Meeden Colored Pencils 120 Set
Meeden Colored Pencils 120 Set
I am sure most of you, if not all of you, have heard or seen the Meeden name while scrolling art websites looking for new supplies to purchase. However, until recently, the Meeden name has been synonymous with art accessories rather than art supplies. Meeden has long been the supplier and led the way in creating easels, desks and stools for artists of all ilks, art carts, storage boxes and all with the highest standard of craftsmanship.
Some of the accessories from Meeden that you may be more familiar with, may be items such as the amazing colored pencil storage drawers, floor easels, ceramic palettes for watercolours, ceramic wash pots for brushes, Meeden Art Cart or the Meeden portable art supply box. However, we are not here to discuss the aforementioned items, but rather the new Meeden Colored Pencils.
Meeden have started to branch out into the actual art supplies that would have ordinarily filled their easels, carts or storage units. I mean, if you are going to create beautiful art furniture items, you might as well fill them with your own branded art supplies.
Meeden Colored Pencils Characteristics
I have to be completely honest, when I first was made aware that Meeden had decided to release a set of colored pencils, I thought; “Here we go, another company trying to get in on the growing colored pencil world”, expecting the set to be a half hearted attempt, I could’t have been more wrong if a big bag of wrong things fell on me.
The first thing I feel Meeden got right from the very outset was the package design. I have the largest set in the range to review, the 120 set and you can clearly see the bright white tin, contrasting magnificently with the bold Meeden colours of red, yellow, black and blue. I think the crisp white package portrays a clean and fresh look, which I know has no bearing on the pencil performance, but from a marketing perspective I think Meeden have done an excellent job, the tin will standout among all the other colored pencil tins, very memorable.
Along the front of the tin, set on top of the bright white background, is an abstract array of the Meeden logo colors, red, yellow and blue. Under the design, is a clear image of what the pencils look like inside the tin followed by the number of pencils in the set.
On opening the tin you are presented with a sheet of what looks like tracing paper, with “Meeden” printed in silver leaf font. There are three layers of pencils in the 120 set and each layer is a black plastic tray to hold the pencils with finger and thumb grips at either end to lift the Layer out with. I know this form of removing layers can be problematic, but there really isn’t too many other options for companies to use.
We will take a closer look at the colors when I introduce the swatch further into the review, but as always, you can check out my YouTube video review to see a real time demonstration of the overall palette. As you can see, the first layer of pencils is some beautiful reds, peaches, pinks, yellows and a few greens. The middle layer continues on with greens, leading into aqua greens, pale blues,, darker blues, lavenders and dark browns.
The bottom Layer is where all the magic is, for me personally, starting with some pale tan, green and grey browns, some reddish browns, a beautiful selection of greys and finishing off with the white and black colors. I know not everyone will share my next opinion, but I so pleased to discover there are no metallic colors in the set. I don’t think I have ever used any of the metallic gold, bronze or silver pencils that come in sets and have always suggested companies could make better use of the spaces.
Taking a look at the pencils characteristics, the first thing to note is the weight of the pencil, how it feels in the hand etc. Occasionally you can tell the quality of the pencil from the weight of it, how the pencil feels in the hand. I have found over the 11 years of reviewing pencils, the really lightweight pencils are made from a lesser quality wood barrel, with the Meeden Colored Pencils, the weight is perfect and the sharpening is perfect, all indications of good quality wood barrel.
The barrel of the Meeden Colored Pencil is a very adequate 4.0mm, housed in a very stylish 7.7mm barrel. When looking at the Meeden Colored Pencils, two thirds of the barrel are lacquered a brilliant white, with the remaining third of the barrel lending itself to pigment identification. This strong contrast of white and pigment identification makes color selection quick and easy.
Along the barrel we have printed in silver metallic print “Oil-Based Colored Pencil” and this is closely followed by “Meeden” the companies unmistakable logo, also in the same metallic print. Unfortunately this silver print along the backdrop of such bright white lacquered paint, can make reading the information difficult, depending on surrounding light.
Further along the barrel, toward the end in the color ID section, the pigment name is printed, followed by a number correlating to the pencils individual pigmet. Finally the very end of the barrel is also capped, I know not a very important piece of information, but some artists like to know this information, uncapped barrels allow the artist to assess how centred the cores are, obviously capped prevents this.
Meeden Colored Pencil Performance.
When I conduct colored pencil reviews, I like to be as analytical and thorough as I possibly can and that means testing the pencils on as many different papers as I can afford to. So, the first paper used is the Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Velum and this is for the swatch. Bristol Velum is a relatively smooth surface, only a very slight texture, I love this surface.
As you can see, the overall palette is a well-planned and thought-out palette, there are plenty of dark, light and mid-tone values from each color family. The selection of greens is out of this world, especially considering the Green Grey and Deep Green Grey found in the bottom row and if you look closely at the black grey, second from bottom row, this is like a super dark green. It is a beautiful color.
I personally love the overall palette selection and when you think this is Meeden’s first set of colored pencils sent out into the big bad world of colored pencil artists, I am really impressed with this 120 set. Next up we have a simple selection of tests that I always perform and all of them are on the Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media paper, with the mixed media being slightly more textured than the Bristol Velum.
