I think it's great that more companies are coming out with pastel ranges. They are so fun to use on toned paper and are wonderful for blending out vivid colors. Wonderful review, keep up the good work!
Great review as usual. I would love to see a comparison of these to the Brutfuner Macaron. I have those and struggle to see the difference between them and the pastel Holbeins I have. I only have 12 Holbein so maybe it’s in the other colours. I love the Macarons.
Thank you for this review Harry, although I'd already bought them, I loved the colours. I didn't realise that pastel pencils are not made to be used on their own but to compliment others, so that was good to know, 👍👍
hi there thanks so much for this review, ive just bought myself the 48 tin and they look wonderful especially on black paper or maybe dark grey toned, i have claire fontaine pad and its darker than my strathmore grey tone. i love the booklets that are in the gold fabulous their gold range they glide they are beautiful. also each tin comes with a tutorial which is good for me as im new to coloured pencil and im doing a course on them, ive only used graphite so far but i want to venture into colour then watercolor after that as part of my artistic journey. these reviews really help so thanks again for a great review 😁 x
Thank you for your detailed analysis of the different papers , with the pastels. You making it so difficult for me to decide. They are lovely, & I sorely need pastels in my collection.
Thanks…this is great and I think I may get this set…if not right away, then it’ll be on my wish list. With some skill (created by practice, practice, practice,) almost anyone, even with “cheap” color pencils and other inexpensive markers, can create some really nice work. I’ve done it before just to test things out. But I can see that these are definitely NOT CHEAP, but just reasonably priced and will allow you to produce some beautiful work without having to work so hard and then the quality will make them a lasting supply that may become your go-to pastel colored pencil set when you need them. And then all the extras Castle is giving their customers to encourage and guide is phenomenal!
Awesome review again Harry, thank you so much, not sure how I missed this one earlier, but glad I got it as even Canadian sites are getting into the American black Friday sales so just ordered them on sale!!
Thank you so much for your in-depth reviews! I am super interested in seeing more direct comparisons. I really loved the comparison video you did between the Arteza and the Castle Arts pencils.
Hullo Harry! You have created a wonderful review of this pencil set! I remember when I saw the Holbein brand introduced their 50 pastel pencil set! Now it seems like just about everyone has a “Macaron” or pastel set to increase their lines of pencils. I am curious about longevity of the art created with these colors? Even the very expensive Holbein pencils have only good ratings I don’t remember seeing an excellent pencil in the group! I am guessing this is because of the lighter colors and tinted pigments. Thank you again for sharing your amazing review and opinions on these pencils! Please take care, be safe and enjoy the rest of your day!
great review! can you tell me the difference between the ones in the etui, and the ones in the tin? is there a quality difference? also the regular colored pencil differences. thx!
Thanks so much for this detailed review! I bought them when they just came out to use them with my Ohuhu pastel alcohol markers. So far I only used them on their own in a colouring book which has very smooth paper. I wasn’t impressed so almost gave them away - I will definitely try them again on a toothier paper, as I do love the colours! And as you said, the presentation in the box is beautiful.
These look really nice. Of all these pastel pencil sets out I would really like to find some that coordinate well with my Derwent sets or my polychromos. Lol
Hi Unfortunately as is the case with so many art products they go through periods of being out of stock, since the Pandemic, so many companies have fallen behind in terms of deliveries etc and it is taking a while to replenish for some of them, especially companies like Castle and Arteza who source their products from third party companies abroad. For companies like Faber Castel, Derwent, Caran D'ache etc, they have their own factories and so have a little bit more control over deliveries etc and stock. With regards to the tutorial, I am not sure what you are referring to, I uploaded a speed drawing of the artwork but its not really a tutorial, ua-cam.com/video/p4WHD99nLJA/v-deo.html this is a link to the speed drawing.
