Lyra Graduate Colored Pencils
Lyra Graduate Colored Pencils
This is the first review of 2021 by The Art Gear Guide so let me take the time to say Happy New Year to you all and I wish you all the most wonderful year ahead, filled with love, happiness, huge success and above all good health.
I have reviewed a few pencils from the Lyra family range and I have to say, I have always been impressed with the over all performances. I reviewed Lyra’s most popular pencil among colored pencil artists, the Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor, in fact I have reviewed this pencil twice. I reviewed them a few months after I started the channel but completed a second review more recently, purely based on the fact my video and audio equipment has vastly improved and I started adding artwork to accompany reviews, whereas when I started out I didn’t feel confident enough in doing this.
I have also reviewed the Lyra Rembrandt Aquarelle and perhaps a much lesser known pencil but by no means a less worthy pencil, the Giotto, which you can view by clicking on the relevant links. I have wanted to test and demonstrate the Lyra Graduate pencils for quite some time now, so I was really pleased to get hold of this set.
Lyra Graduate Colored Pencil Characteristics
The Lyra Graduate come in water-soluble and water resistant colored pencils, we are looking at the traditional water resistant Lyra Graduate pencils today. One of the things I found quite striking about the Lyra Graduate Colored Pencils was the artwork or image on the tins. It is only a simple landscape scene, but the contrast of bright colors somehow makes the tins quite attractive and certainly eye catching from a marketing point of view.
The Lyra Graduate Pencil is hexagonal in shape, sporting a hefty 3.8mm core held within a well weighted and balanced 7.8mm barrel. The actual barrel is color coded the same color as the pencil core, however, two sides of the barrel have been left unpainted, displaying only the wood grain, which leaves a clear space for the pencil information to be printed along.
Along one of the unpainted sides of the Lyra Graduate barrel is printed in clear black font, the pencil model, which in this case is “Graduate”. This is closely follow by the company name and logo “Lyra” and then the companies origins which is “Germany”.
On the opposite side of the barrel there is printed in clear black font the pigment name in two languages, “English” and “German”. This is closely followed by a number which corresponds to the pigment of that particular pencil.
The Lyra Graduate barrel is made from the traditional Californian Cedar wood, but of all the pencils I have reviewed over the years, there must be different grades of the same wood as some pencils sharpen beautifully and others not so much. That being said the Lyra Graduate pencil sharpens beautifully, there is no nicks, splinters, snagging on blades or anything like that.
The Lyra Graduate is a beautiful pencil to hold in the hand, I know for any new artists to the Colored Pencil medium, you might find this statement quite odd, however those involved in this medium for a while will understand the significance and as the new artists to the medium progress they will understand it. There are some pencils that just feel right in your hand when using them, well weighted, the perfect girth etc and for the most part, this will be personal to us all, but the Graduate is one of those pencils that just feel right in the hand, well weighted and balanced.
Lyra Graduate Pricing
There are not a lot of sets in the Lyra Graduate range, however, for the UK, US and EU the prices are as follows.
Here in the UK for the tin set of 12 Lyra Graduate will cost approximately £11, the 24 tin set of Lyra Graduate will cost £17.76 and the 36 Tin Set of Lyra Graduate will cost approximately £28.45. There is also a set of 12 Lyra Graduate in a box which will cost £9.45 and a set of 24 Lyra Graduate in a box will cost £19.20
In the EU, for the tin set of 12 Lyra Graduate you will pay approximately €9.50 , for the tin of 24 Lyra Graduate you will pay €27 and for the 36 tin of Lyra Graduate you will pay €29.50 . As with the UK, there is a 12 set of Lyra Graduate in a box which will cost €10.74 and finally the 24 set of Lyra Graduate in a box will cost €16
The Lyra Graduate are available in the US however, due to the COVID restrictions there are no sets available on the US Amazon, shipping restrictions are the main cause for this however as soon as matters return to normal, I will of course update the US prices.
