Bruynzeel Design Aquarel | Water-soluble Colored Pencils
Bruynzeel Design Aquarel | Water-soluble Colored Pencils
To date I have reviewed almost all of the Bruynzeel Design range with the exception of the Specials Set, which hopefully I will be able to get hold of an review soon. This particular review is taking a closer look at the Bruynzeel Design Aquarel Water-Soluble Colored Pencils, which the parent company is Royal Talens.
The Design range is Bruynzeel’s artist grade and within this range they have the Bruynzeel Design Colored Pencils, Bruynzeel Design Pastel Pencils, Bruynzeel Design Aquarel, Bruynzeel Design Graphite and finally the Bruynzeel Speciality Set. I have added links to the previous sets that I have already tested and reviewed.
Bruynzeel Design Aquarel Sets Available
One of the issues I had with the other Bruynzeel Design sets was the largest set size and this was due to the fact I had enjoyed using the pencils so much. The same issue is obviously present in the Bruynzeel Design Aqaurel.
Starting of with a set of 12 pencils, next is the 24 set and finally the largest set of 48. As sufficient as 48 colored pencils is to a lot of colored pencil enthusiasts, I think to aim a set of pencils at the Artist grade level, perhaps a 72 set should be the minimum cut off point.
Finally, despite the small amount of pigments totalling the entire Design range, you can purchase the pencils in open stock which is quite important for a lot of colored pencil artists.
Bruynzeel Design Aquarel Packaging
Ordinarily, packaging isn’t very high on the list of priorities when talking about art supplies, however on this occasion, the entire Bruynzeel Design range comes in head turning packaging, to be fair, calling it packaging in the first place is a bit disingenuous, Bruynzeel have certainly gone above and beyond when it comes to designing the packaging. As daft as this may sound, packaging is actually quite important and Apple were the first company really to put an emphases on packaging design and this has become a science with respect to marketing.
Whether you buy the 12 set, 24 set or 48 set, they all come in these drawer formats and if you purchase all of the sets or however many of them, they all look really nice sat on your desk. Because they transform over as storage, the fact that they are in this drawer format makes it really easy to access the pencils and still stack other sets and things on top of them.
Bruynzeel Design Aquarel Pencil Characteristic
The Bruynzeel Design Aquarel pencils are what I would describe as average size and weight. The core is 3.8mm, encased in a pretty slimline 7.8mm barrel. The barrel for the most part is wood grain with the exception of the pigment identifier on the very end of the pencil, about an inch long.
Along the barrel of the Bruynzeel Design Aquarel is printed in blue print the companies name “Bruynzeel” this is closely followed by the pencil brand which is “Design 8835”. The next part of the pencil is unique on each different type of Bruynzeel Design pencil.
With the Bruynzeel Design Aquarel there is a section on the barrel which is blueish gray colored band with the word “Aquarel” printed. For the Bruynzeel Design Colored Pencils the ban is like an orange color with the word “Color” printed and the Pastel pencils have their own colored band etc.
After this colored band indicating the pencils medium is the pigment identifier which is about an inch long. On the pigment identifier there is a number which corresponds to the pigment name. There are no pigment names printed on the barrel of the Bruynzeel Design Aquarel pencils however, you can find the pigment names on the back of the cardboard sleeve packaging. The pigment names on the back of the packaging also sports a number system which corresponds to the numbers on the pencil barrel.
On the opposite side of the barrel you will find barcode markings which are for open stock purposes; also on the section of the barrel that has a slight color variation with the pencil medium printed, on the opposite side of this is the companies country of origin “Holland”.
A nice touch with the Aquarel side of the Bruynzeel Design range is the fact that inside all the sets, 12, 24 and 48 you get a No. 3 round paint brush. In all honesty, it is quite small and you won’t be able to do a large piece with it, however, a lot of watercolor pencil sets don’t supply any paint brushes and so it is a nice touch to be able to start painting straight out of the box.
Bruynzeel Design Aquarel Lightfast Information
As was the case for the Bruynzeel Colored Pencils and the Pastel Pencil range, there is no specific lightfast information and the same is true for the Bruynzeel Design Aquarel. According the company, their Design range is Lightfast or you might find quotes of “Highly Lightfast”, this very well may be the case, however, I much prefer to know the system that is being used to determine lightfast and the individual ratings for each pencil.
I have reached out to Bruynzeel quite a few times about this and each time I am told that they will get back to me with specific lightfast information, but this has never happened. I fully appreciate that a company as big as Bruynzeel has a lot of things going on and I am sure they are incredibly busy, never the less, I think in this growing age of colored pencils and art in general, they should perhaps be a little bit more specific about the lightfast information.
Bruynzeel Design Aquarel Pricing
Here in the UK, for the 12 set of Bruynzeel Design Aquarel will cost approximately £12, the 24 Set should typically cost approximately £25 and then the 48 sets can cost £49, which considering the packaging and quality I think the price points are reasonable.
