Castle Art Supplies 120 Colored Pencils with Zipper | Quality Soft Coloured Leads for Adult Artists, Professionals and Colorists | In Zipper Pouch

Near-Prismacolor quality in my opinion, though this set lacks some of the lighter tones needed for fair skin complexions (I've been using a combination of alcohol inks for skin base tones and these pencils for subsurface scattering). These pencils, despite being soft, do hold up fairly well to burnishing, so you can get some pretty very deep and saturated coloration with some work.Doing a light color fill in an area, layering on any other tones you want, and then doing multiple passes between the two with increasingly more pressure up to the final burnishing works quite well to blend them, similar to Prismacolor pencils.Suggestions for owners:-Highly recommend the usual approach of wearing an artist's glove and/or resting your drawing hand on another sheet of paper as you render to prevent from smearing pigment around. These won't smudge like charcoal or graphite, but they will lift and smear on prolonged hand contact.-Some other reviewers have mentioned that the pencil tips break easily - I wouldn't say "easily", but these are soft core after all and will crumble a bit if you put much force on them. If you live in a warmer climate and lack air conditioning, you seriously may want to store them in the refrigerator before use - the wax medium will soften when it gets hot and that can lead to crumbling. That is true for all soft-core pencils, though, not just from this brand.-Try to avoid using automatic pencil sharpeners that don't have depth stops. Automatic pencil sharpeners are a great way to obliterate a large section of the pencil just because you need a sharp point for a small section. A hobby knife and some 300gt sandpaper also help form the tip how you need without a ton of waste.-I did end up purchasing additional singles at a local hobby store to make up gaps in the included color selection; it's a lot of pencils, but most of that arrangement is in the RGB space and not so much the lighter pigments.Overall - very happy with these, and for the few colors you may be missing, you can buy singles at most hobby stores for a few dollars. Seems really nice as a set to get your artist-grade pencil collection started.

I have quite a few large sets of various brands of colored pencils. I think that overall, this is actually my favorite set! Yes, there are obviously better brands, and these pencils are not in their league, neither for performance nor price!! All things considered, especially the price, that's what makes these my favorite standard colored pencil!! No, these aren't a budget set, and you might even find some pencils that perform more to your liking at a much lower price, it's all just a personal preference, after all.This was the first set of Castle Arts pencils that I bought, over a year ago, and have since purchased the Gold set, the metallic, the pastel "macaron" and the water color sets, always the largest quantity available in the zipper pouches. I try not to spend too much on art supplies, but all those other purchases were me chasing the quality of this set. This particular set is hands down superior to any of the others offered by this brand, but that's just my opinion. I would definitely purchase this again, not totally certain if I would invest again in any of their other sets, but possibly would if I use them all up.These pencils perform comparably to the Crayola brand of colored pencils, except these are a little bit smoother and brighter. This set would be a logical next step-up from Crayolas if you've started there, like their performance, but are looking for something a little bit fancier. To be fair, a lot of people want to complain about Crayola, which I think is just based on their availability at every discount and mass retailer. I actually use them at times, even with owning tons of other, more desirable sets. If it's just a coloring book, why burn through professional grade pencils?? These Castle Arts are a great option for coloring books, especially if you opt for them in the zipper case. Very convenient presentation with a sheet to swatch the colors. My love for this set is honestly based a lot from their presentation and the convenience of the color guide.The pencils come with some instructional info, also. I love how well these layer and blend. Yes, there's some wax bloom, but you'll get that with any kind of pencil. To compare this set vs. their Gold set, these layer and blend way way better, but the Gold set has more vibrant colors, and sets down more color with less pressure or more color in a single pass. I would recommend these over the Gold set if you're more of a traditionalist with colored pencils and take your time building layers and ranges of tone. These are the best pencils I have found for layering short of some of the higher priced Derwents. To clarify, yes I compared these to Crayola in some aspects, but these layer better than Crayola. The Gold pencils don't let you build the range of subtle layers and effects like these pencils. The Gold pencils are "oil" pencils. All colored pencils have wax binders, but some pencils have added oils, or a somewhat different blend, all subjective, and all depending on the particular brands formulation. I have several different sets of pencils that are labeled as oil pencils, they lay down a lot more color, but they just don't layer and blend quite as well. Personally, I know of a lot of people who claim they "hate" colored pencils, that they just want to color with markers or gel pens because pencils are too soft and light colored. Of course a lot of coloring books are designed with images on both sides of thin paper, so in that case you're limited to pencils, and if you think you hate pencils, you might want to try oil pencils, like the Gold set.Bottom line, for me this set has been almost the perfect set of pencils. There's a good range and balance of colors in this set, too. They sharpen well. I've not had too many issues with poorly blended spotchy nor "scratchy" areas like you always get with cheaper pencils. I have had these for over a year, no problems. The case is durable, and also the pencils seem to be a good hardness. They hold a point well. They're a consistently good product that allows the versatility to use in coloring books, or stand alone art!

I love these pencils. I’m not an artist, but I love to color. I wish I would’ve purchased the version of this item in the tin. Less space needed for storage, but the zipper pouch is nice for travel.

The colored pencils arrived in a ɓox as well as a plastic envelope.No marring on the pencil case. A nice selection of colors. I've bought Castle Art products before. I find they are good quality. I'd definitely buy them again in some future purchase. 120 pencils may take a long time to need replacement.

Good but not excellent

I really wasn't sure what to expect, with these pencils being so inexpensive. I bought these for my 10 year old to color with. I was shocked! These lay down pigment beautifully. This really is a great, affordable, starter set. As long as you understand that, you will be satisfied with your purchase.

Blends well and looks good on paper ...I do recommend getting blender sticks to get a richer color

Nice and Soft colored pencils.