Lyra Graduate Colored Pencil Performance
The Lyra Graduate are Lyra’s student grade colored pencils, the Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor are their artist grade which I have reviewed in-depth here on The Art Gear Guide. Lyra have a wide range of children’s art supplies as well as other pencils made under the Fila umbrella, pencils such as the gorgeous Giotto Colored Pencils which I have also reviewed.
Within the Graduate range, Lyra also make a Lyra Graduate Aquarelle set of pencils, which I will be reviewing further down the line, but the two pencils marry up quite well together. Nevertheless, this time it is the Lyra Graduate Colored Pencils performance under the microscope.
As soon as I opened the Lyra Graduate 36 Set, I started to swatch the pencils as I always do, this always gives me a good feel for the core and how it reacts. I completed the swatch on Clairefontaine Pain-On Mixed Media paper which is a slightly textured paper and I hoped would react well with the pencil when it came to my tests. As you can see from the image, the 36 colors provide quite well rounded and balanced palette.
Next I used the same Paint-On Mixed Media Paper to conduct my test, incidentally if you would like to know more about the paper you can watch or read my reviews by clicking the relevant links. As always I complete a layer test, applying a maximum of five layers, my reason for stopping at five layers is due to those colored pencil artists who like to use odourless mineral spirits ( OMS ). It is recommended to have a few layers of pigment on the paper before applying OMS.
On this particular test the Lyra Graduate performed well and in fact, could have gone on applying layers, which you will see on the artwork I completed for this review using the Lyra Graduate. After applying the layers I also apply a single heavy application of the pigment and as you can see from the image the pigment strength and vibrancy is really quite pleasing for a student grade pencil. With regards to the layering test, I wasn’t 100% satisfied with the coverage, in so much as white paper was still showing through the fifth layer. It was at this stage of the testing that I decided to complete the artwork on a different type of paper, which I will discuss further.
The next test I completed was the blending test, still on the same Clairefontaine Paint-On Mixed Media paper. On the image provided you can clearly see that the pigments fused and blended well together, allowing me to clearly create a different color using two pigments. For example, using the yellow and blue created a nice usable green.
Without Odourless Mineral Spirits
On previous tests last year I left out testing the pigments with odourless mineral spirts, this was simply an oversight on my part, but really a subconsciously selfish one I think. I myself don’t use OMS when blending, I much prefer to use a blending pencil or lighter pigments, but I have made sure that going forward I will show results of the pigments reacting to OMS.
On this particular test I used a few blues and the black from the Lyra Graduate 36 set and drew a simple ball, shading and layering where needed. On my YouTube video review I show real time results of the OMS and Lyra Graduate pigment reacting, but you can also see here the images of the ball before and after OMS. Incidentally for this test I used Zest-It Odourless Mineral Spirits.
As I am sure most of you know by now, I personally don’t pigeon hole pencils as Wax or Oil based, this is due to conversations with Chemists regarding the manufacturing of colored pencils from three large pencil manufactures. As a result, I prefer to simply describe how the pencil core feels and performs. For the Lyra Graduate, there was a dry chalky feel to the core as I lay the pigment across the textured paper of the Clairefontaine Paint-On Mixed Media paper.
I personally feel it was this feature that prevented blooming or tackiness to the pigment coverage as more and more layers were applied. The flip side of this of course is that the coverage issues I experienced may have been due to the dry nature of the pencil core. When heavy pressure was applied, the Lyra Graduate core easily covered the paper surface, but when applying layers although they applied well, the final coverage in my opinion definitely needs a blending pencil or OMS to fill in those small whites of the paper.
My final test was laying the Lyra Graduate Pigment down on black paper, this test is always very beneficial to those colored pencil artists who enjoy using dark or mid-tone papers. As you can see from the image provided, of the five colors tested, only the Canary Yellow resulted with some levels of opacity to it. The other colors, including the white appeared to lay down quite thick and opaque.