The first test is the layering test and here you can see I have applied 5 light layers of the Meeden Colored Pencils and then a single heavy application. This test shows the ability and pigment levels in the core of the pencil, applying light layers, starting with a single layer, all the way to 5 light layers. The reason for only applying 5 light layers is to do with using OMS (Odourless Mineral Spirits) which I explain in my YouTube Video. There was no residue or tackiness throughout the layering test, which is always a good sign.
Next up we have the blending test, this test is to simply see whether or not, two pencils can be blended together to create a third color. As you can see from the test provided, the yellow and red created a fantastic orange, the blue and yellow generated a clear green and the hardest of the all, the red and blue produced a good purple. Overall, the Meeden colored pencils blend beautifully, producing the mixed color you need.
The final section of the test is seeing how the pencil ingredients react to OMS, as someone who loves to use colored pencils, I prefer not to use OMS, I prefer to let the pencils blend, I don’t know what it is, I think it feels too much like watercolour painting. For this test you are best watching it on my YouTube video as I blend the colours using Zest-it OMS. If you would rather just know the outcome, I was so pleased with how the pencils reacted under the OMS, helping to create even darker tones and allowing the tooth of the paper to be rejuvenated and prepped for more layers.
The next test is showcasing the Meeden Colored Pencils on black paper, in this case Canson Black Paper. This test is not to display positive or negative properties of the pencils, just to simply show their opacity or opaqueness of the pencils. In the case of this test, the yellow and white are quite translucent, whereas the red, blue and green are more opaque. Some colored pencil artist prefer a more opaque pencil, such as Prismacolor and others a more translucent pencil, such as the Faber Castell Polychromos.
Finally, I have completed some artwork using the Meeden Colored Pencils and I am sure you can guess, given my excitement over the greens, it was a botanical piece. For this piece I used a sheet of Fabriano Artistico, Extra White, Hot Pressed 140lb watercolor paper. This is a much higher quality paper, and the surface is excellent for colored pencil work, allowing for many light layers.
I was really happy with the final outcome of this piece, the Meeden Colored Pencils performed really well, everything from layering, blending and even sharpening. Not a single pencil broke or shattered during the sharpening process.
Meeden Colored Pencil Set Sizes and Pricing
As this is Meedens first run at selling colored pencils, they only have two sets available so far, the 72 set and 120 set. Every time I review a set of colored pencils, I try my best to review the full count so as to showcase the pencils in their entirety. Perhaps if the pencils sell well, Meeden may expand the range, however, it is excellent that they started out with a 120 set, as some companies dipping their toe into the colored pencil world start out with a 72 count as their largest count.
Here in the UK, artist will pay approximately £39 for the 72 set and £69 for the 120 set. For colored pencil artists in the US, you can expect to pay $49 for the 72 set and $69 for the 120 set. For artists in the EU you can expect to pay €49 for the 72 set and €69 for the 120 set. Finally artists in Australia can expect to pay $49 for the 72 set and $79 for the 120 set, which is, in my opinion, an excellent price for especially the artists in Australia as they normally pay significantly more than the UK, EU and US on many colored pencil sets.
Meeden Colored Pencils Lightfast Rating.
The system used to apply lightfast ratings to the Meeden Colored Pencils is a bit unsure, its difficult to pin down if they have used the Blue Wool system or the ASTM system. They have used a 3 star rating system for their lightfast results, which doesn’t really equate to either of the Blue Wool or ASTM systems.
The 3 star system equates to 3 stars equal excellent lightfastness, 2 stars equal very good lightfastness and 1 star equates to not sufficiently lightfast. Of the 120 colours available, 74 pencils are 3 Star rated, 36 pencils are 2 star rated and 10 pencils with a 1 star rating.
I have emailed Meeden about the Lightfastness and I will amend this post if and when I get a reply, but if they have used the Blue Wool system, I’d like to know how they can compress 8 overall ratings into 3 stars and likewise with the ASTM 5 point rating system. However if they have used their own in house lightfast testing then that would explain the 3 star rating. All in all, according to the Meeden lightfast scale, 110 colors are good lightfastness.
Meeden Colored Pencil Review Conclusion
I was incredibly impressed with the Meeden Colored Pencils, everything from the packaging, to the layering, blending, OMS reaction, various paper surface testing and sharpening, they performed excellently. Pricing is a very subjective subject, but if you compare like for like in the colored pencil world, other 120 sets of colored pencils with a similar quality, I feel they are very reasonably priced.
Lightfastness is a touchy subject with me, I feel sometimes, too much emphasis is placed on lightfastness, which causes new and younger artists panic and feel they need to use lightfast colored pencils and end up causing financial hardship for themselves. I have made a few videos on this subject which you can find on my YouTube channel.
I think for me, the most impressive thing about the Meeden Colored Pencils is the palette, it is clear to see that the powers that be at Meeden have really sat and thought about the palette they want or perhaps used a focus group filled with colored pencil artist.
If you have any questions about the Meeden Colored Pencils on review, by all means you can head over to The Art Gear Guide YouTube Channel, watch the video and ask your question in the comments section. You can also check out my new format speed drawing video of the artwork come to life. Given that not many people find value in the traditional speed drawing videos, I have tried a new format for the speed drawing.
