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.
I Think the first thing that I need to discuss about the Arrtx Markers is the incredible packaging they come in. It would appear that more and more art supply companies are realising the importance of packaging. It used to be the case that pencils or markers would arrive in flimsy plastic trays or plastic wallets,
Before I get into the actual review of “Realistic Still Life In Colored Pencil” I would like to talk a little bit about Cynthia Knox for those of you who maybe new to the colored pencil medium and world. Cynthia Knox, has worked tirelessly for years providing the wonderful people within the colored pencil community with knowledge and skills passed on in the form of books and online classes, gifting her incredible wealth of talent to us.
Not only is this Castle Art 40 Piece Drawing Set exceptionally priced, but it is also well thought out with one or two very minor exceptions and even they are quite subjective. The overall packaging is impressive, again considering the pricing point and this is not simply a generic drawing set which Castle Art has made their own, this is clearly the making of Castle Art and its clarity is refreshing.
Before the release of the Derwent Lightfast, the Caran d’Ache Luminance had very little in the way of competition if any. The Faber Castell Polychromos are of course, without doubt a tremendous pencil for colored pencil artists, but they are a very different pencil to the Caran d’Ache Luminance. The release of the Derwent Lightfast was the first pencil really to directly compete with the Caran d’Ache Luminance.
If you are interested in learning more about Pastels, be it soft pastels, hard pastels or pastel pencils or if you have been turning your hand at pastels for a while now and feel like you could do with a little bit of help to take your paintings to the next level, I highly recommend this amazing book by Rebecca de Mendonca.
Of all my first reviews, I think I really gave the Derwent Studio pencil an unfair crack of the whip, I purchased a 24 set back then and so when it came to redoing the review, I only had one or two of the Derwent Studio Pencils remaining. I purchased a 72 Wooden Box Set of the Derwent Studio pencils for the purpose of this review and I am happy to say that I have indeed conducted a piece of art with the Studio pencils.
The core of the Daler Rowney Watercolour Pencil measures in at a standard 3.8mm, encased within a well balanced 7.8mm barrel, lacquered in a most striking blue which leaves a matt appearance with the added bonus of occasionally exposing the natural wood grain . The Daler Rowney pencil feels really nice in the hand, well balanced and like you are holding a quality product.
The Pencil Grinder is a really simple concept and design yet such a versatile tool and one I feel many pencil artists, especially pastel pencil artist. Although this item is called the Pencil Grinder, it has more than one function and I will brake down those functions further into the review.
One of the biggest joys I get from running The Art Gear Guide, writing reviews, creating YouTube video reviews and drawing art is the relationship I have developed with all of you. I love getting feedback and I love to hear when you purchase a set of pencils based on one of the reviews and it has turned out to be a good buy. But I also love it when you guys suggest to me products to review and this is one such product that I was asked to review.
So as I have always been with you guys, you will see my brutal honesty when it comes to my reviews. I have had this 48 set of Bruynzeel Design Aquarel sat on my desk for over a year now busting a gut to review them. I tend to purchase sets for review when I see a good deal on Amazon and this is why sometimes I might have a set on my desk for so long before I actually get round to reviewing them.
As I mentioned, the Koh-I-Noor Polycolor 144 set is split into two tins, below you can see an image of the first tin 144/1 as is labeled on the front cover and blow that image is clear images of both trays. The first tin is made up primarily of the yellows, portrait colors, pinks, reds, purples and blues. All the way through the images I have provided you will see just how amazing the total palette is for the entire 144 set of Koh-I-Noor Polycolor.
In this particular review I will be showing you and talking about the Koh-I-Noor Professional Graphite range, the Toison D’or. Koh-I-Noor have quite a few different graphite pencils, so it is worth noting that this range of graphite pencil is not their only one.
The overall appearance of the Promarker is incredibly streamlined, the marker looks like a large bullet, however, this design aesthetic actually serves quite an important roll. At one end of the marker is the pointed cap and the other end sports the squareness off cap. This helps the artists immediately know when selecting a pigment that under the pointed cap, in the case of the Promarker, is the bullet nib and under the squad off cap is the chisel nib.
Caran d’Ache are a formidable name in the world of art but in particular to us colored pencil artist, the type of artists who go gaga over a wall of brightly colored wooden sticks, myself included. Caran d’Ache have an extensive range of pencil mediums and in particular their water soluble range is phenomenal.
The Muji Colored Pencils come packaged in a very simplistic tube form, there is no writing or information on the tube, at least not the package I received, however, on researching the pencils, some there appears to be a small square sticker placed on the package with information in Japanese.
The Clairefontaine Paint On Multi Techniques pads come in quite a few different sizes, I was sent the A5, 5.8 x 8.3 inches, 14.8 x 21 cm, however I was really happy to discover that this pad comes in other sizes, most of which you are already familiar with, but I will explain my delight in discovering this further on in the review.
The Bruynzeel Pastel Pencil sports a bursting with pigment, 3.8mm creamy soft core, the core is protected with a beautiful Cedar Wood casing weighing in at an average 7.4mm. For me personally, I love the pencils that are predominately natural wood casings, exposing the beautiful grain of the wood, I guess it provides a natural aesthetic to it, occasionally reminding us of the pencils original life form.
I personally feel that calling the Lux Archival paper, “sanded” does the paper a disservice, it feels and performs a lot more complex, special and unique than just sanded paper. The best and only way that I have been able to describe the surface of the Lux Archival is “ Sanded Velvet Paper ”.
The Castle Art pencil sports a striking 7mm Black Matt finish barrel, held safely within the barrel is an exciting 3.8mm core bursting with generous levels of pigment. On the end of every Castle Art pencil is a 1 and 1/4 inch pigment identifier, clearly making the pigment within that particular pencil, which also makes pigment selection visually a pleasure. Separating the Black Matt barrel and the pigment identifier is a painted silver ring.
