Faber-Castell Polychromos Artists Color Pencils - Tin of 120 Colors - Premium Quality Artist Pencils

These were a gift to my daughter and she said they are her favorite. I used some as well and they are smooth and have every color under the sun. Better than Prismacolor. Id buy myself a if the price would lower to what I paid for them in March 2019, which was $151. Otherwise, Ill get them at Jerrys Artarama or Dick Blick for $179.99. Love Amazons free ship but $205 currently is too much for me.

I’m on a retired fixed budget, so I saved up for theses colored pencils..only to be disappointed.....I posted one of my art pieces drawn on dura-lar using Polychromos..I used a whole roll of duralar trying different brands of colored pencils, and I least liked Polychromos on duralar....maybe its the duralar that is not a good match for these pencils, I don’t know, but the duralar is like a magical material for other brands of colored pencil....many of these pencils would just not lay down color onto the duralar without added pressure, and when using duralar, pressure can quickly damage the minimal tooth. The pencil was not soft & creamy like other brands. Ive only used polychromos on duralar, so my review is coming from limited polymchromos experience. But, my first time out the gate with these pencils, was not impressive nor productive. I put these pencils away in their box, and in my cupboard. I might find another use for them later on???.

Nothing to dislike

This set is the best colored pencils ever produced. Let me explain the big reasons why, from where Im coming from. I have been a hardcore Prismacolor fan from 2001 onward, and their quality has gone extremely downhill. Originally Prismas were made by Sanford which then became bought out by Rubbermaid-Newell. Their products are now consistently off-center (making sharpening hell- you repetitively lose segments of leads which can then only be used by fingertip and friction action), the leads are brittle, they only take 4-6 layers with extreme pressure which makes their colors harder if not nigh-impossible to blend smoothly (and the colorless blender is a joke- picks up colors, etc), and the wax bloom is *ridiculous*, which- if youre sharing your work online- makes decent scanning somewhat troublesome despite excellent DPI. (Thats a whole other side topic.) I just got this set of Polychromos for Christmas as a gift, and Im not looking back at Prisma. Polychromos (Lets call em FC for short after the company name) are awesome. Theres a really insignificant amount of bloom, but its an oil base so this really isnt an issue. The laydown is even more buttery than Prisma. They are softer due to the oil-base, and the colors are very rich. Quirks I discovered were the names. Im coming from a Prisma background so to me, Pompeian Red is Salmon, and Mauve is actually their very rich purple hue- which to my former mindset is usually that pale pink/lavender mixup color. So the names will take some getting used to since theyre more in line with painterly names such as Pthalo Blue, Hookers Green, etc. So that at least will benefit you if you come from a painting experience. (I do also so its at least semifamiliar, but still something to get used to). It says something when I have six of the same colored pencil by Prisma and theyre all in various states of use/disrepair/broken- and the money behind that does add up. Its frustrating to say the very least, and although that company accommodated my needs by fixing the issue every time (which was often!!) I had flawed items that were interfering with my professional work, honestly just go for the FCs- theyre a lot higher quality, plus the leads are bonded and securely centered as well as 3.8mm thick- thicker than say, Crayola (*gag*) colored pencil, so youre getting more product for the money and less wood (which, lets face it: is just a disposable casing). Same amount as per Prismas, but with much less breakage/sharpening issues. To clarify: Someone called Geri B. in the Q&A says that FC dont glue their polychromos pencils. From their own website: SV Bonding is a process of gluing the full length of the lead to the wood casing of the pencil. This strengthens the lead and prevents breakage which allows for better sharpening, and produces a fine point. SV Bonding is a Faber-Castell trademark. Theyre 45c more expensive per pencil than Prismacolors (1.74 vs 1.29 as of this writing) on dickblick.com for replenishment. But considering on average Ive lost at least 5 5mm-long leads per pencil (yep: terrible!), that translates to something like a half inch or more lost. One pencil is 7 inches brand new and sharpened, ie almost 178mm. After breakage, youre paying $1.29 for 153 mm (or less than 158 depending on number of breaks), and youre losing 18c per pencil. Some are outright unusable and splinter. Polychromos are the same length. .009c vs .003c; less than a penny either way, but those pennies do definitely add up- and the bottom line even after doing the numbers for the heck of it is- that youre losing product and money every time a Prismacolor pencil busts or fails to perform. Im totally not a penny pincher. Im providing this as a breakdown moneywise for the innately curious. And people should NOT have to pay for items to break repeatedly. Prisma tried to address this issue by making pastel-like colored pencil sticks with no lead, as long rectangles- this didnt fix the issue as theyre too unwieldy for detailed use; thats a side rant. PROS: -FC are not too much more expensive per pencil than Prismas (buy 10 of each; spend only $4.50 more for world-class quality) -Outstanding laydown -Oil vs wax-based: better blending -VIVID colors, yet not overwhelmingly bad -Traditional style naming conventions as a throwback to the formal pigmentation for artistic references -More realistic results (google up some of the prisma vs polychromos showdowns on Youtube- the video with the grapes painting is what Im referencing here in particular) CONS: -Havent seen any yet, will update this review if I do

