Renior 72 set of colored pencils was the first large set of pencils I had ever purchased when I first got started reviewing, until that point, I had only been able to purchase smaller 24 sets and mostly Derwent sets.
That was all approximately ten years ago now, however, as I mentioned, the past six or seven years have seen Marco produce some really fantastic sets of colored pencils, from the Tribute Collection, their larger Master Collection, The Chroma and then much earlier the Renior and Raffine. I have to admit, I was very late to reviewing the Marco Raffine Colored Pencils only because they never really appealed to me, however I was pleasantly surprised when I eventually reviewed the Raffine a few years ago.
Recently however, Marco released the Marco Raffine Pro and so I was incredibly eager to get hold of a set and most importantly, try to establish what makes the Raffine Pro, professional over the Raffine. One thing Marco cannot be faulted on is their marketing, their ability to make an art supply look appealing via packaging. Of course packaging is not what makes an art supply, in particular a set of colored pencils good or bad.
With a pretty decent experience of reviewing Marco products, I certainly felt qualified to provide a balanced account of the Marco Raffine Pro, drawing upon past experience of those sets listed above and hopefully provide the different elements between the Raffine Pro and Raffine.
Marco Raffine Pro Characteristics
Occasionally, throughout the course of this review I will show some comparisons to the Marco Raffine, but I will also complete a full comparison review at a later stage. The first thing that you will notice with the Marco Raffine Pro is the beautiful packaging the pencils come in, for the purpose of this review I have the 100 set of Marco Raffine Pro and so although the artwork is the same on all set sizes, the opening of set packages may differ.
On the front of the package we are presented with this gorgeous image of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, which if you are a regular customer of Marco products, you will notice the tipping of the hat to all of the masters throughout various sets. On the rear of the package there is a swatch depiction, providing the artist with an idea of the palette.
The package of this full 100 Marco Raffine Pro set opens with the simple release of the magnetic flap along the side, the full front of the box unfolds back on itself and from there, the box splits down the middle, presenting the full accompaniment of Marco Raffine Pro pencils.
I personally am not a huge fan of this type of packaging, a few companies have adopted this for their kids and student grade pencils as it allows easing sharing of the pencils when set out on a table. But for me, I prefer a simple tin with layers and this way selection and sharing of pencils is still a simple process. Check out my YouTube video review of the Marco Raffine Pro to view how the 100 set opens.
Each pencils barrel is lacquered the same color as the core, making pigment selection quick and easy. Each barrel is hexagonal in shape and approximately 7.1mm girth, protecting a generous 3.5mm core. There is not much in the way of usable information printed along the barrel, which is not what I was expecting for pro pencil.
Along one side of the barrel we see the name of the pencil printed in silver leaf “Raffine Pro”, which is closely followed by the printing of “Coloured Pencil”, which at the stage of reading the print, I am not sure you need to be told you are holding a coloured pencil. Further along the barrel we see the number “7100” printed, which incidentally is the same number printed on all Marco Raffine Coloured Pencils as well.
Finally, toward the end of the barrel we have the “Marco” name and logo printed followed by a number which corresponds with the core color. We can also see that the end of the barrels are all capped, which is something I like to see as an exposed core from the rear of the barrel can occasionally lead to shattering issues. I would like to see all colored pencil companies stop using metallic font on their barrels, this is small font which is hard enough to read, but to make it unreadable under light is just too frustrating.
Marco Raffine Pro Performance
Marco Raffine Pro Swatch
As is always the case when I start a review, I complete a swatch and I always try to make sure I am testing the product on two or three different papers. On this occasion I completed this Marco Raffine Pro swatch on the Derwent Hot Pressed Watercolour Paper. Interestingly I am not too fond of this paper for watercolor work, but for colored pencil work, the paper holds up very well. As a side not, I am not talking about the Derwent Lightfast Paper, that paper is of the highest quality and one I love so much.
I used the A3 Derwent Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper to complete this swatch, providing me with plenty of space to display all 100 colors but more importantly, when I am conducting any review, the reason the swatch is so important is because it is here that I determine the artwork I will complete, or type of artwork.
