Castle Art Supplies120 Colored Pencils with Zipper | Quality Soft Coloured Leads for Adult Artists, Professionals and Colorists | In Zipper Pouch

UPDATE 17 APRIL 2023...since posting I received communication from Carlos at Castle Art Supplies! Even though Castle Art Supplies is not responsible for the packaging used at the Amazon warehouse or how the carriers handled the shipment, they have offered me a set of 120 pencils in the tin box! What FANTASTIC customer service! I would like to thank Castle Art Supplies, Carlos especially, for taking my disappointment in shipping breakage as their opportunity to make me happy. I truly enjoy the results of my coloring pages using the Castle Art Supplies Soft Touch colored pencils. They have dedicated customer for sure!I received my order last November and saved them for myself for Christmas, which is why my review comes later than normal for me.When I received my Castle Art Soft Touch wax pencils, I was a bit concerned about the packaging. The case holding the pencils was inside an unprotected, thin sheath of plastic. I know how things are tossed around during shipping, having witnessed it first hand on many occasions. My concern has been proven correct. Without proper packaging, I have had many difficulties with the leads being broken. For me, it is extremely frustrating to have to repeatedly sharpen new pencils because the cores are in pieces. Greens are the worst offenders, at times being more crumbs than core! It's not the way I sharpen my pencils as I have been coloring for years and know how to sharpen pencils correctly. This is a problem that I am sure others will have experienced.Now for the wonderful things! Absolutely beautiful layering of pigment, blends nicely. Fantastic for the smoother and slightly glossed paper of high end books such as Klara Markova and Hannah Karlzon. I am able to put a dozen or more layers of my combos on the paper to create pages I am very happy to share with friends and family. The Castle Art pencils also work pretty well with cheaper papers, as long as light layers are used! Press too firmly and the tooth of the paper gives out too soon.My suggestion...request protective packing before ordering. I would have been giving more stars, had the cores not been damaged. For a budget priced pencil, a good depth of color can be achieved.

I have quite a few large sets of various brands of colored pencils. I think that overall, this is actually my favorite set! Yes, there are obviously better brands, and these pencils are not in their league, neither for performance nor price!! All things considered, especially the price, that's what makes these my favorite standard colored pencil!! No, these aren't a budget set, and you might even find some pencils that perform more to your liking at a much lower price, it's all just a personal preference, after all.This was the first set of Castle Arts pencils that I bought, over a year ago, and have since purchased the Gold set, the metallic, the pastel "macaron" and the water color sets, always the largest quantity available in the zipper pouches. I try not to spend too much on art supplies, but all those other purchases were me chasing the quality of this set. This particular set is hands down superior to any of the others offered by this brand, but that's just my opinion. I would definitely purchase this again, not totally certain if I would invest again in any of their other sets, but possibly would if I use them all up.These pencils perform comparably to the Crayola brand of colored pencils, except these are a little bit smoother and brighter. This set would be a logical next step-up from Crayolas if you've started there, like their performance, but are looking for something a little bit fancier. To be fair, a lot of people want to complain about Crayola, which I think is just based on their availability at every discount and mass retailer. I actually use them at times, even with owning tons of other, more desirable sets. If it's just a coloring book, why burn through professional grade pencils?? These Castle Arts are a great option for coloring books, especially if you opt for them in the zipper case. Very convenient presentation with a sheet to swatch the colors. My love for this set is honestly based a lot from their presentation and the convenience of the color guide.The pencils come with some instructional info, also. I love how well these layer and blend. Yes, there's some wax bloom, but you'll get that with any kind of pencil. To compare this set vs. their Gold set, these layer and blend way way better, but the Gold set has more vibrant colors, and sets down more color with less pressure or more color in a single pass. I would recommend these over the Gold set if you're more of a traditionalist with colored pencils and take your time building layers and ranges of tone. These are the best pencils I have found for layering short of some of the higher priced Derwents. To clarify, yes I compared these to Crayola in some aspects, but these layer better than Crayola. The Gold pencils don't let you build the range of subtle layers and effects like these pencils. The Gold pencils are "oil" pencils. All colored pencils have wax binders, but some pencils have added oils, or a somewhat different blend, all subjective, and all depending on the particular brands formulation. I have several different sets of pencils that are labeled as oil pencils, they lay down a lot more color, but they just don't layer and blend quite as well. Personally, I know of a lot of people who claim they "hate" colored pencils, that they just want to color with markers or gel pens because pencils are too soft and light colored. Of course a lot of coloring books are designed with images on both sides of thin paper, so in that case you're limited to pencils, and if you think you hate pencils, you might want to try oil pencils, like the Gold set.Bottom line, for me this set has been almost the perfect set of pencils. There's a good range and balance of colors in this set, too. They sharpen well. I've not had too many issues with poorly blended spotchy nor "scratchy" areas like you always get with cheaper pencils. I have had these for over a year, no problems. The case is durable, and also the pencils seem to be a good hardness. They hold a point well. They're a consistently good product that allows the versatility to use in coloring books, or stand alone art!