Albrecht Dürer® Artists' Watercolor Pencils - Tin of 60

I fell in love with the 12 set of these when I saw how smoothly they blended with water while maintaining their vibrancy. I also created a mixing chart with the 12 that showed the beautiful blends these colors created. Then I looked at the lightfastness and was sold on getting the 60. The majority of the pigments have good to excellent lightfastness while, again, maintaining the rich color with very little pressure applied to the pencils on paper. Now I’ll be adding open stock additional pencils to my somewhat large collection. Faber-Castell has been a favorite brand of mine for years, and these don’t disappoint. Lovely, durable pencils that will no doubt last for a long time. Highly recommended!

They are Albrecht Durer - what's NOT to love?? Having owned several brands of watercolor pencils, I can say I don't even touch them since I received these. Why? 1. The pencils blend very well, especially on watercolor paper. 2. Control of of color result when blending is virtually flawless: a) no irregular pigmentation; b) no need to scrub work area to avoid watermarks; c) no product / color bloom when layering for effect (unless applying too much pressure and damaging tooth of paper) and; c) for smaller work areas, I even prefer them over tube / cake watercolor. 3. The pencils can be sharpened from beginning to end WITHOUT ANY LEAD BREAKAGE at all. 4. Nice tin keeps everything ordered and makes for nice storage when working other art projects. 5. Hexagonal shape prevents rolling when setting them aside for later use on your work. Especially helpful if your work area also includes brush holder, water glasses / jars, watercolor palette, painting cloths and such with each project. 7. Superb for dry-on-wet highlighting and detailing on watercolor work. 8. Every color is also available for purchase as an individual pencil should any need to be replaced. I'm sure there are a lot more reasons why I'll love these as I use them but I've shared the most noticeable thus far. As for whether or not the purchase is right for you, some other things to keep in mind: 1. These are professional artists' quality watercolor pencils and the price reflects that. 2. Though they may be used on adult coloring books, there are many types and brands of pencils more suited for the pages. However, if the objective is to activate the color for a watercolor look, these are a great choice. I use them in my coloring book so I may practice watercolor techniques.

Absolutely, outstanding!! The colors are the most vibrant of any watercolor pencils that I've used and the pigment coverage is also the best. When I use the wet brush on the lead method, it's almost as if I were using paint itself. I now wish that I had ordered the entire set.

Beautiful colors, fun to use

These professional-quality watercolor pencils are great. The colors are vivid, and they easily activate with water. They can be applied dry on paper and then moistened with a brush, or the pencil moistened first and applied to paper, or used wet on wet paper, or can be used by touching a moistened brush to them like with a palette. In all cases, the resultant watercolor paint is vibrant and versatile. If you apply them dry and then activate them with a brush, the pigment dissolves completely with no pencil strokes remaining. You can't say the same about inexpensive watercolor pencils. Once the watercolor has dried it's permanent. This means you can then overlay other washes or details without smearing the first layer. The set of sixty pencils gives you a good selection of colors, and by blending them, the color palette you can create is endless. Another bonus I find with the Faber Castell pencil line is that the colors are consistent across products. This means that the color names and pigments for the Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils are the same as those for their Polychromos oil pencils. The set, packaged in a metal tin, arrived in perfect shape. The pencils have a hexagonal shaped barrel, which prevents them from rolling around a table and makes them easier to hold. For those who are considering purchasing Derwent Inktense pencils, which cost slightly less than the Albrecht Durer, I'll provide a little comparison here, since I own both. The Albrecht Durer pencils have a smoother laydown and better ability to dissolve then the Derwent Inktense. Sometimes the lines laid down with the Inktense pencil do not disappear completely when brushed with water, while the Albrecht Durer dissolve perfectly. That being said, I enjoy using both brands of watercolor pencil. They both have bright colors and are permanent once dry.

The pencils are in great condition. I'm only deducting a star because the tin had some damage to it. Overall, the pencils are wonderful.

The packaging first, is lovely. I'm used to pencil tins but this is pretty solid, and hinged. I was pleasantly surprised. I used them on doll faceups after a Mr Super Clear application- and they were so much fun to work with. Soft and buttery- I kept expecting tip breakage like my pencils, but it only happened once. I used them on watercolor paper, and admittedly- I'm still learning watercolors.. but they were vibrant. The pigment moved around REALLY easily, and I noticed that the colors didn't really bleed into areas I pre-applied white to. Comfortable in saying that compared to a Prismatic brand of wax-based colored pencils that I'm used to? These are a good pencil for their price. They're really fun to work with.

I bought this set as an adjunct to my collection of watercolor paints. Rather than buy more pans and tubes, I thought some better pencils than I already possess would both expand my palette with a wider range of colors and in a different form with which to make a variety of marks. I'm surprised that a set of 60 doesn't include raw sienna or burnt umber - I have those in watercolor pans, but I'd think they'd be part of any set of 24 or more. It makes me wish I had bought the big set of 120, but it's easier just to seek out whether I can buy those two colors separately. As for the product itself, my swatches have proven these pencils to have a very smooth and creamy laydown on paper which is unlike any other watercolor pencil I've tried, excellent lift once the marks are touched by water and a brush and vivid coloration. I'm very impressed already, even before trying them in combination with both Rembrandt and Winsor & Newton watercolors, which are my favorite, especially the W&N, which have unsurpassed transparency and handling qualities in my opinion. I think I'm going to love these pencils.