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.
In this review we take a look at the Giotto Stilnovo Colored Pencils, now it is important to understand that the Giotto Stilnovo are marketed towards the younger artists among us, the fledgling artists of the future; however don’t let that put you off from these pencils.
In this post we take a look at the 70 Piece Kalour sketching and drawing set. There are a lot of different sketching sets on the market that comprise of graphite, charcoal and a multitude of other art accessories, with each set delivering various degrees of performance.
Often, artists in various parts of the world, are unable to get hold of a product they have once used or watched their favourite artist used and so I will be asked if I know of a good alternative. One such art supply I have been asked a lot about is the Prismacolor Verithin, this is a colored pencil, many colored pencil artists love to use for its precision
As soon as I started the testing process of the Faber Castell Black Edition, I thought that a comparison video against the Faber Castell Classic Red set would be beneficial as both sets are aimed at similar artist groups. I wanted to test both pencils and see how they compare against each other and hopefully this will be an interesting and helpful video for those looking to purchase either of the sets.
The Arrtx Sketching Pencils come in what I think is the perfect graphite grade scale and that is 4H to 8B. I will get into each grade in more detail soon, but I have reviewed graphite sets where the scale goes as high as 9H and I personally think when you get to that grade, all you are doing is drawing with clay and scratching the heck out of your expensive paper.
I hope this review does not appear to mundane to some of you, or you are of the opinion, as I was before long, that a water brush is a water brush and there is not much difference to them. As I say, I was once of the same opinion, however this set of push button water brushes from Derwent really changed my outlook.
I can totally understand why these two brands of colored pencils have been requested so much. Let’s get the very obvious similarities out of the way from the beginning. Both the Phoenixcolor and Marco Tribute Master Collection are incredibly eloquently packaged, both of the sets I have on review are packaged in a similar style to that of the Tom Bow Irojiten, another lavishly packaged pencil.
In this review we take a look at a brand new product from Arrtx, it is the Arrtx 48 set of Soft Pastels. Arrtx are the company behind some excellent art supplies being sold at affordable prices with excellent quality items. In this review we take a look at the pastel quality, layering and blending, I also supply a botanical art piece on Clairefontaine Pastelmat
In the seven years that I have been reviewing colored pencils and other art supplies, I have come to the conclusion that there is a difference between, Artist Grade and Artist Quality colored pencils. Let me explain. In my opinion, a colored pencil that is Artist Grade has been lightfast tested only under the Blue Wool or ASTM system, and you will be surprised at how few there are in this group.
The Faber Castell E-Motion Stained Pear Wood Fountain Pen, as with so many Faber Castell products, is delivered in a classically simplistic, yet delectably eloquent packaging. The materials are made from a smooth yet rugged cardboard, ensuring complete safe passage of product, from vendor to writer or artist.
As this review is in collaboration with Cult Pens, I am ecstatic to tell you that this set, at the time of writing this review, is a crazy price. I don’t normally comment on prices, I just add them and let you decide if the set is value or not, and I would like to re-emphasize that I receive nothing at all from Cult Pens for doing these reviews,
The Techniques section for me is really where Cynthia Knox shines above the rest and her method of explanation is just superb. In this section Cynthia explains the various pressures to use while using colored pencils and has the various pressures broke into sections. When following a project, for a feather, you will actually be told the type of pressure to use and what effect this pressure will provide you.
If you would like to know all the technical details about the Arrtx colored pencils, the core size, if the core is hard or soft, pigment names etc, you can follow the link to my original review. This post however is more about showing you exactly how many new colors Arrtx have added, the type of colors and if any of the colors will have value to your artwork.
I then started to play about with the paints bit trying to learn how they move and react to wet on wet, so I decided to use a new Ron Ronson Hake brush I recently purchased and created a very simple blue gradient wash using wet on wet technique and lifted out some clouds using a clean damp brush. As you can see from the image the effect worked well.
Although I have the full set of 358 colors, approximately 30 of them are still Ciao and when they run out I will of course replace them with Sketch markers, or at least that was the plan. Over the last year or so, I have discovered COPIC Sketch brush and chisel nibs drying up and developing a mould on the nibs.
After I completed the swatch, I wanted to see how the Derwent Tinted Charcoal reacted to water and Odourless Mineral Spirits. I know that Derwent don’t sell the Tinted Charcoal Pencils as water soluble, but lots of charcoal artist apply water to the medium and can create some stunningly beautiful effects.
I really tried to get the best from the Art Track Colored Pencils, I tested them on various papers, various surface textures as well as using Odourless Mineral Spirits, something I never use in my artwork. I think I have said all that needs to be said about the Art Track Colored Pencils, if you would like to watch my YouTube review where there is a small clip of the artwork coming to life, all you have to do is follow the link.
For me personally, after using the Paul Rubens Artist Soft Pastels, I likened them to the Unison Pastels, perhaps not quite a soft, but if you watch my YouTube video review, you will see both pastels side by side and there is very little difference. Like I said, I would say that the Paul Rubens Pastel are a bit harder than the Unison but this is to be expected given the huge price difference.
The Fine Nib or Bullet Nib, whichever you prefer of the Prismacolor Premier Marker is much finer and detailed than most bullet nibs in other markers. A lot of other markers that provide bullet nibs or Fine Nib markers provide much more rounded nibs, the Prismacolor Fine Nib is pointed, almost chamfered at the end allowing the artist to use the nib for the most intricate detail or place the nib on a 15 degree angle and produce a slightly thicker mark.
The Cretacolor AquaGraph barrel is round sporting a gunmetal grey appearance with a metallic silver print. The core of the AquaGraph is a generous 3.8mm, encased within a well balanced and weighted 7.3mm barrel. The core of the Cretacolor AquaGraph pencils sharpener incredibly well and considering a water soluble core, holds its point quite well.
