Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell Review
Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell Review.
I have always been upfront about my own personal feelings toward the Koh-I-Noor products that I have reviewed. As always, with every single company products I review, I am not being paid by a single one of them to review their products, occasionally I might receive a product to review, but even that is becoming far and few between due to much larger channels reviewing products and companies stand to gain more exposure this way.
Nevertheless, I submit reviews to help artists, crafters, adult colouring book enthusiasts, save a bit of money in so much as making the right choices for them, so every single review I submit is completely untainted by a beholding responsibility to anyone other than you guys. Koh-I-Noor in my opinion really do go the extra mile to provide high quality products, with exceptionally good price structures and even providing lightfast ratings on so many of their products including student graded products which is quite rare.
I have reviewed quite a lot of the Koh-I-Noor products, however, in relation to this review of the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell, basically the woodless watercolor pencils, I have reviewed the Koh-i-Noor Woodless Colored Pencils.
Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell Characteristics
For this review I have the 48 set of Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell, the first thing I think most of you would notice is the weight of the set and therefore the weight of the individual pencils. Although only a 48 set, the weight is really quite heavy and this I think is more to do with the fact that the entirety of the pencil is pigment and binder, there is no wood barrel.
First Layer of 48 Set Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell.
When you open the set, the pencils are laid out completely different to how you might find almost every other set of pencils you have opened. Of course this is not going to have an impact on the performance, but it is nice to see something different. the pencils are arranged in sets of 12 in diagonal formats. As you can see from the images supplied, it is simply something different, but as I am sure some of you have heard before from time to time, “It is the little things that matter”.
Second Layer of 48 Set Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell.
I think when a lot of people envisage woodless watercolor pencils, a bit like myself, we think along the lines of crayons, at least in terms of softness to the core. However this is not the case for the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell. The core come barrel is of similar hardness to any other water soluble colored pencil you might use, such as the Koh-I-Noor Mondeluz.
There really is no distinction between core and barrel with the Koh-I-Noor Progresso, the entire pencil is both core and barrel, that being said there is a very thin protective grey film wrapped around the exterior of the pencil. this protective film simply acts as a barrier between the artists hands and the actual pigment and binder, preventing cross contamination of bodily oils and binder oils to mix. This protective film also acts as a way of printing information on the pencil, information that would ordinarily be printed on the wood and finally as a side note, this protective film simply sharpens off as you sharpen the pencil and there is no hinderance at all.
Printed along the protective grey film, starting from the core to the end starts of with a barcode. Following the barcode there is printed the company name “Koh-I-Noor” closely followed by the pencil brand, which in this case is “Progresso Aquarell”. Next there is a number printed on every pencil starting with 8780/ and followed by a number relating to the pigment of that particular pencil, finally there is printed the lightfast rating, which I will explain in more detail further into the review.
Despite what you may think and if you are anything like me, I always used to think that woodless pencils were incredibly brittle and wouldn’t sharpen very well, this is absolutely not the case with the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell. I have sharpened these pencils in quite a few different handheld and hand crank sharpeners always getting the same extremely sharpened results.
Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell Sets Available
In the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell series, unfortunately 48 is the largest set available, as much as I would love to see a larger set personally, perhaps a 72, with the Progresso I can totally understand why they stopped at 48. With Koh-I-Noor delivering the Polycolor in a 144 set and the Mondeluz currently in a 72 set, there really is no need for a large water soluble student grange given what they already provide. Also, with fingers and toes crossed, perhaps some day soon the Mondeluz may get the same face lift their Polycolor sister set received from 72 to 144
The other sets available in the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell range are 12, 24, 36 and of course they are also available in open stock, although, not everywhere is going to sell them open stock, so you might have to shop around bit to locate what you need, obviously depending on where you live and the art stores buy you.
Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell Performance
As always I have created some artwork with the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell to help demonstrate and display the strength of the pigments. As much as I love watercolors and watercolor products, I am not as comfortable with them as I am with my colored pencils and markers.
I have added a speed drawing to The Art Gear Guide YouTube channel if you are interested in seeing the artwork come to life and I have also added some still images to a page here on The Art Gear Guide of the artwork at various stages of completion for you to click on to enlarge and inspect at your own leisure.
Below you can see a swatch of all 48 colors in the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell set, both dry and then activated. Often, when you apply a watercolor pencil to watercolor paper and then activated it with water if the pigments as low quality, you will see the initial pencil strokes under the paint, this was not the case at all with the Koh-I-Noor Progresso.
