Arrtx Colored Pencils Review
Arrtx Colored Pencils Review
I am sure a lot of you are already familiar with the Arrtx name, perhaps you have used their alcohol markers, their watercolor paints or any of the other amazing art products they supply, if you are familiar with the name, you will be happy to know that Arrtx have released a brand new addition to their ranks in the form of a 72 set of Colored Pencils.
In this review we will be testing and demonstrating the brand new 72 set of Arrtx Colored Pencils as well as showcasing artwork completed with them and hopefully helping you to determine one way or the other as to whether or not the Arrtx Colored Pencil are for you.
Arrtx Colored Pencil Characteristics
It is important to note that the new set of 72 colored pencil from Arrtx are breaking into the budget colored pencil market, which believe it or not, in terms of quantity, is a much harder market to compete in. Given the terribly uncertain financial times we are all living in, finding a good bargain is becoming more and more difficult to accomplish. For artists who on average don’t make a lot of money, finding a good art supply bargain is even more important, never mind the essentials such as eating, paying the Gas and Electric etc, finding a well priced art supply is becoming a difficult thing to do.
the first thing you will notice is the packaging of the Arrtx Colored Pencils, unlike the more traditional 72 sets of colored pencils which normally arrive in a tin, Arrtx have taken on a slightly different form but a form that is supposed to be helpful for the artist in easily removing the contents.
As you can see from the images provided, the pencils are racked in rows of 4, 18 pencils in each row, however there is a slight issue with this and I do mean slight, however, it was something I encountered and needed to mention it in this review. The actual pencils are stood upright in a foam base, it is in this base where the issue arises. The pencils themselves are slotted into holes, however the holes are not individual to the pencils.
You can see from the images that two of the rows are merged together and this causes issues every time a pencil is removed to be used. When a few pencils are removed the remaining pencils tend to fall into each other due to the fact the base holes are not individual. This also causes issues when trying to replace the pencils once finished with.
I feel if the holes in the base where individual this issue would not occur, but as I mentioned at the beginning of this section, this is a minor issue with the pencils overall. I am sure most people will replace the pencils into their own preferred storage and the matter highlighted will not be an issue.
The core of the Arrtx Colored Pencils is a hefty and comfortable 3.9mm, housed within a well weighted 8.0mm barrel. Every pencil barrel is lacquered the same color as the pencil core and so this makes pigment identification quick and easy.
Arrtx have decided to add a few decorative touches to the pencil barrel in the form of silver leaf stars and dots, this obviously has nothing at all to do with the performance of the pencil, nevertheless it is a nice touch for purely aesthetics.
Along one side of the barrel is printed in silver text the companies name “Arrtx” followed by a decorative star and then the phrase “Color Pencil” printed. On the opposite side is the decorative print, followed by a simple barcode, toward the end of the barrel is printed the pigment name of the pencil core.
The barrels are round and as I mentioned they are really nice to hold in the hand and well weighted. The Arrtx pencils also sharpen like a dream, I obviously sharpened all 72 pencils and not one of them presented a problem, also the pencils that I used for the artwork also sharpened well throughout the course of using them.
Arrtx Colored Pencils Performance
As always, when completing these reviews I always try to make sure I test the products on as many different surfaces as possible. The first paper surface used was for the swatch of the full 72 colors and this surface was Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Velum.
As you can see from the image of the swatch the pigment strength of the Arrtx Colored Pencil is exceptional for a budget level set of colored pencils. What I would say about the palette overall is in my opinion I feel a few yellows could have been replaced with other colors or the values of some changed. As you look at the swatch, the top row of yellows in my opinion just seem to overpower the image.
It is important that you understand this is just my opinion, color selection is always such a very personal thing, as a colored pencil artist I always love a nice selection of greens, but there are a lot of artists out there who do not use greens at all if they can get away with it.
As we look at the rest of the swatch, I feel they could have done with adding a lighter blue, like a sky blue or powder blue, I know that there is a cloud blue, but this is more of a grey blue. I would also like to have seen a darker green and perhaps a really dark red. The darkest red in the set is the Tuscan Red and whilst on its own it is a nice red, I am only putting forward alternatives for a few of the yellows.
Next up is a series of tests I complete and the paper surface this was conducted on was the Hahnemühle Harmony Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper, this in itself is a really nice paper, quite similar to a Velum in that it is a smooth surface with a slight tooth to it.
The first series of test I complete is the layer test, here I apply five light layers of each color, only using the weight of the pencil as best I can to apply the color by holding the very end of the barrel. The final layer is just a single heavy application.
The reason I stop at five layers is because this is generally considered the amount of layers to be applied before using Odourless Mineral Spirits, which I will explain for those of you knew to the colored pencil medium. Nevertheless as you can see from the results, the Arrtx colored pencil are bright and saturated and they layer like a dream, I could have easily applied more layers going well beyond five layers.
The next test is the blending test, the purpose of this test is to make a third color from two existing colors, which is not always an easy test to complete using colored pencils. In this test you can see that the yellow and blue used have indeed completed a clear green, as have the red and yellow created a clear orange. Finally and perhaps the most difficult combination to create, the red and blue have both generated a nice purple shade.
