The Art Gear Guide is your one stop shop for the most recent, up to date, honest reviews on all your favourite art supply products.
At the end of last year, the Editor and Chief of COLORED PENCIL Magazine and myself, sat down and came up with a list of pencils to review throughout 2018. Much to my personal excitement, the Blick Studio Colored Pencils were added to the list, these pencils are exclusive to an art store in America called Dick Blick.
The Koh-I-Noor Extra Soft Pastel are cylinders of buttery gems, when you remove the sleeve from the box and remove the box lid, you are greeted with a spectrum of brilliant color gently nestled in between black foam slots to protect their delicate composition.
This excellent product from Caran d'Ache, the Caran d'Ache Palette Aquarelle, puts an end to this problem, allowing you to mix as many colors as you like at your own pace, no rush to scoop up all the paint before it drys
I have had the absolute pleasure of testing and reviewing pencils from Lyra before, the Lyra Polycolor to be exact. My review of the Polycolor was incredibly surprising to me given their inexpensive pricing and their incredibly high quality pigments.
Perhaps the most unique and striking characteristic of the Grafwood pencils is the barrel colors and the visual representation they provide. As you can see from the image, the barrels of the Grafwood pencils are colored in accordance to the graphite grade.
One of the most striking elements of the pencils is their jet black barrel, accented with bright and easily distinguishable writing, the Black Widow pencils sported blood red print against the black barrel, whereas the Scorpion pencils opted for a crisp clean white print against the black barrel.
I mentioned in the review that I would review the pens, not really thinking much of it, however I received quite a lot of messages asking to review them and I felt I had to add the review pretty quick so that it almost followed on from the Derwent Pencil Wrap review.
There is of course so many other paper manufactures on the market and I have tried a lot, but obviously not them all. Thus far, my favourite paper is by far Strathmore, not just because of the quality of the paper, but the fantastic range they provide. Strathmore create paper for every occasion and each type of paper is produced in different grades of quality
The Derwent Pencil Wrap is made from the same material as the Carry Bag. A sand colored canvas material, which has undergone many stress tests that I can produce without any effect whatsoever. This material has been used for its durable qualities, in fact, it reminds me very much of the old British Army 58 Pattern webbing which was incredibly strong.
In this review I will be looking at Faber Castell's beautiful Pitt Pastel pencils. I personally love using Pastels, however, it is definitely a medium I need to really work hard with and improve my skills on as my art would suggest. So in this review I will be focusing in on all the characteristics of the medium and performance abilities
We all know what amazing products Faber Castell produce and the Goldfaber coloured pencils are absolutely no exception. So I will show my hand right from the get go and tell you that I have loved using the Goldfaber pencils, my only criticism is the set sizes and to be honest, it is more of a compliment rather than a criticism.
There is absolutely no doubt about it, throughout late 2016 and 2017, Spectrum Noir and Crafters Companion have delivered an extensive new line up for crafters and artists alike. They have practically renewed their previous line of products and added some wonderful new products, of which the Spectrum Noir ColourTint range is among them.
There is no doubt about it, Stabilo is a huge name when it comes to stationary and back to school supplies, highlighters, fineliners, graphite pencils etc, however, regarding artist quality pencils they are not so well known. I hope that this review will go a small way to changing this and bringing the Stabilo colored pencil line to the minds of colored pencil artists, colorists and colored pencil enthusiasts alike.
For me personally, I love combining alcohol markers and colored pencils in my art and over the past year or so I have become more and more happy with my results. I have dabbled with watercolors in the past, but with Spectrum Noir's Aqua Markers, I was given the chance to use watercolors but in a medium form I am comfortable with, markers.
So for this review, as you can tell, we are looking at the Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle, a water soluble pencil, Caran d'Ache have a few water soluble pencil sets in their range, but the Museum Aquarelle are their top grade water soluble pencil. We have reviewed the Caran d'Ache Supracolor Soft II pencils of which are water soluble and excellent pencil, however, the Museum Aquarelle take it to an entirely new level.
Here is a list of 18 gifts I have mustered together hoping to give you a helping hand in choosing the perfect gift and if you don't fancy any of the gifts in the list, it may still spark some inspiration within you to go on and find that perfect gift. Or you may have been given your Christmas bonus early and just fancy treating yourself because you deserve to be pampered.
The core in it's dry format is incredibly soft, along the way, depending on pressure you use, you will get a little bit of crumbling, however this is not a problem as those deposits of pigment will dissolve as soon as they are activated with water.
I have absolutely loved using these pencils, in fact I also have been playing about with the Stabilo Pastel pencils and I love them also. When applying the pencils dry, they lay down so rich and smooth, in fact they feel very similar to a really soft wax based pencil.
As always I would have loved to provide a 120 set of Faber Castell Polychromos for the giveaway but I just couldn't afford this and so had to settle for the 60 set, which I am quite happy with and think whoever wins will be incredibly happy.
The Derwent Carry Bag is slightly bigger than an A5 sketch book, the bag will not hold an A4 pad. The bag is made from a rugged material, similar to that of the old British Army style webbing, almost like a canvas material and the stitching throughout is well established.
