So while Holbein twiddled their thumbs and ignored the US market, I kept quiet about my secret love. These are some of the smoothest colored pencils we have come across. The application is extremely buttery and soft and they are a lot of fun to experiment with. That being said, they do struggle a little bit in keeping a sharp point due to being so soft which can make them a bit challenging to use in areas that require close detail. Holbein bodies are fully coated with a gloss lacquer giving them an almost a silky feel. It’s very nice and not as slippery as I expected. Holbein uses metallic gold to mark all of the pencils which is hard on aging eyes, especially when the pencil is beige or yellow. Fortunately, the font is large. I do end up rolling the pencil to read it, especially when my studio work lights are on. I’ve honestly never found the ideal substrate (paper) to use with Holbeins. I use light pressure and prefer to layer, I don’t burnish. With Holbein, I often end up filling in specific toothy spots that have been missed. This is something that rarely happens to me with other brands. The Dagwood project here was colored on Vellum Bristol (Strathmore 500 series) and it’s toothier than I envisioned.

The cardboard container is easy to use (as opposed to Crayola’s doubled-up box) but don’t expect it to last too long. If you press hard enough, these pencils will give good coverage. And they are easier to use than the ultra-budget Crayola. Just don’t think of these as a replacement for artist-grade pencils. The Holbein Pencils blend well with each other, and you can achieve different tones and colours by layering. The buttery lead allows them to mix quite well on the paper even without the blender. They go over other materials well, Gouache (when dry), Viarco ArtGraf Drawing Putty and watercolour brush pens as part of a mixed media approach. Holbein opaques are so dense that they often look a muted in comparison to their translucent colors. I’ve never noticed dullness in the finished product.

Characteristics of High-quality Coloured Pencils

The yellows to orange are the fewest in number and the least impressive with a few colors that are pretty darned close to each other. These pencils were delivered in a very timely manner. They are wonderful pencils. Buttery vibrant colors was so excited to draw my next drawing with them. Just a joy to work with So to say “wax, fats, and oils” is like saying “here’s my bike, bicycle, and my thingamabob with two wheels which I pedal around town.” La commande a été facile et traitée rapidement. La réception du produit vraiment rapide. Les crayons sont arrivés en parfait état, aucune mine cassée car il était très bien emballé I highly recommend Holbein for floral artists. Their greens and pinks are by far the most complete and the natural yellow greens are very organic looking.

Another consideration with Prismacolors (and all wax-based pencils) is that they are not as good at layering and mixing colors as the harder and more matte oil-based pencils. And these colors will definitely get shiny and waxy with a heavy buildup. Staedtler Ergosoft are wax-based pencils with a distinctive plastic coating on the core made by Staedtler in Germany. The triangular pencils come in sets of 12, 24 or 36 with a distinctive plastic carrying case that can transform into a stand-up easel. This is a set of 100 Holbein Artists’ Coloured Pencils which come contained in a durable cardboard box with lift-out trays. FOR VANILLA STUDENTS: Holbein makes their own version of many of our favorite Prismacolors including: Indigo, Dark Purple, White, Cream, Limepeel, Olive, Prussian Green, Carmine, Muted Turquoise, Slate Grey, Greyed Lavender, Yellowed Orange, and Goldenrod. Holbein Lay-down: A super-sharp tip will break under pressure, but overall I found that these pencils kept a good point and would provide a lot of coverage before needing to be sharpened. There were no issues with lead breakage during sharpening. In comparing to the similar Caran D’Ache Luminance, (which developed lots of crumbs under heavy pressure,)the Lightfast had a cleaner lay down. But it still was not as smooth as a soft wax-based pencil such as the Derwent Coloursoft or Prismacolor Premier.I use two different pencil sharpeners on location. The Derwent Pastel & Charcoal Sharpener and the M + R Sharpener as they manage a wide variety of media. For both sharpeners, they worked well. I like a long point so the M + R Sharpener works best for this. The Derwent Pastel Sharpener works best for the pastel pencils I take with me but does a pretty decent job too, although produces a shorter lead point. In the studio I have a Jakar Electric Sharpener for speed and that works really well on the Holbein Artists’ Coloured Pencils producing a clean and crisp long point in seconds. If you answered yes to any of these questions, then soft waxy pencils are a probably a good match for you.

Holbein offers about 18 browns and beiges which run from warm red browns to cool chocolate umbers. A nice selection. Holbein can be sharpened to a long fine point but be prepared for a little bit at the tip to fall off with the first strokes.The Verithins are affordable and would make a good complement to a set of Prismacolor Premiers. But, if a harder core was your goal, I would recommend trying a harder oil-based pencil such as the Faber-Castell Polychromos. Because of their relatively low-impact colors due to the core hardness, I wouldn’t recommend these as your only set of colored pencils. Because so many Holbeins are opaque, you do need to worry about creating accidental clouding or masking while layering over existing layers of color. Holbein Pencils feel luxurious and weighty in your hand. They’re a large diameter pencil with an oversized core. Comparable in diameter and weight to Polychromos. Anyway, it sounds like Holbein was forced to reformulate one or more pencil cores before they could export to the United States… Holbein Artists' Pencils are a range of soft and vivid artists' coloured pencils from leading art material manufacturer Holbein.

These are extremely expensive pencils. There isn’t any other way to put it. However, the high price comes in part due to the unique and exotic cores that you really can’t find with many other pencil brands. Also, other premium brands that cost quite a bit offer smaller sets for those who want to try them out without paying a huge asking price but Holbein doesn’t offer this.Current safety standards err on the side of caution to the point of stupidity. We don’t eat art supplies but the law assumes we might. In general, pencils with a higher oil to wax ratio are hard pencils. Pencils with more wax tend to be softer pencils. Wax, oil, hard, soft— it’s all about what you like. There are no villains here. They make a complete range of pinks and magentas plus a beautiful selection of reds with no overlaps or missing values. Yes, I know some of you will advise not to use an electric sharpener because they often eat pencils. Thank you, but I’d wear my hands out hand sharpening with as much as I color. I’ve chosen a controlled electric machine with an auto stop feature. It’s not the sharpener, it’s the pencil. Holbein Color Range: The names make sense, something that can’t be said about all colored pencils. They use paint names when appropriate but also name colors after food, flowers, or recognizable objects. I’ve not noticed any weirdly wrong names.