In this test I use Odourless Mineral Spirits, Zest-It to be exact, but any Odourless Mineral Spirits would be fine. I personally don’t use OMS, simply because I prefer a different method, but using OMS has huge advantages and as a lot of colored pencil artists using it I always make sure I provide a test result.
If you look at the sphere, I have used a few shades of blue to create the image, but you may also notice that you can still see quite a lot of white flecks of paper showing through the layers. When OMS is applied, it almost melts the pencil layers into a painterly effect, thus filling in the tooth of the paper removing those white flecks.
If you use a burnishing method to get the same results, you will damage the tooth of the paper making it more difficult to apply further layers. When using the OMS, the tooth of the paper remains intact and allows for more layers. To see this in action check out my YouTube video review by following the link and you will get to see the Odourless Mineral Spirits break down the Arrtx pencil core.
As I am sure most of you would like to know, are the Arrtx Colored Pencils oil or wax, unfortunately this is not something I discuss and if you would like to know why you can check out my video on the myth of oil or wax based pencils. However I will try to describe the core as best I can.
You can clearly see from the tests provided and the artwork completed just how rich and vibrant the core of the Arrtx Colored Pencils actually are, but the core itself is more complicated to explain. When using the Arrtx Colored Pencils, the core holds it’s form for a considerable period of time, especially considering, when layering the core feels so soft and smooth. Because of this, you would expect the core to dwindle fast and a need to sharpen all the time.
There is no bloom or residue when you layer using the Arrtx, nor is there any resistance or tackiness. The Arrtx Colored Pencils are not Prismacolor soft, but they are not far off, Arrtx have done a really excellent job with their first entry into the colored pencil arena.
Finally given the price of the Arrtx Colored Pencils, it goes without saying that they are not lightfast, there are no ASTM or Blue Wool lightfast scales for them. Obviously this is only a problem for artists wishing to sell their original art, submit their work to galleries, but there are still a wide range of artist who will love them and get a lot of joy using them.
As you can see from the image above, I have also tested the Arrtx Colored Pencils on black paper, this simply helps to display how opaque or translucent the pencil core is on dark paper. As you can see from this test the colors used from the Arrtx Colored Pencils are very translucent.
Arrtx Colored Pencil Set Sizes And Prices
As things stand, unfortunately Arrtx only provide the 72 set, hopefully if the Arrtx Colored Pencil become popular, it will push Arrtx on to perhaps create a 120 set or larger. It is also worth mentioning that the Arrtx pencils are not sold open stock.
I know this is a huge issue for some artists, especially if you normally use a lot of colors from a specific color group, you are likely to run out of those pencils much more frequently and be unable to renew the pencils individually. Unfortunately I don’t know the answer to this issue, large 72 sets being sold at such low costs comparatively speaking, aren’t also going to be able to provide pencils individually. Hopefully if the Arrtx Colored Pencils grow in popularity and Arrtx decide to expand the range, they may also sell them open stock.
At the time of writing this review, the new Arrtx Colored Pencil are difficult to get hold of in America, the UK , Australia and Europe, this is all to do with transit costs, the war in Europe and other factors. As you look around at even the big colored pencil companies, they are low on certain stock. So if you are interested in getting a set of Arrtx Colored Pencils for yourself you can select any of the links below.
For a 72 set of Arrtx Colored Pencils in the US, you will pay approximately $29.99
For a 72 set of Arrtx Colored Pencils in the UK you will pay approximately £25.43
For a 72 set of Arrtx Colored Pencils in the EU you will pay approximately €35.31
For a 72 Set of Arrtx Colored Pencils in Australia you will pay approximately $43.59
Arrtx Colored Pencils Conclusion
I have to say, despite the fact that I have reviewed quite a lot of Arrtx products and really liked them, I really wasn’t holding out much hope for the colored pencils when I was made aware of them. I am not sure why I felt like this, I guess it was more to do with the products Arrtx were already very good at and I just didn’t see how colored pencils was going to fit in the mix. Regardless of the reason I was totally wrong and it is on occasions like this that I love being wrong.
Expense is always a very relevant thing to the individual so I don’t like saying that they are cheap, but what I can say is, for the quality of the Arrtx Colored Pencils, the price is reasonable. Arrtx are making no bones about their market audience, on the front of the box they say artist quality and I would totally agree with this, bearing in mind artist quality and artist grade are two totally different things, which I talk about in the YouTube video review.
I loved using the Arrtx Colored Pencils and was also really happy with the art I completed with them, the Arrtx Colored Pencils I think will go down really well with adult colouring book artists, crafters and artists such as myself, who draw for mental health reason, to fulfil our own artistic wants. Given there lack of lightfast ratings, they are obviously not for artists wanting to complete commissions, sell their art or submit to galleries.
As always to learn more about the Arrtx Colored Pencils you can check out our YouTube video review of the pencils, as well as this you can check out the speed drawing YouTube video of the artwork I completed using the Arrtx Colored Pencils. To see the artwork in detail, you can check out the page here on The Art Gear Guide of still images taken throughout the process of the Strawberry coming to life. You can select the images, enlarge them and inspect at your own leisure. If you have any questions at all about the Arrtx Colored Pencils please don’t hesitate to ask, if there is anything I have left out here on the written review you might find the answer on the YouTube video review.