In the US the 12 set of Bruynzeel Design Aquarel on Amazon will cost approximately $26, unfortunately I was unable to locate the 24 and 48 sets on Amazon US, however I believe this is part of the problem that I refer to in the video review about Bruynzeel not as popular as one would expect. It would appear that the Bruynzeel name is not as popular in the US as say the UK and Europe, which I am sure is due to a wide range of reasons.
In the EU the 12 set of Bruynzeel Design Aquarel will cost approximately €24, the 24 set will cost approximately €36 and the 48 set will cost approximately €55
Bruynzeel Design Aquarel Performance
So as I have always been with you guys, you will see my brutal honesty when it comes to my reviews. I have had this 48 set of Bruynzeel Design Aquarel sat on my desk for over a year now busting a gut to review them. I tend to purchase sets for review when I see a good deal on Amazon and this is why sometimes I might have a set on my desk for so long before I actually get round to reviewing them.
I was really looking forward to reviewing the Aquarel Design range purely due to the fact I enjoyed and loved the Colored Pencil range and Pastel Pencil range so much. I always prefer doing the art work with colored pencils and pastel pencil of watercolor pencils simply because I have not really refined my abilities with water soluble pencils
The first night that I started to paint my speed drawing with the Bruynzeel Design Aquarel pencils for the purpose of the review, I just wasn’t taking to them. I stopped what I was doing and completed my swatch and started the art work back up again but just couldn’t get into it. I went to bed not long later and just put my experience down to the level of pain I was in and the fact that in the back of my mind I knew I had not been uploading a lot and was putting pressure on myself to get this sorted.
I returned to my painting the next morning with a slightly fresher look on the world and sure enough things just felt much better. The night before the pigments just didn’t feel strong enough and I had tested them on quite a few different grades and types of watercolor paper. The paper that I actually completed the speed drawing on was high quality watercolor paper from a Etchr pad that I will be reviewing later.
However, as I mentioned, the following morning things were much better and I was back into the review and the speed painting. On the YouTube video review I complete the swatch both dry and wet on medium quality watercolor paper, I also complete a test toward the end of the video on rough grain watercolor paper from Daler & Rowney which I personally felt displayed the Bruynzeel Design Aquarel pencils in their most favourable light. I also tested the Bruynzeel Design Aquarel pencils on some slightly smoother watercolor paper, Derwent 140lb Hot Pressed and the results on this paper was quite pleasing also.
Throughout all of the testing I completed, there was approximately four pigments that once activated the pigment almost vanished, this happened on the first three pigments and 73 pigment. Also, on the swatching I completed, once activated with water, some of the pencil strokes are clearly visible underneath which I personally don’t like to see and always attributed this to weak or lack of pigment, you can especially see this on pigments 50, 56, 59, 40 and one or two others. However, when I completed the test toward the end of the YouTube video, you can clearly see that once the pigments are activated there are no pencil strokes visible. I have to put this down to perhaps my own mistake and that I was a little bit too heavy handed with the pencils.
Of the entire 48 range in the Bruynzeel Design Aquarel set only one of the pencils experienced crumbling and shattering when sharpening. It just so happened that in the set I have it was perhaps the nicest color that was shattered. I have to tell you, as a colored pencil artist you are going to experience a shattered core or two no matter what brand or grade of pencil you buy. This is nothing detrimental at all toward Bruynzeel or any other company this happens to, it is just one of those things. It is a completely different state of affaires if your entire set displays shattered cores, that is something that would need addressing.
Bruynzeel Design Aquarel Palette Range
Bruynzeel Design Aquarel Conclusion
After that first night of not really getting on well with the pencils, things picked up considerably so that was all due to me and the frame of mind I was in. Based on my previous experience with the Color and Pastel pencils I was really excited to try these and then my pain levels got in the way, so I was really glad that I had the wherewithal to stop and try again another day.
Given that Bruynzeel consider the Design range their Artist quality pencils I very much feel that they should increase the largest set to at least 72 or perhaps greedily on my part 120 set would be amazing. I also feel that some more information should be given about the lightfast information.
Only because the lightfast information is so vague, I would not recommend that either the Bruynzeel Colored Pencils, Pastel Pencils or Water-Soluble pencils be used for art commissions. If you are a colored pencil artist doing work for clients, it is vital you know exactly the lightfast rating of every pencil you are going to use. Bruynzeel saying that the Design range is lightfast, I am afraid is not enough to go ahead on commissions.
that being said, everything else about the Design range is there, you will be able to complete beautiful works of art with strong pigments and of course enjoy the storage system that they come in also. Check out my YouTube video review of the Bruynzeel Design Aquarel Colored Pencils and if you like check out my speed drawing of the flower. I really do feel that I could get away without creating a speed drawing with water soluble pencils and simply display the swatch and testing, I find it really difficult to find an image that is simple and I can do it justice in watercolor pencils. I just feel I have a lot more control over colored pencils and pastel pencils than I do water soluble pencils.