Overall, given the fact that this is a 100 palette, I was incredibly impressed with how balanced the palette is. Ordinarily, with the larger palettes, you tend to find one color is more dominant than the others and there will always be very little tonal difference through that particular color. For the Marco Raffine Pro, this is just not the case, all color families are well represented and not saturated with say dark reds, warm reds or cool reds, the overall palette is so well balanced.
Now, the biggest issue I found with the palette and subsequently the packaging type, with the 100 set of Marco Raffine Pro was, on opening the set, the colors where not color coordinated, they were all placed randomly. This is a pain when it comes to creating your swatch because, with this set I had one of two options, either line out all the pencils and place them in order according to tonal and color families or by using the numbers on the end of the barrels.
This was the option I took, but even trying to find each subsequent number in a set of 100 took valuable time in an otherwise incredibly time consuming practice. Normally colored pencil sets start with the white, yellow, orange, reds, pinks etc and finish with the Black. However in this set, 570 was the number correlating to the black and the remaining 30 colors could have easily been placed among the previous count. It was just unnecessary and time consuming and I wish companies would understand their market a little better, knowing that us artists have method in our madness.
Marco Raffine Pro Layer Test
Next up was the layering, blending and Odourless Mineral Spirit tests. This time the paper used was the Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Velum paper, a smooth surface with just enough tooth to apply plenty of layers whilst achieving a smooth finish.
As you can see, for the layer test, I apply five columns, each one providing a single light layer of the pencil, then two light layers, all the way up to five light layers with a final heavy application. This is a good test to demonstrate the pencils layering capability and with the Marco Raffine Pro, I had no issues whatsoever with layering, no tacky or stickiness the more layers applied. The heavy application helps display how well a pencils raw ability to layer performs and again, with the Marco Raffine Pro they performed beautifully.
Marco Raffine Pro Blending Test
With the blending test you can clearly see the results for yourself. In this test I blend two colors with an aim of providing a third color, using the normal red, yellow and blue colors. Here you can see with the Marco Raffine Pro the red and yellow provided a clear orange, the yellow and blue providing a gorgeous green and finally, the red and blue providing a purple. The last one is by far the hardest to achieve a clear purple or crimson color, but with the Marco Raffine Pro the result is clear throughout.
On this one test I provided a quick comparison of the Marco Raffine Pro and Marco Raffine, I always leave the concussion of such comparative tests to the viewer as we all see things very differently, but for me, the Marco Raffine Pro definitely blended better and provided a more saturated result.
Marco Raffine Pro OMS Test
Finally I added an Odourless Mineral Spirits test, as an artists, I personally don’t like using OMS, I much prefer to burnish my final layers with a colourless burnisher or lighter colored pencil, but I am aware colored pencil artists do use this method and so I try to provide a test. I must preface this by saying that I need new OMS as mine is starting to look a bit sick and my technique is not the best either. However, you can still see how the Marco Raffine Pro layers break down under the OMS of which I have used Zest-It. I would advise you check out my YouTube video review to actually watch this test materialise.
Marco Raffine Pro Artwork
As I mentioned above, once I complete the swatch, I use that to help select the type of artwork I complete to demonstrate and gain knowledge on the product. Ordinarily I gravitate to botanical art as this is one of my preferred genres, but I am conscious that I can’t continually repeat this. After studying the swatch and understanding the type of core the Marco Raffine Pro delivered, I decided to go down the fan art or cartoon genre. I completed this artwork on Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Velum paper.
For this particular piece I selected a character generated via an Artificial Intelligence App but nevertheless provided a range of bright, vibrant color scheme. The core of the Marco Raffine Pro being much softer than that of the Marco Raffine, I wanted to complete the type of artwork I would have otherwise completed using Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils. Now, I am not suggesting that the Marco Raffine Pro are as soft as Prisma, but they are quite soft and offer the same crumbling characteristics of Prisma.
