Staedtler Tinted Watercolour Pencils
Staedtler Tinted Watercolour Pencils
In this review we test and take a look at the Staedtler Tinted Watercolour Pencils, I am sure all of you know Staedtler, perhaps the most prominent providers of school stationary in the world, however, they also provide excellent quality art supplies.
Ordinarily, I try to avoid small sets of 12 pencils, as is this case for this set of Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils, small sets of 12 colored pencils are difficult to create additional tones and values with, however, with water-soluble pencils you can often get away with a small set of 12 because blending and mixing is obviously much easier.
Staedtler Tinted Watercolour Pencils Characteristics
The Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils sport a hexagonal 7.0mm barrel with a 3.4mm core, which is quite average for a colored pencil core. The barrels themselves are a gun metal grey color, with each pencil looking identical, on the very end of each barrel, where the pencil is capped, there is a small indication of the color present in the core of the pencil. In my opinion, I feel that some artists may struggle visually to recognise and identify the color. On the other hand, some artists may think that the discreet nature of the pigment identifier makes the overall aesthetics of the pencil pleasing.
Along one side of the barrel is printed in Silver leaf, “Made In Germany” given the fact Staedtler is indeed a German company. Along from this is the Staedtler logo and the company name “Staedtler” printed. Toward the end of the pencil is printed the word “Tinted” and a paint brush icon depicting the pencil is water soluble.
On the opposite side of the barrel is printed the bar code and other alpha numeric digits, the numbers on the opposite side of the barrel don’t much have anything to do with the artist. There is no pigment name or number printed on the barrel or the packaging and this represents a small issue.
When you perform the swatch, using all 12 colors, unless you keep the pencils, exactly in the order that you created the swatch, you are not going to know which pencil created the color on the swatch. To keep the pencils in the order that you created the swatch is ridiculous, as most artists will place the pencils in a pencil case or other form of storage.
So for the purpose of the art I created, I needed to redo the swatch, only this time I had to wrap a piece of masking tape around the pencil barrel, place a number on the swatch created and the same number on the pencil that created the particular color. I know it sounds confusing, but I have displayed this action on my YouTube Review of the Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils.
So in my opinion, when you purchase a set of pencils, you should not really need to do this extra work, no matter how small the job is. I feel that the word “Tinted” printed on every barrel as I showcased above, is unnecessary, it doesn’t really serve a purpose. So I feel that in place of the word Tinted, Staedtler could have printed the pigment number.
I mentioned in the YouTube video review that the packaging on my set is cardboard and that I was unaware of any tin sets, however, since making the video I have been able to clarify that Tins are available if this is a packaging method you would prefer.
Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils Performance
As with so many of the reviews I perform, I always try to test the products on different watercolor papers, I completed the swatch, as this is always the first thing I do so as to help me see what artwork I can perform with the colors on hand. The swatch I created with the Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils was done on Strathmore 400 Series Watercolor Paper.
As you can see from the swatches I have provided, when the pencils are applied in their dry form, they produce very subtle colors, but still colors that can provide beautiful work. Nevertheless, once the colors are activated with water, that is when the real magic happens and magic it is.
The vibrancy of the colors once activated are simply amazing, given the pricing of the Staedtler Tinted Watercolors, I have to admit, I really wasn’t expecting the strength of color to be so rich. Essentially, what the Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils are is tinted graphite, very similar to the Derwent Graphitint, this is clear to see when the Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencil is applied in its dry form.
It took me a while to create artwork in conjunction with the reviews, I lacked the confidence to do it, but I read many comments from people suggesting that this would be beneficial and once I understood this, I started adding artwork to every review. I think this was one of the best moves I have made with The Art Gear Guide in relation to pleasing viewers and I think this review will help illustrate the importance of such a move.
Looking at the swatch, you get a perspective of the palette you have to work with, however, it isn’t until you actually start using the product to create art that you are able to see the colors that may be amiss or that may be beneficial to the genre of art you prefer. On seeing the swatch I felt the colors leant themselves best to landscape, Wild Life or botanical work, hence the reason I chose to paint this botanical piece depicting fungi.
A huge help to me during this process and any process for that matter that I take part in using water soluble pencils or crayons was using the Caran d’Ache Palette. this is a plastic palette that allows you to easily mix water soluble pencils and create as many different colors, tones or values that your watercolor pencils palette will allow. I have spoke about this palette on many reviews and think it is invaluable to any artist using watercolor pencils or crayons.
It was during this piece that I realised the 12 colors provided in the Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils set was lacking one or two colors, at least in my opinion and based on the genre of art that I would use the pencils for. those colors are a Golden Yellow, a warm yellow, something like a Yellow Ochre and perhaps a black. I feel that black is not as essential, but I definitely felt a warm golden yellow would enhance the palette overall.
When testing any water soluble pencil, a good way to gauge the quality of the pencil is to apply a reasonably heavy application of the pencil dry on watercolor paper, once you have completed this, activate the application with water.
Once the layers have dissolved into paint, if the quality of the pencil is good, you should not be able to see any pencil strokes under the layer of now paint. If there is pencil strokes under the now wet layer of paint, it simply alludes to the fact that there is more binding agent in the pencil than pigment. It is a little bit more details than that, but generally this is what is causing the pencil strokes to remain below the paint.
As you can see from the images provided, the Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils are of an excellently high quality. After applying a medium to heavy application, once I activated the layers, there is simply no pencil makes remaining, everything turns to gorgeous color.
Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils Pricing and Set Sizes
Despite how gorgeous the Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils are, there are only 12 in the range, after using them I really would love to see this particular range of pencil expand to at least a 24 set. I think a 24 set of the Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils would unlock many more alternatives for artists being able to use them, plus I enjoyed using them so much I am always greedy when it comes to nice art supplies and always want more.
UK Pricing
to purchase the 12 set of Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils, here in the UK the set would cost you approximately £6.57.
US Pricing
For artists in the US, if you wanted to purchase this 12 set of Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils it would cost approximately $22.99
EU Pricing
For artist in Europe, should you fancy trying this gorgeous set of Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils, they would cost you approximately €8.97
Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils Lightfast Information
Unfortunately there is nothing I could find regarding lightfast information for the Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils, this would suggest that if there has been any lightfast testing at all done, it will have been completed in-house. Should a company go to the vast lengths required to have their product tested under the ASTM or Blue Wool lightfast scales, you can bet that they would have such information on the packaging of the product.
Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils Conclusion
I am sure you can tell from the review that I really liked the Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils, there are one or two small things that I would like to see done a little bit differently, such as. I think a pigment name or number should absolutely be printed on the pencil barrel or packaging, I also feel that the pigment identifier on the pencil should be a little bit more prominent, I only noticed that the end caps of the barrels had different colors on them when photographing the box, not all artists are going to do that and so could be very easily missed.
With regards to my palette grumble, at the end of the day that was only personal preference, every artist is going to have a completely different take on the palette and what they can do with colors provided. As always I have completed a YouTube review of the Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils which you can see the pencil being activated in real time as well as other bits of information. I have also completed a speed painting of the art work so that you can watch the process come to life a little faster than real time and finally I have added a page here on The Art Gear Guide with still images of the artwork taken at various stages of completion. I find this allows the view to click on the image, enlarge it and inspect the work in your own time, the speed painting YouTube serves its own purpose, but being able to inspect the work in your own time is preferable to a lot of people, which is why I have always provided 4 different elements of a product review.