Hi Nancy you didn’t miss it at all, I personally don’t comment of whether or not a pencil is oil or wax based, instead I talk about how hard or soft the core is and what it layers and blends like. When I first started out with Colored pencil reviewing, I would contact the companies and ask them if their pencils were wax or oil. Back then I would only get through to sales reps or customer care, it was before companies started to assign a personal agent to me, and so I could call the company on a Monday and be told the pencil was wax and on the Tuesday be told it was oil based. I would then write or mention what I was told and in the comment section it would be filled with half of the people screaming at me cause they thought the pencil was oil and the other half backing me up cause they thought it was wax. It actually drove me nuts because I wanted to deliver accurate reviews and it felt like I was just guessing, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. After about a year of begging, I eventually was able to talk with two Chemists from two of the biggest pencil companies on the planet, these are the people who decide how much binder, pigment etc should go into a pencil core. I asked them about Wax and Oil based pencils to which both of them said it was a myth. Mind you I say I spoke to both Chemists, this was not together there was about 6 months difference and neither knew I was talking to the other, I just wanted to get the best info I could. Anyway, they both told me that all pencils will have oil and wax combined in them, some pencils will have more oil than wax and others will be more wax than oil. They also explained to me that there are different waxes used like synthetic wax, bees wax and they mentioned some other kind but I’d have to look at my notes as it escapes me now. I decided after talking to these Chemists that I would make a video explaining, but I just haven’t got round to doing this as the notes I took are incredibly complicated and I need to organise them properly. However I decided from that point on that I would no longer categorise pencils in this way but instead explain how the core feels and behaves. Most people think that if a pencil is wax based the core is soft and if it is oil based the core is hard. But if you have ever used the Derwent Artist pencils, they are sold by Derwent as wax and yet, they hold the hardest core of any pencil I have every reviewed, but it feels this way because of the type of wax used, the binding agent used and the Artist pencils are not very pigmented either, they lend themselves beautifully to light layers. I will get round to doing a review about wax and oil soon but I am sorry I couldn’t be of any more help on this matter.
@@TheArtGearGuide Oh Thank You for the explanation! Yes that would be a good Video... but I Totally understand how complicated it would be! I really just thought maybe the packaging referenced wax or oil like the Gold 120 set does! But Thank You for your explanation! Your Reviews are ALWAYS Superbly done!😍
Hi 👋 some of those colours look so bright that they look like they could almost pass for a neon. Is that the case? Because I've been looking for a set of neon pencils that don't have that yucky waxy, uneven lay down like the majority of neons do. So yeah, any that could possibly pass for a neon?
Thanks so much for this detailed review! I bought them when they just came out to use them with my Ohuhu pastel alcohol markers. So far I only used them on their own in a colouring book which has very smooth paper. I wasn’t impressed so almost gave them away - I will definitely try them again on a toothier paper, as I do love the colours! And as you said, the presentation in the box is beautiful. Just a technical question: If you upload two videos at the same time (like this review and the artwork) they get bundled in my IPhone app. I can’t see the content of them unless I start the first video, and the second one starts straight after the first one. This doesn’t give me time to like or comment on the first video, unless I start it again (which will show you more views than you actually get, as I just restart to leave my like and comment). Do you (or anyone else) know how to show them as individual videos? I couldn’t find anything in the UA-cam settings - it just started doing this after an update. It happens not only on your channel, but I thought maybe someone on here might know… 😊
Hi Bridget I have no idea at all why the videos are doing that because they are uploaded to UA-cam as completely separate videos, I just put them out at roughly the same time, I’ll upload the speed drawing video and then go back into UA-cam Studio and upload the review. What phone are you using and have you downloaded the UA-cam app for your phone. Mind you, no matter what phone you have or if you have the UA-cam app or just use a browser, I still can’t think why it would be forcing you to watch the videos in this sequence. You should be able to watch one of the videos and completely pass on the other one and you should be able to write a comment while you are actually watching the video, you shouldn’t have to wait until the end of the video or replay it. I’ll have a look about Google and see if anyone else has encountered the same issue and get back to you if I can get an answer. Thank you so much for your lovely comment and support and definitely try them on a slightly toothier paper, you will get so much more from them. Doesn’t have to be Cold Pressed Watercolor paper, something like a Velum or mixed media would be excellent
@@TheArtGearGuide Thanks so much for your reply! I’m able to leave a comment while watching but often I like to finish the video first before writing, and then it jumps right to the next. It’s very strange and I’ll keep looking for a solution. Thanks again for caring, don’t worry about it or waste your time on it, I just thought you or someone else might know as it just happened again with your two videos.
Thanks for the comment, I don’t get sponsored by anyone. I have been offered by many companies but I always turn them down and explain to them that if I was receiving payment for a review, I couldn’t in good conscience say that my review would be 100% honest and without bias. Every single thing I do on my channel and website is just me, I don’t answer to anyone other than you guys, the people who watch my videos and subscribe.