Lovely oil based pencils work well on paper or fabric. No wax bloom, which is really nice, but I wish I had sprung for the larger set. Id like more values of pink and green. I do think its worth getting these higher quality pencils. Ive always used prism colors, but the wax bloom after a night always lightens the colors more than I like. Im a bold and bright kind of person! Faber-Castell Polycolors satisfy my need for true color that stays the color lay in.

Great purchase!

I am in love with these pencils. they are the best pencils that I have used ever. They are more than worth the price. I prefer these pencils as they dont wear down quickly and the fact that you dont need to sharpen them too much, they hold their points longer. I had bought the Prisma colour verithins just to try those out, and I was disappointed as they break very easily even though those are to be of a harder lead, but these Faber castells are awesome. I had tried them out singularly, and then decided to buy the 120 set as I wanted to get all the colours. I do not regret my purchase. The colors are varied and very saturated. You dont need a lot to get full coverage, especially in colouring books, which is my main use for them. The leads are thick and are very easy to sharpen to a nice sharp point. They are creamy and smooth and so easy to blend with other colours. I had no problem blending the colours together to get a nice mix down. You get three trays of colours in the tin. All in all my best purchase ever.

I had been using LYRA Rembrandt pencils previously. The 600 series of those pencils are extraordinary and are a wonderful product. However, recently they have discontinued this line and thus I was forced to find a replacement product. After an exhaustive search, I decided to try the Faber-Castell POLYCHROMOS pencils. These are also oil based colored pencils and are absolutely as excellent as the former LYRA Rembrandt 600 series product. They draw smoothly and give a truly fabulous rendering with a perfect sheen as would be expected from an oil based pencil product. They are easy to sharpen, hold a sharp edge and truly give everything an artist or draftsman would be looking for in a fine artist grade colored pencil set. The color assortment in this 36 color set is a wonderful selection of the entire line and should be sufficient for everything except the most demanding color usage. In addition, the pencils allow the artist to blend 2 or more colors to get a different color which allows the artist to get precisely the color they need, even if it is not one of those in the set. I highly recommend this set and would put them up against any other oil based Artist Color Pencil set on the market anywhere. I cannot imagine anyone being disappointed in the quality of the renderings that are possible with these pencils. Any artist I believe will be more than satisfied with the results they get from this line of oil based colored pencils. Do not be hesitant to give them a try.

As expected from the brand, these are great pencils. Im enjoying them quite a bit as an addition to my watercolor paintings. The color selection is decent, and although Id love it if some of the reds and pinks had better lightfast ratings, thats about what Ive come to expect with that color range in nearly every medium. Bear in mind, these are translucent, meaning they wont cover dark areas very well compared to some other brands. The white pencil is basically useless. If you want a white pencil that covers well, I suggest picking up a Luminence pencil open stock.

My daughter is in advanced art and the teacher recommended prismacolor art pencils. The color selection is great but the leads are not bonded to the wood casing causing them to break and fall out. Also they tend to have a lot of wax blooming when trying to blend colors as well as some fading with time. We ended up buying some Faber-Castell Polychromos after trying prismacolor and my daughter loves the way they blend and their quality is outstanding as well as being colorfast so little to no fading after years of exposure. You can find art pencils in a lower price range but I feel it is worth paying a little extra for a better quality product. Even the art teacher has commented on how vivid the colors are and how much nicer my daughters drawings have gotten compared to her previous works. My daughter hasnt told her that she is using the Faber-Castell Polychromos now instead of what was recommended. Proof that the quality of the Faber-Castell Polychromos are better.