The Art Gear Guide is your one stop shop for the most recent, up to date, honest reviews on all your favourite art supply products.
All by Harry
There are many colored pencils artists out there who collect colored pencils sets, the more obscure the better, given the privileged position I am in reviewing art supplies, I would actually say I am one such artist. Sets such as the Tom Bow Irojiten, the Marco Tribute Colored Pencils or the Phoneixcolor Colored Pencils; would be an example of the type of colored pencil sets artists love to collect.
I love trying to put together these comparison articles and videos, I find it therapeutic trying to analyse each product and then compare against the other products. For this analytical comparison, we are looking at the Caran d’Ache Pablo Colored Pencils, Faber Castell Polychromos Colored Pencils and the Holbein Colored Pencils.
In this review we will be looking at another product from the Staedtler Design Journey range, on this occasion we will be testing, demonstrating and reviewing the Staedtler Super Soft Coloured Pencils. To date, on The Art Gear Guide YouTube channel and website, we have tested and demonstrated a few products from the Design Journey range already,
Due to the incredibly high quality of the ingredient s used in the A Gallo watercolors, the highest lightfast ratings are attributed to them. A Gallo use the Blue Wool lightfast scale, which means the colors are graded 1 to 8. For those of you new to art and in particular lightfast scales, 7 & 8 equal the highest lightfast rating meaning the colors will last 100 plus years
In this review, we are going to be looking at the Arrtx Watercolor Pencils and unfortunately, this may be the first Arrtx product that I have one or two minor discrepancies about. In this review we will delve into said discrepancies and not forgetting that you will find additional review information in the YouTube review to accompany this post,
I am absolutely thrilled to bring this review to you guys, today we are going to be taking an in-depth look at Earthberry Pastels, but as I alluded to in the social media post I submitted a week or so back, we will also be taking a look at the company’s refreshing ethical stance into pastel making.
I have wanted to create this test, slash, review of colourless blender pencils for quite some time now and I am so happy I have finally got round to it. If you have been a subscriber of The Art Gear Guide for a while now, I am sure you will have heard me say on my colored pencil reviews, that I prefer to use a colourless blender over OMS (Odourless Mineral Spirits).
In this review we take a look at the Staedtler Watercolour Crayons, this particular product is part of Staedtler’s Design Journey Range, of which I have already reviewed some products with more to follow. So far I have reviewed their 72 set of colored pencils and their absolutely gorgeous Staedtler Tinted Graphite Water Soluble Pencils.
In this review we take a look at something really special, it is not every day that a new innovation presents itself, in what is otherwise a familiar medium and in this case it is the brand new OLO markers. This review will be one you really want to read and watch the video review of as there is a lot of information and fantastic demonstrations, displaying the full potential of the OLO Markers.
I am often asked, what are the art supplies that I use for myself, I of course always using different art supplies for the purpose of a review and the same is true for art pieces I create, however, over the years I have grown to absolutely love a selection of art supplies, which I turn to every time I want to create art just for myself.
In this review we take a look at the Kalour Professional Colored Pencils 72 Set with Colourless Blender and Burnisher pencils. I am not sure how new this particular set is, but for me personally, I have only noticed the set very recently, hence purchasing it for review. However, another reason I really wanted to test and review the set, was the claims made on the advertising and packaging regarding the products professional and expert levels, including supposed lightfast ratings on a very budget friendly set of colored pencils.
As with all Faber Castell upper echelon products, this Faber Castell 26 Pitt Graphite set comes in the iconic racing car green tin, emblazoned in gold print with the company name “Faber Castell” and depicting artwork completed with the items included in the set.
I really enjoy doing these top 5 lists, it gives me the opportunity to look through all my notes and previous reviews, which inevitably reminds me of pencils I reviewed and forgot about over time. Over the years I have reviewed a lot of art supplies and unfortunately, once I complete a review, I am always looking to move onto the next one.
In the very short time Castle Arts have been in existence, they have made remarkable strides in providing an extensive range of excellent quality art supplies for artists on a budget. I for one think their trajectory has been amazing and I have yet to hear any horror stories about their customer service encounters. So thank you Castle Arts for not only providing an excellent range of high quality products for those of us on a budget, but also for listening to your customers,
The first positive thing for me with this particular set of coloured pencils from Staedtler is the size, I’ve always thought a 72 set of coloured pencils is a good size, not overwhelming the artist with too many colours and not a small set creating blending difficulties. Up until very recently, Staedtler’s coloured pencil sets sizes have never really exceeded 36 or 48 and I understand why, but also when you find a good quality pencil, the greedy artist in me wants all the colours.
With the introduction of the new Derwent 150 set of Chromaflow, there has been a lot of talk about the Chromaflow and comparing them to other popular pencils. Only a few days ago I created a post comparing the Derwent Chromaflow with the Derwent ColourSoft, which was a popular comparison, however; I think it is safe to assume that the most sought after comparison is that of the Prismacolor.
I have of course reviewed both the Derwent Chromaflow and Derwent ColourSoft separately; if you would like to check out the separate reviews simply click on the appropriate links. I would just like to warn you that the Derwent ColourSoft review was completed right at the beginning of my YouTube journey, reviewing art supplies, that is to say the review may not be as detailed as more recent reviews and if you watch my YouTube review of the ColourSoft, audio and visuals will most certainly lack quality.
This review is definitely aimed for all the marker artists out there, I know myself how difficult it has been to find a decent quality marker pad over the years. A marker pad that will not bleed when a few layers of marker ink is applied and also paper that will prevent the markers from feathering. If you are new to marker art and not aware of the terms bleeding and feathering, my YouTube review is the best place to see this explained.
Another Top 5 selection for you guys, but I have to remind you, this is only my Top 5 Graphite Pencils, I am not suggesting that these are the best graphite pencils in the world, simply that of all the graphite pencils I have tested, demonstrated and reviewed, these are my top 5 graphite pencil.
I have reviewed a few Cretacolor products over the years and Cretacolor is another one of those companies with a very prestigious name and history, yet with perhaps the exception of their wonderful Cretacolor Pastel Pencil range. Nevertheless, Cretacolor products are unfortunately not popular among artist content creators and for the life of me I am unsure as to why this appears to be the case.
