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

Near-Prismacolor quality in my opinion, though this set lacks some of the lighter tones needed for fair skin complexions (I've been using a combination of alcohol inks for skin base tones and these pencils for subsurface scattering). These pencils, despite being soft, do hold up fairly well to burnishing, so you can get some pretty very deep and saturated coloration with some work.Doing a light color fill in an area, layering on any other tones you want, and then doing multiple passes between the two with increasingly more pressure up to the final burnishing works quite well to blend them, similar to Prismacolor pencils.Suggestions for owners:-Highly recommend the usual approach of wearing an artist's glove and/or resting your drawing hand on another sheet of paper as you render to prevent from smearing pigment around. These won't smudge like charcoal or graphite, but they will lift and smear on prolonged hand contact.-Some other reviewers have mentioned that the pencil tips break easily - I wouldn't say "easily", but these are soft core after all and will crumble a bit if you put much force on them. If you live in a warmer climate and lack air conditioning, you seriously may want to store them in the refrigerator before use - the wax medium will soften when it gets hot and that can lead to crumbling. That is true for all soft-core pencils, though, not just from this brand.-Try to avoid using automatic pencil sharpeners that don't have depth stops. Automatic pencil sharpeners are a great way to obliterate a large section of the pencil just because you need a sharp point for a small section. A hobby knife and some 300gt sandpaper also help form the tip how you need without a ton of waste.-I did end up purchasing additional singles at a local hobby store to make up gaps in the included color selection; it's a lot of pencils, but most of that arrangement is in the RGB space and not so much the lighter pigments.Overall - very happy with these, and for the few colors you may be missing, you can buy singles at most hobby stores for a few dollars. Seems really nice as a set to get your artist-grade pencil collection started.

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 typically use color pencils for my adult coloring books, and I've used Crayola ones for years. After one too many times of having pencils break every 5 seconds, I decided to invest in this set. These pencils are FANTASTIC! The colors are vibrant and blend very well. I love the travel case too. It makes for much easier storage and the pencils are well protected.

The media could not be loaded. These r amazing soft came in broken sharp easy blend well and the colors r brilliant! I love the case easy to store the pencils n slide in and out!! No smudging no breaking and not a lot sharpening needed as they don't brreak!

These are good quality pencils. I think I received a returned set because pencils were in a complete disarray and the case was all smudged with them but the quality is good, colors are vibrant and they work great as a starting set.

I’m really surprised by the quality of these pencils. I was hesitant at the price but they have definitely put themselves up there on the level of Prisma color pencils smoothness and blendability without the expense. Plenty of colors to chose from and even a handy little color theory book. Case is nice, and neatly holds all the pencils and keeps my toddler out of it. Would recommend for both quality and value.