And with pastel coloured pencils, with your drawing, I don't think it would be cheating to use Greys - if they do have any Greys in the set - because Greys really are sort of by definition Tints to some degree (??) Okay technically yes Grey is a tone, not a tint, but to create Grey in the first place, you need to add White, which sort of does make Greys possibly a tint/pastel/colour created by adding White (???) i mean, if I was wanting to do a picture just using pastels, I think that I'd be probably be including the Greys (??) But very nice picture though! 👍
Hi Melinda you are absolutely right, there are two greys in the set a light cool grey and a slightly darker warm grey, but both are quite light. They were just too light to help darken up shadow areas or darker sides of the balloons. But you are absolutely right, using greys from any other set would have helped a lot
@@TheArtGearGuide Oh! I feel like framing that - "You're absolutely right, Melinda"! 😄 Cos... not exactly the most common thing I get said about my suggestions! 😄🌹
There must be great competition in China over colour pencils. I looked these up and they said the manufacturer was in Buffalo N. Y. Not too far from me. However, another site said they were made in China.
![Castle Arts Gold vs Soft Touch - Which is Better? [Free Swatch Charts]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/f0H_A2AUMg0/mqdefault.jpg)
I think it's great that more companies are coming out with pastel ranges. They are so fun to use on toned paper and are wonderful for blending out vivid colors. Wonderful review, keep up the good work!
I love these colors. Great research, no questions left for me. Thank you💜💚💜💚💜
Great review as usual. I would love to see a comparison of these to the Brutfuner Macaron. I have those and struggle to see the difference between them and the pastel Holbeins I have. I only have 12 Holbein so maybe it’s in the other colours. I love the Macarons.
Thank you for this review Harry, although I'd already bought them, I loved the colours. I didn't realise that pastel pencils are not made to be used on their own but to compliment others, so that was good to know, 👍👍
Great in-depth review! Thanks so much for showing us. They’re beautiful.
hi there thanks so much for this review, ive just bought myself the 48 tin and they look wonderful especially on black paper or maybe dark grey toned, i have claire fontaine pad and its darker than my strathmore grey tone.
i love the booklets that are in the gold fabulous their gold range they glide they are beautiful.
also each tin comes with a tutorial which is good for me as im new to coloured pencil and im doing a course on them, ive only used graphite so far but i want to venture into colour then watercolor after that as part of my artistic journey.
these reviews really help so thanks again for a great review 😁 x
Another wonderful review 👍 What a beautiful set. I love that you showed them on all the different papers, very helpful and informative 😉
Thank you for your detailed analysis of the different papers , with the pastels. You making it so difficult for me to decide. They are lovely, & I sorely need pastels in my collection.
Thanks…this is great and I think I may get this set…if not right away, then it’ll be on my wish list. With some skill (created by practice, practice, practice,) almost anyone, even with “cheap” color pencils and other inexpensive markers, can create some really nice work. I’ve done it before just to test things out. But I can see that these are definitely NOT CHEAP, but just reasonably priced and will allow you to produce some beautiful work without having to work so hard and then the quality will make them a lasting supply that may become your go-to pastel colored pencil set when you need them. And then all the extras Castle is giving their customers to encourage and guide is phenomenal!
I really appreciate you including black paper as I really like that effect (I use Artagain).
Awesome review again Harry, thank you so much, not sure how I missed this one earlier, but glad I got it as even Canadian sites are getting into the American black Friday sales so just ordered them on sale!!
Thank you so much for your in-depth reviews! I am super interested in seeing more direct comparisons. I really loved the comparison video you did between the Arteza and the Castle Arts pencils.
Excellent review and thanks for all the work showing us in different papers It,s so useful ! Thanks so much, Harry !
Thanks Harry great review as always xx
Your review is so detailed thank you so much for your hard work !
Thank you for this channel, you do excellent work! I check your videos first when i am going to buy new colors or papers that i have not used before.
Beautiful pastel folors! ❤️ And the cover illustration and design looks classic!❤️❤️❤️
Hullo Harry! You have created a wonderful review of this pencil set! I remember when I saw the Holbein brand introduced their 50 pastel pencil set! Now it seems like just about everyone has a “Macaron” or pastel set to increase their lines of pencils. I am curious about longevity of the art created with these colors? Even the very expensive Holbein pencils have only good ratings I don’t remember seeing an excellent pencil in the group! I am guessing this is because of the lighter colors and tinted pigments. Thank you again for sharing your amazing review and opinions on these pencils! Please take care, be safe and enjoy the rest of your day!
Love the look cant wait till prices drop too.
Thanks for yet another really helpful video Harry.
Wonderful review. Thank you for being so thoughtful in your approach.
great review! can you tell me the difference between the ones in the etui, and the ones in the tin? is there a quality difference? also the regular colored pencil differences. thx!
Thank you for the review. They currently out of stock here in US for the tin set. I definitely will get me a set. 👍
Hi Ellie Todd, I've been using the macaroons with my brutfuner square and the tonal values are great.
