Derwent Pastel Pencils, 4mm Core, Metal Tin, 24 Count (32992)

I am loving these pencils for working in my coloring books. The colors apply smoothly and blend extremely easily using the silicon color shapers I also purchased to use with these. The soft shapers seem to work best with toothier paper, and the firm shapers better with smoother paper. To me, this is counter intuitive but that is what I have found. I am using a Tombow colorless blender to "set" the colors and that works well--I found that using water, even with just a damp brush, made the thinner papers in my coloring books buckle somewhat. I have not tried any other brand of pastel pencils so I can't compare them with anything. I chose Derwent because of their reputation for high quality products, and I also love and use their Inktense pencils. I am sorry that I only bought the set of 36 pastel pencils because now I will have to buy open stock if I want to complete the set--I wish Amazon offered open stock on ALL of their pencil sets, at a reasonable price!

These pastel pencils have extra thick cores (5 mm) which allow one to shave with a razor to create a long strong pastel for use in shading large areas with the side, and doing drawings such as Susan Long (portrait painter) on cover of the pastel paper sold by Strathmore. She has a wonderful style which emerges from the paper and can only be done effectively with pencils like the thick cored derwent pastel pencils... Also, the Derwent pencils have wonderful color varieties in this set, and are a medium hardness, not too hard like some of the hard pastel blocks, or buttery smooth like the soft pastels which give little control for detail. You'll love them! I am using them for portraits and plan to use them on velour in the style of Lesley Harrison's "Animals That Touch the Heart"... Her drawings of animals are in a different league from any I have seen anywhere! WOW! Check them out! Heather Taylor - Portrait and forensic Artist

Wow! these are the first pastel pencils I have every bought and I really love them. I love the maroon barrels and the 4mm cores. I found a handy little sharpener that will sharpen them without eating up the pencil. I do not need to use a knife with these. I primarily use these pencils in adult coloring books to color in. I lay down a little bit and them I use a damp brush dipped in water to lightly go over the pastel and set it. I smudge it in with a color shaper first and then apply the damp brush. I own many of Derwent's products and I love the vibrant colors and the quality of all my pencils. They are outstanding. I own these Derwent Pastel Pencils, Derwent Inktense, Derwent Coloursoft pencils, Derwent Electric Eraser, Derwent Blenders, Derwent Burnishers....they are all great quality and I am a continuing customer of Derwent products. I will be buying the Derwent Artist pencils in the near future for much of my detail work.

The pencils are excellent. However, the metal container was dented indicating rough handling in shipment.

These are top tier so you pay a little more but you get ALOT more brilliant beautiful colours -

Derwent Pastel Pencils have a good variety of colors included in their set. They have a nice softness to them that allows you to layer and blend color effectively. They seem to be lasting longer than my other pastel pencils, and that’s a good thing.

Definitely worth trying this brand if you have not. I found the Derwent Pastel Pencils to be everything they claim to be...a professional (and expensive) blending pastel. Again, as I found out by only purchasing the set of 24, so many colors were missing that I wanted and needed, but that was my fault...not theirs. I love the way they put the name and number of the color high on the pencil, so if you need to re order a certain pencil from open stock you can. The wider pencil was a nice touch and I had no trouble getting use to it. The only negative thing I could say is...the nice tins these pencils come in stink. You will have to replace them with a case because after my experience of putting them in a backpack...falling open and them all over...made me more than a little upset. Especially after I paid a premium for a nice set of pastel pencils. So count that into the cost of purchasing any type of pencils, whether colored or pastels. I will be ordering their biggest set, just as soon as I can afford it. Still mad at myself for not waiting and ordering the largest set. Perhaps this will helps someone else not make the same mistake I did.

UPDATE: still love the ease of use, color brilliance, and overall quality of these Derwent pastel pencils. BUT some of them seem to crumble and break pretty easily when I try to (carefully!) sharpen them. This seems to happen more with the Derwents than the Stabilos. Maybe shippers dropped the box? Don't know. Oh, these are really nice pastel pencils. I also have the full set of Stabilo pastel pencils, and these are better. Great coverage, better color selection (72!), blend nicely, and as an extra bonus (for me), the name of the color is printed on each pencil, not just a number....much easier to remember and find.

Very good

Derwent is a great brand and these pastel pencils are premium quality. There are some unusual colours in this set such as Saffron which other brands do not have. I purchased it on a great price . It was well packaged against damage and it was received in perfect condition. I am very pleased with this purchase.

Ce sont de très bons crayons pastels qui complètent à merveille les carbothellos et les pitt pastels. Il y a une large gamme de couleurs dans la boîte de 72. Ils sont épais et agréables à tenir. Il y a des couleurs que je ne trouve pas ailleurs (le pale spectrum blue, le dioxazine purple, le violet oxide et le forrest green que j'adore). J'aime assez la façon de numéroter les crayons, et le fait que la couleur soit écrite sur le crayon, on s'y retrouve bien. Ils ne sont pas trop poudreux.Ils se fondent bien. Je peux les tailler très pointus avec mon aiguiseur à manivelle. La boîte n'est pas super en revanche mais je ne m'en sers pas je mets tous mes crayons ensemble dans des boîtes par gamme de couleurs. Mais ça peut déranger ceux qui l'utilisent, les supports en plastique à l'intérieur sont trop mous et le couvercle n'est pas rattaché à la boîte. Mes proches disent que j'ai trop de crayons... ceux ci (comme les autres cités plus haut) ne sont vraiment pas en trop ! J'ai également 20 caran d'ache (j'adorerais avoir la collection mais...) , et le père Noël va m'apporter des gioconda pour des couleurs plus pétantes! Ils sont tous différents les crayons ;-) Cependant !!!! Amazon est nul avec les crayons pastels. Ils sont arrivés dans une simple boîte en carton (celle d'origine de derwent) tres fine et un emballage en plastique très fin!!! Incroyable!!! d'habitude le moindre colis est dans une enveloppe carton ou dans un carton. Il m'est même arrivé de recevoir des minis trucs pas fragiles dans de grands cartons disproportionnés mais bourrés de papier dedans! Là rien!!! Protection nulle. Pas de dommages apparents mais j'étais choquée par le manque de soin apporté à un produit si fragile. Ça c'est assez honteux et triste pour ceux qui comme moi adorent les crayons.

Lovely pencils! Fantastic quality! I read other Amazon reviews and took peoples advice on buying the larger range of colours. I am so glad I did. Thank you, to the people who take the time to write proper reviews. They came sharpened. One less job to do. Although I thought the idea of a tin would be easy to use, tins are probably best for sending them in the post. The tin pops open when carrying them. The plastic tray is too flimsy for lifting out a layer. I didn’t like the feeling, that they may get knocked off the table or that the tray would collapse. I bought a Derwent Carry All Bag. The bag holds two pencils in each elasticated band. Problem sorted! I've not used pastel pencils before. This is new ground for me. I have not used the pencils much more than starting a colour sheet. I am waiting on delivery of a set of grey colour shapers too. The pencils are as expected a bit crumbly when in use. Some colours are a bit scratchy on the paper but only very slightly. Light pressure is the key. Building up many layers, as I would with my beloved watercolours. The colours are superb. I can tell this will compete with my watercolour time. Heck I may get outrageous and combine the two!

The Pastel Pencils just require a very light amount of strength for the color to show up. The variety of colors is great and it's very worth the price.