I suggest you do your own chart showing the colours both in their dry state and also after wetting. The darker colours come up very strong and only show differences when well diluted. I strongly advise that the first time you use them, you test the pencils and paper out first, and keep your pigment strength low on the paper until you are used to them. They probably have the highest colour strength of any aquarelle pencils. Derwent Chromaflow are 60% lightfast across 72 colours, LF – Lightfastness rating (6 – Good, 7 – Very Good, 8 – Excellent) Lightfast coloured pencils have been a holy grail that artists in coloured pencil have wanted for a long time. I would strongly recommend doing tests on different paper swatches before you try a full piece with any new pencil. The combination of the type of paper you use with any coloured pencil product can greatly affect your success with it. Often it takes a bit of time to find the right combination of paper and pencil with the techniques you like using to get successful results. I love to use these in my animal portraits to help speed up the initial laydown of pigment, especially when working on a textured support. They are opaque but soft and my other ranges then glide beautifully over them when used as a base. You can also use them on their own but it is slightly more difficult to get fine details because of the width of the core. That is when I will turn to one of the other ranges. Derwent Lightfast

Derwent Chromaflow Pencils, Set of 36 in Tin, 3.5mm Round Derwent Chromaflow Pencils, Set of 36 in Tin, 3.5mm Round

I think it is important to note that Derwent did not create the Chromaflow to be highly lightfast and aimed at professional colored pencil artists, if you are looking for a highly lightfast product from Derwent there are plenty of other pencils in their range that will cater to your needs. One of the things I think Derwent excel at is providing pencils for certain groups, every group from young artists, crafters, adult colouring book artists, Professional Colored Pencils artists and many more are all catered for under the one banner. Here is a side by side comparison of the three ranges that I have put together so that you can compare more easily the key differences between them. You can find a full matrix of all of the Derwent pencils (except Chromaflow) here. Range Derwent seem to be standardising on sets of 72 colours which will enable them to market pencils in standard sized tins and boxes. For the serious artist, this may reduce the colour choice if the older lines are totally withdrawn, as the main competitors are selling sets up to 120 colours in the range. Accessories to consider The photo above shows an amalgamated set of Derwent pencils. All these colours are rated LF Blue Wool Scale 4 or above. Derwent Lightfast Pencils How do Chromaflow pencils compare to colour pencils in Derwent’s Professional Quality range; Coloursoft, Procolour, Lightfast?The paint used to colour the wood of the pencils is environmentally sound and uses no solvents. This does mean, however, that some colour may be expected to leach from the barrel of the pencil on to your hand when used on a hot day.

Derwent Chromaflow Pencils | Ken Bromley Art Supplies

Although suitable for all coloured pencil artists, they are aimed particularly at students and hobbyists, for whom price is a determining factor. Chromaflow pencils offer a good quality of creative experience without breaking the bank, and are a great option for beginners to experiment with and build on their skills. This doesn’t mean that professionals cannot use these pencils, it just means that you will need to factor in the lightfastness of some of the pencils ahead of using them. I for example would use them for creating a piece to make prints from and would keep the original if I had used any of the lower lightfast rating pencils in the mix.Derwent released a new line of coloured pencils called Chromaflow in the Spring of 2021. As a relatively big fan of Derwent products, I was curious to try these pencils for myself. There seemed to be a lot of anticipation amongst coloured pencil artists for them, but who are they really best for and do they live up to the hype?