This piece of art that I completed certainly helped me to understand the Marco Raffine Pro much better. When I first started reviewing colored pencils, I never added artwork to the review and so many people said I needed to do that. I pushed back for a while, mainly because I was not confident in my ability, but I have now been including artwork to my reviews for the past seven or eight years and think it is so important to understanding the product. Unfortunately not many people actually view, read or watch the evidence provided from artwork in my reviews, but I am happy that this process is part of the review should anyone wish to know more.
The Bristol Velum surface allowed me to layer and blend the Marco Raffine Pro effortlessly, with little to no tacky residue as more layers are applied. The nature of Velum’s smooth surface also allowed me to provide an almost painterly finish when burnishing my final layers, again, very similar to the process and results I obtain from using Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils. I really enjoyed this process and if you would like to view the speed drawing video and watch the artwork come to life follow the link. Alternatively I have added images of the artwork from start to finish over on The Art Gear Guide which you can enlarge and view in your own time.
Marco Raffine Pro On Black Paper
This test does not in any way determine whether one pencil is better than the other, it simply shows whether or not a pencil is opaque or translucent. Colored pencil artists prefer the Prismacolor Premier because they are soft and opaque, but may artists prefer a more translucent pencil such as the Faber Castell Polychromos.
As you can see in this test, I also decided to include the Marco Raffine Pro and the Marco Raffine below, just to show how both pencils perform. Again, this is a test I always leave you to decide the outcome because we all see things differently, but to me, the Raffine Pro looks a bit more opaque on some of the colors.
Marco Raffine Pro Lightfast Information
Given the pricing for the Marco Raffine Pro, there is no way they are going to provide any lightfast coverage. Given that the Marco Raffine Pro have been assigned that “Pro” wording over the Marco Raffine, I was hoping that lightfastness was going to be present, but as I mentioned, once I seen the pricing structure I knew this was not going to be the case.
Marco Raffine Pro Set Sizes & Pricing
The Marco Raffine Pro are relatively new to the Marco range and so they are not wide spreed available as of yet. I have added links for the Marco Raffine Sets if you would like to try them for yourself, however they are linked to AliExpress. As and when links become available to Amazon and other stores I will include those, unfortunately at the time of writing this review, only one set of the Marco Raffine Pro is present on Amazon UK.
The Marco Raffine Pro comes in sets of 12, 36, 48, 72 and 100. Obviously the set on review here is the 100 set but given the beautiful layering and blending abilities of the Marco Raffine Pro, I would be more than happy with the 72 or 48 sets. Unfortunately the 12 set was not available at the time of writing this review either.
For the 36 set set of Marco Raffine Pro you can expect to pay £14, for the 48 set of Marco Raffine Pro you will pay approximately £16, for the 72 set of Marco Raffine Pro you can expect to pay approximately £21 and for the largest 100 set of Marco Raffine Pro you can expect to pay approximately £27.
In my opinion and after the testing, demonstrating and reviewing I have completed, the pricing for the Marco Raffine Pro is more than reasonable.
Marco Raffine Pro Conclusion
The first and most important thing I wanted to establish regarding the Marco Raffine Pro was, what made them “Pro” over and above the Marco Raffine. I have to preface this conclusion by highlighting my constant honesty, I have been a huge fan of the products Marco have released over the past six or seven years, so I was quite excited to get hold of the Marco Raffine Pro and discover more about them.
I have yet to hear back from Marco on the matter of what makes the Raffine Pro, “Pro” but when I do I will of course update this article, but for now I have nothing at all to add regarding this question. There is no doubt at all that the Marco Raffine Pro and Marco Raffine are two different pencils, but I wouldn’t say one is better than the other.
As colored pencil artists we all expect and prefer different things from our pencils and whilst the Marco Raffine Pro present a softer more pigmented and opaque core over the harder, less pigmented Raffine, doesn’t make one better than the other; just that they are different and offer alternative results.
I really enjoyed the Marco Raffine Pro and whilst I have mentioned throughout this review that the core is soft and slightly comparable to Prismacolor, I am not saying that the Raffine Pro is on the same level as the Prisma given its softness. They are not too dissimilar on many fronts, but this is a matter I will cover in more detail in a later review.