I absolutely love this set, I really would love to get the gold set, brilliant review xx
Excellent review, Harry. Thank you.
Great review as always I’m definitely buying this set
Can you tell me something about the lightfastness compared to the expensive brands?
Thanks so much for this detailed review! I bought them when they just came out to use them with my Ohuhu pastel alcohol markers. So far I only used them on their own in a colouring book which has very smooth paper. I wasn’t impressed so almost gave them away - I will definitely try them again on a toothier paper, as I do love the colours! And as you said, the presentation in the box is beautiful.
Wonderful review, think you've covered everything. This is the first set of pastel tint pencils that I've been tempted to buy.
Thanks for this review. Initially I was confused by the name, so thanks for clarifying. . It's a great product and this one's on my list.
Thank you for this review. I like the Castle Arts pencils. They are great in colouring books.
Nice review. Nice set. I want know what you think of the metallic set. Waiting for that review.
Have you tried the Cretacolor Karmina?
These look really nice. Of all these pastel pencil sets out I would really like to find some that coordinate well with my Derwent sets or my polychromos. Lol
Thank you so so much I was so curious to hear what you have to say about this. =D
Great review thank you for sharing
Do you know where I can find this set, or the tutorial? I've looked everywhere.
Thanks!
Hi Unfortunately as is the case with so many art products they go through periods of being out of stock, since the Pandemic, so many companies have fallen behind in terms of deliveries etc and it is taking a while to replenish for some of them, especially companies like Castle and Arteza who source their products from third party companies abroad. For companies like Faber Castel, Derwent, Caran D'ache etc, they have their own factories and so have a little bit more control over deliveries etc and stock.
With regards to the tutorial, I am not sure what you are referring to, I uploaded a speed drawing of the artwork but its not really a tutorial, ua-cam.com/video/p4WHD99nLJA/v-deo.html this is a link to the speed drawing.
@@TheArtGearGuide thanks so much for your reply.
Love these Harry thanks 👍🙂
Great Review! Just one question( I may have missed it) but are these a oil based like the 120 Gold set or wax base?? Please!😊
Hi Nancy you didn’t miss it at all, I personally don’t comment of whether or not a pencil is oil or wax based, instead I talk about how hard or soft the core is and what it layers and blends like.
When I first started out with Colored pencil reviewing, I would contact the companies and ask them if their pencils were wax or oil. Back then I would only get through to sales reps or customer care, it was before companies started to assign a personal agent to me, and so I could call the company on a Monday and be told the pencil was wax and on the Tuesday be told it was oil based. I would then write or mention what I was told and in the comment section it would be filled with half of the people screaming at me cause they thought the pencil was oil and the other half backing me up cause they thought it was wax.
It actually drove me nuts because I wanted to deliver accurate reviews and it felt like I was just guessing, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.
After about a year of begging, I eventually was able to talk with two Chemists from two of the biggest pencil companies on the planet, these are the people who decide how much binder, pigment etc should go into a pencil core. I asked them about Wax and Oil based pencils to which both of them said it was a myth. Mind you I say I spoke to both Chemists, this was not together there was about 6 months difference and neither knew I was talking to the other, I just wanted to get the best info I could. Anyway, they both told me that all pencils will have oil and wax combined in them, some pencils will have more oil than wax and others will be more wax than oil. They also explained to me that there are different waxes used like synthetic wax, bees wax and they mentioned some other kind but I’d have to look at my notes as it escapes me now.
I decided after talking to these Chemists that I would make a video explaining, but I just haven’t got round to doing this as the notes I took are incredibly complicated and I need to organise them properly. However I decided from that point on that I would no longer categorise pencils in this way but instead explain how the core feels and behaves.
Most people think that if a pencil is wax based the core is soft and if it is oil based the core is hard. But if you have ever used the Derwent Artist pencils, they are sold by Derwent as wax and yet, they hold the hardest core of any pencil I have every reviewed, but it feels this way because of the type of wax used, the binding agent used and the Artist pencils are not very pigmented either, they lend themselves beautifully to light layers.
I will get round to doing a review about wax and oil soon but I am sorry I couldn’t be of any more help on this matter.
@@TheArtGearGuide Oh Thank You for the explanation! Yes that would be a good Video... but I Totally understand how complicated it would be! I really just thought maybe the packaging referenced wax or oil like the Gold 120 set does! But Thank You for your explanation! Your Reviews are ALWAYS Superbly done!😍
As soon as they pit these on a sale price I would love to have them. They had 72 on sale for 19.99 but I can’t find these for less the. $44.95 USD.
