Over the last year or two, I’d heard time and again about how great these pencils were. Since you can get a full set for just under $50US (at the time of this writing), I couldn’t imagine it.
Then I saw a review from a quite trusted artist, and thought I should just try them. I can’t buy all the sets but this one could be squeezed from my budget.
Tutorial: Castle Arts Soft Touch: 5 Pros, 5 Cons, 1 Hex Chart, and a fancy drink
Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!
SUPPLIES
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Pencils:
- Castle Arts Soft Touch 120 Colored Pencil Set
- Sharpener: Afmat Long Point Pencil Sharpener USB rechargeable
- Copic Acrea Paint Marker white: BLICK AMZ
Coloring books:
0Castle Arts Soft Touch Hex Chart
And yes, there is a hex chart for this 12o set! It’s possible you can use this chart with other Castle Arts supplies since theyre the same colors!
Pencil markings, sharpening
For bargain pencils these have a nice big pro in my world: big bold letters and numbers on the barrel. The color end doesn’t often match the pigment, but you can get to know the pencils and that’s not as much trouble. The wood is fairly cheap though. And you can’t eplace just one color so stick to smaller elements to color in this brand or you have to buy a whole box to replace one color.
Blendability, color selecion
Nicely blendable wax based pencils, yet the leads aren’t fragile like Prismacolor. So they’re likePolychromos but usually softer, though smoe individual colors are on the scratchy side. This set is full of brights though! Lots of rainbow colors, few neutrals, so you have to mix complements to create your own desaturated hues.
Performing as usual
On other papers these pencils were pretty typical. Neenah cardstock provides a smooth look but is really hard to get a large flat area; on Stonehenge the texture works great with these pencils.
How to color a fancy drink
Layers! Start light and add deeper color as it gets to the bottom where the strawberries are!
The neutral colors in the rest of the picture are made from complementary colors, opposite each other on the color wheel.
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Overall assessment
These pencils are good for the price; a great starter set especially for a young artist. And if you’re a marker artist in need of colors to add detail, this would be a great option.
For a constant pencil user, I can only imagine not being able to replace a single pencil as they wear out. And for a fine artist—be very aware that selling a piece that isn’t lightfast is okay, but you need to price it much lower and be sure the buyer knows what they’re getting.
Closing thoughts and question
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3 Comments
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GREAT review Sandy! I have the expensive sets like Luminance, Polychromos, Derwent Lightfast as well as Prisma. However, I am very protective of them 🙂 so I was looking for an inexpensive set that I can bring when traveling or to share with others who are learning to color.
I watched a couple other reviews but your review along with your coloring encouraged me to buy the 120 set. Can’t beat the price so I took the plunge….Thank you!
Glad it’s helpful! I did give my set to my adult niece for Christmas, knowing it’s pretty decent for what it is 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thanks for the review on these pencils. I have not heard of them before. They would be great for my craft ministry at church, instead of using up my “good” pencils. Wonder why they don’t make replacements? That’s the only bummer I see. Great price for sure. TFS