I completed a very simple drawing with the Lyra Graduate Colored Pencils, however, as I previously mentioned, throughout the tests I conducted on the Paint-On Mixed Media Paper, I decided to complete the drawing on a different paper. I chose a smoother paper with the Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Smooth, not a really high quality paper but a much smoother surface.
I definitely found the coverage to be much more satisfying on the Bristol Smooth as opposed to the Mixed Media paper, although that did mean losing a little bit on the layering ability. This is where the genre of art you want to create also comes into the selecting of paper for your work.
Lyra Graduate Sets Available
As I mentioned in the Performance section of the Lyra Graduate, I really like this pencil, I think Lyra as a company really put a lot of effort into the quality of their pencils and right the way through their range, artist quality, student and kids; but this is the only are I personally have an issue with.
The Colored Pencil medium is obviously my favourite and so I can be a little bit biased, but I do my very best to remain impartial, but mixing new colors up with colored pencils is not the same as mixing colors with watercolors, acrylics or oils. With that in mind, I have always said that if you are serious about colored pencils, you should at the very least start out with a 36 set and if you can afford it, larger.
So when a really nice pencil like the Lyra Graduate is available, but with the 36 set being their largest set, it is very frustrating. Currently the Lyra Graduate are available in a set of 12, 24 and 36 in metal tins but you can also get a set of 12 and 24 in cardboard box which are ever so slightly cheaper than the tins.
Lyra Graduate Lightfast Information
One thing that I have noticed happening quite a lot with so many new colored pencil artists is they think the only pencils they should be purchasing are lightfast pencils. It’s important that you understand the value of lightfast pencils and when or why you should be using them.
In the huge ocean of colored pencils on the market at the minute, only a handful of them are highly lightfast, which is absolutely fine. If you are using colored pencils for adult colouring books or simply drawing art to please yourself and nothing more, you don’t need lightfast pencils, you can of course use lightfast pencils with adult colouring books. If on the other hand you are creating art to sell, submit to competitions or hang in Galleries, it is important you use lightfast pigments, ensuring your work remains beautifully colourful for 100 plus years. A pencil being lightfast does not enhance or effect the overall performance of the pencil, there are many non-lightfast pencils that perform absolutely wonderfully.
The Lyra Graduate pencils are student grade pencils and so do not have any lightfast testing done on them. When a company has a pencil lightfast tested, they do so via another company and the process is incredibly expensive, hence the reason why lightfast pencils are always much more expensive than other pencils.
Lyra Graduate Conclusion
I have to say I really enjoyed using the Lyra Graduate, as I mentioned at the very beginning of this review, the image on the tin is so eye catching and striking. Every time I search through Amazon to purchase a new set of pencils to review, the Lyra Graduate always caught my eye.
Finally I managed to work the review into my schedule and I personally really enjoyed using them. Considering they are a student grade pencil the pigment strength is pleasantly surprising. As is the case with so many things colored pencil related, the paper you chose is so important.
When performing the tests, the mixed media paper was perfect for all of the test but did skew the coverage somewhat. However when I created the artwork for this review, I did so on a much smoother paper which enhanced the coverage but limited the layers.
My only issue with the Lyra Graduate is the fact that the largest set is 36, I would at least love to see a 72 set in this range. For pencils that are aimed toward your art students, I personally feel if Lyra are going to put the effort into generating a beautiful pencil, they should at least consider expanding the palette. The current palette in the 36 set is a well rounded selection of color but I just feel a 72 set would be much more beneficial for colored pencil art students.
To find out more about the Lyra Graduate Colored Pencils check out the YouTube review where you can see the odourless mineral spirits test in real time, or check out the speed drawing of the art work. You can also check out still images of the art work at various stages of completion so that you can inspect the results at your ow leisure.
Thank you so very much for your wonderful support, questions and comments. If you would like to see me review a particular art product, please leave your suggestions in the comment sections or via email theartgearguide@gmail.com . If you would like to see a comparison review please by all means leave a suggestion in the comments of the products you would like me to compare.