I applied a relatively heavy application of the pigment dry, damaging the tooth of the paper a little bit, however, regardless of the heavy pressure and damage of the tooth, once activated no pencil strokes are visible.
During the Butterfly that I completed, it was immediately evident at just how special these pencils were given the richness and strength of the pigments. Even when applying a light layer of pigment using only the weight of the pencil, the explosion of color was still vibrantly impressive.
Hello, World!
In the YouTube video review I have uploaded of the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell Pencils I showed some techniques that can be used with a plastic aquarelle palette I have purchased and reviewed before, this simple tool gives so much more possibility to water soluble pencils or crayons, that it is such a handy tool to have in your arsenal if you indeed enjoy such art mediums.
Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle Lightfast Information
The Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle, whilst primarily being marketed as a student grade art medium, the pigments have been lightfast tested and rated. They are not extremely high, nevertheless, there are lightfast testing which has been carried out and it makes Koh-I-Noor products incredibly desirable in my opinion.
The Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell are rated using the star system, five stars equal the highest lightfast rating and one star the lowest. Of the 48 pigments in the entire Progresso range, 8 pigments are rated 5 Star, 8 pigments are rated 4 Star, 4 pigments are rated 3 Star, 26 pigments are rated 2 Star and 2 pigments are rated 1 Star.
So as you can see from the listing, not the most highly lightfast pigments in the world but lightfast tested none the less and the pricing of the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell do not reflect this in their pricing.
Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell Pricing
Here in the the UK, the following prices are what you can expect to pay for the following sets. For the 12 set of Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle you can expect to pay £16.18, for the 24 set you can expect to pay £24.36, for the 36 set of Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell you can expect to pay £33.79 and for the largest set of 48 you will pay approximately £37.33.
In the US, some times Koh-I-Nooor products can be a little bit more expensive given that they are a European company and import and export fees will I am sure play a part in pricing. The 12 set that I was able to find on amazon was crazy priced so I have left the 12 set out until I can locate a cheaper set. The 24 Set of Koh-I-Noor will cost you $25.74 the 36 set of Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell will cost approximately $35.76 and finally the largest 48 set will cost approximately $42.79
In the EU, much closer to the Koh-I-Noor Homestead the prices are much the same to that in the UK. The set of 12 Koh-i-Noor Progresso will cost approximately €15.66 , the 24 set of Progresso Aquarell will cost €25.50, the 36 set will cost you approximately €37.95 and finally the largest 48 set will cost you approximately €43.91
Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell Conclusion
I know by now I don’t need to say thins and I know most of you know my style of reviewing, however for those of you who may be new to The Art Gear Guide, despite my love for Koh-I-Noor products, which is purely based on previous Koh-I-Noor products I have reviewed, if I tested and reviewed a product from Koh-I-Noor I felt missed the grade, I would absolutely talk about it.
We all develop our own favourite products over time and this is mostly based on our own personal situations surrounding said product. I am the same, but after testing, researching, demonstrating and reviewing so many art supplies, I never ever forget my soul reason for doing these reviews and that is, deliver to you guys, the most specific fact based information I can on a particular product. I do this so that when you go and spend your hard earned money on a particular product, you can do so armed with as detailed a review as I can possibly deliver. I want you to feel like the only thing you are missing from my reviews is to physically hold the products in your own hands.
Despite my discomfort around water soluble art supplies, I really enjoyed myself with the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell, I was impressed with the strength of pigments, the fact that the pigments in the Progresso range are lightfast tested but do not come with a lightfast price tag.
I feel that whilst Koh-I-Noor market the Progresso Aquarell toward the Student graded area, this diverse set of water soluble pencils would be suitable for really lucky kids, students of art, crafters, adult colouring book enthusiasts, artists out in the wilderness of our beautiful planet needing both pencil and watercolors.
I sincerely hope you have enjoyed this review of the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell Colored Pencils and thank you so very much for your truly amazing support, without you guys none of this would work, all your suggestions, wonderful comments, shared personal stories and so much more simply make me feel like the luckiest person alive sometimes.
If you would like to watch my YouTube Video review of the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarell simply follow the link. You can also watch my YouTube speed Painting using the Progresso by following this link or if you would prefer to simply inspect the art work on closer inspection, I have added a page to The Art Gear Guide with still images of the painting from start to finish. Simply select an image by clicking on it and the image will enlarge, whereby you can get a better look at the art.
