150 color paper box-set Holbein colored pencil (japan import)

Product Information

These pencils were delivered in a very timely manner. They are wonderful pencils. Buttery vibrant colors was so excited to draw my next drawing with them. Just a joy to work with Holbein makes 6 warm and 6 cool grays. All are helpfully marked as Gray 1-6 with 1 being the lightest and 6 the darkest. It’s wonderfully logical. The Verithins are affordable and would make a good complement to a set of Prismacolor Premiers. But, if a harder core was your goal, I would recommend trying a harder oil-based pencil such as the Faber-Castell Polychromos. Because of their relatively low-impact colors due to the core hardness, I wouldn’t recommend these as your only set of colored pencils. The cardboard container is easy to use (as opposed to Crayola’s doubled-up box) but don’t expect it to last too long. If you press hard enough, these pencils will give good coverage. And they are easier to use than the ultra-budget Crayola. Just don’t think of these as a replacement for artist-grade pencils.

And fat? Fat is oil. Fat tends to mean an animal by-product but folks, so is petrolium. Crude oil is really, really, really old fat. The Holbein Artist Colored pencils attempt to stand out in the competitive premium-priced colored pencil category by providing interesting cores and huge color selections. We really could tell the difference that the wax/oil hybrid core brings to the table. By capturing the best of oils and the best of waxes, you can take your art game to the next level. I use two different pencil sharpeners on location. The Derwent Pastel & Charcoal Sharpener and the M + R Sharpener as they manage a wide variety of media. For both sharpeners, they worked well. I like a long point so the M + R Sharpener works best for this. The Derwent Pastel Sharpener works best for the pastel pencils I take with me but does a pretty decent job too, although produces a shorter lead point. In the studio I have a Jakar Electric Sharpener for speed and that works really well on the Holbein Artists’ Coloured Pencils producing a clean and crisp long point in seconds.The other tradeoff, when considered as an artist-grade pencil, is the relatively low lightfastness rating. Prismacolors are very affordable, so they may actually overperform on the lightfastness charts relative to cost, but if you are using these in final drawings just be aware: 59 out of 150 (39%) are rated the best Lightfast I, 26 colors (17%) are Lightfast II, and 65 colors (43%) are rated below museum grade at Lightfast III through V. For individual colors, this chart from Prismacolor details the Lightfastness rating. Holbein uses metallic gold to mark all of the pencils which is hard on aging eyes, especially when the pencil is beige or yellow. Fortunately, the font is large. I do end up rolling the pencil to read it, especially when my studio work lights are on.

Holbein come pre-sharpened… kinda. They’re sharpened to a shallow point but not enough to actually put a real point on the end— the tippy-tip is quite flat which makes the sharpening is completely useless. Be prepared to spend time sharpening the entire set before coloring.

Using the Meltz Pencil Blender

Holbein have quite an extensive range in this collection which is always beneficial to the colored pencil artist. The largest set available is 150, however, there are also three sets of 12, each set offering a different color palette. Next is the 24 set, 36 set, 50 set, 100 set and of course the 150 set. With the 100 set, there are two versions available, the original cardboard and then a wooden gift box set, this is also the case for the largest of the sets, the 150. Holbein Performance Anyway, it sounds like Holbein was forced to reformulate one or more pencil cores before they could export to the United States… I do not normally use a blender in my work, so I have nothing to compare the Meltz Pencil Blender to, but I am impressed it does so well for something that is water based and not a solvent. I used it in a recent life drawing class alongside my other materials and was pleased with the result. Holbein pigment tends to sit high on the surface of the paper and it doesn’t seem to settle and sink into the tooth the way Prismacolor, Lightfast, and Luminance do. Because of this, it’s essential that you seal your Holbein work with good quality fixative when you’re finished. Given the core ingredients previously mentioned, the consistency of the Holbein core is simply gorgeous. Smooth and creamy, but with the addition of oils and wax combined, the core is strong enough to maintain a decent point after sharpening. The pencil will not maintain a point quite as long as an oil only pencil, never the less, I was impressed with the longevity of the core throughout various tests.

My studio floor is laminate wood and the pencils bounce several times when dropped but I’ve never experienced a core shattering inside the pencil casing in multiple spots. This is quite common with Prismacolors.

Departments

Originally, The Art Gear Guide and COLORED PENCIL Magazine had arranged to feature the Holbein Artists Colored Pencils in the August issue, however, due to unforeseen circumstances, the Holbein review had to be temporarily put on hold. Despite this, I have finally got round to reviewing the Holbein colored pencil, so here it is and I hope it has been worth the delay.