It's because they are new and in demand, they were not put on sale
Hi 👋 some of those colours look so bright that they look like they could almost pass for a neon. Is that the case? Because I've been looking for a set of neon pencils that don't have that yucky waxy, uneven lay down like the majority of neons do. So yeah, any that could possibly pass for a neon?
Thanks so much for this detailed review! I bought them when they just came out to use them with my Ohuhu pastel alcohol markers. So far I only used them on their own in a colouring book which has very smooth paper. I wasn’t impressed so almost gave them away - I will definitely try them again on a toothier paper, as I do love the colours! And as you said, the presentation in the box is beautiful.
Just a technical question: If you upload two videos at the same time (like this review and the artwork) they get bundled in my IPhone app. I can’t see the content of them unless I start the first video, and the second one starts straight after the first one. This doesn’t give me time to like or comment on the first video, unless I start it again (which will show you more views than you actually get, as I just restart to leave my like and comment). Do you (or anyone else) know how to show them as individual videos? I couldn’t find anything in the UA-cam settings - it just started doing this after an update. It happens not only on your channel, but I thought maybe someone on here might know… 😊
Hi Bridget I have no idea at all why the videos are doing that because they are uploaded to UA-cam as completely separate videos, I just put them out at roughly the same time, I’ll upload the speed drawing video and then go back into UA-cam Studio and upload the review.
What phone are you using and have you downloaded the UA-cam app for your phone. Mind you, no matter what phone you have or if you have the UA-cam app or just use a browser, I still can’t think why it would be forcing you to watch the videos in this sequence. You should be able to watch one of the videos and completely pass on the other one and you should be able to write a comment while you are actually watching the video, you shouldn’t have to wait until the end of the video or replay it.
I’ll have a look about Google and see if anyone else has encountered the same issue and get back to you if I can get an answer.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment and support and definitely try them on a slightly toothier paper, you will get so much more from them. Doesn’t have to be Cold Pressed Watercolor paper, something like a Velum or mixed media would be excellent
@@TheArtGearGuide Thanks so much for your reply! I’m able to leave a comment while watching but often I like to finish the video first before writing, and then it jumps right to the next. It’s very strange and I’ll keep looking for a solution. Thanks again for caring, don’t worry about it or waste your time on it, I just thought you or someone else might know as it just happened again with your two videos.
As aga💐in Harry you rock! This tutorial is just Great. Thank You Harry! Love Terri Simmers.🌈🎊🪅🥁
great review, although... did castle sponser you for this?
Thanks for the comment, I don’t get sponsored by anyone. I have been offered by many companies but I always turn them down and explain to them that if I was receiving payment for a review, I couldn’t in good conscience say that my review would be 100% honest and without bias. Every single thing I do on my channel and website is just me, I don’t answer to anyone other than you guys, the people who watch my videos and subscribe.
@@TheArtGearGuide thanks! Sorry didn't mean to put you on the spot there, I was genuinely curious as I'm considering to buy these pencils
I have them....they hurt my wrists....my best friend had the same issue.
Are these wax or oil pencils please
At about the 48 second mark the tin says they are oil based.
One thing I adore is that the print on these pencils is not metallic so it’s much easier for me to read the color names and numbers!
And with pastel coloured pencils, with your drawing, I don't think it would be cheating to use Greys - if they do have any Greys in the set - because Greys really are sort of by definition Tints to some degree (??) Okay technically yes Grey is a tone, not a tint, but to create Grey in the first place, you need to add White, which sort of does make Greys possibly a tint/pastel/colour created by adding White (???) i mean, if I was wanting to do a picture just using pastels, I think that I'd be probably be including the Greys (??) But very nice picture though! 👍
Hi Melinda you are absolutely right, there are two greys in the set a light cool grey and a slightly darker warm grey, but both are quite light. They were just too light to help darken up shadow areas or darker sides of the balloons. But you are absolutely right, using greys from any other set would have helped a lot
@@TheArtGearGuide Oh! I feel like framing that - "You're absolutely right, Melinda"! 😄 Cos... not exactly the most common thing I get said about my suggestions! 😄🌹
There must be great competition in China over colour pencils. I looked these up and they said the manufacturer was in Buffalo N. Y. Not too far from me. However, another site said they were made in China.
Tyfs...Nice pencils 😊
I love pastel colours, but on the other hand.. pastel is nothing more than white + hue, so it's possible to make yourself by blending ;p
☕️🙋🏻♀️