Kalour Professional 72 Set of Colored Pencils With Colourless Burnisher and Blender Pencils
Kalour Professional 72 Set of Colored Pencils With Colourless Burnisher and Blender Pencils
In this review we take a look at the Kalour Professional Colored Pencils 72 Set with Colourless Blender and Burnisher pencils. I am not sure how new this particular set is, but for me personally, I have only noticed the set very recently, hence purchasing it for review. However, another reason I really wanted to test and review the set, was the claims made on the advertising and packaging regarding the products professional and expert levels, including supposed lightfast ratings on a very budget friendly set of colored pencils.
Kalour Professional Colored Pencils Characteristics.
Along the top of the tin there is a lot of information and claims made about the pencils, I would also like to implore Kalour to create some sort of subheading for their sets. Kalour have an awful lot of colored pencil sets on the market and so many of them are just titled “Kalour”, with the exception of their graphite pencils or pastel pencils etc.
The tin immediately informs us, there are 72 colors in the set as well as a colourless blender and burnisher. I love that they have added both pencils in the set and I will talk more about both pencils further along, but I can’t think of any other set that includes both pencils; I know Derwent sell a blender and burnisher in a two set.
We are also told that the pencils are “Artist Quality” which was what originally drew me to the pencils as it slightly irks me when I see budget products being marketed as professional or expert. Unsuspecting new artists or young artists will see such marketing and automatically assume that is what they are buying and hopefully I can confirm or debunk such claims in this review.
On opening the tin you are presented with a sheet or reasonable quality card stock, marked out allowing for the artist to create their own swatch, which I think is a good thing based on the decent quality paper. There is also a swatch of the colors laser printed on the inside of the tin. It’s important you do not use that swatch as a source of reference, the colors will be so far from that of the colors expelled from the pencil core.
As we can see there are three layer trays filled with bright and vibrant colored pencils, with the top layer containing mostly of the yellows, peaches, pinks and reds. Following along to the middle layer we see light blues, some gorgeous darker blues, into the purples and some light greens. The bottom layer has a few gorgeous dark greens leading into the earth tones, a few greys, silver, gold and Ivory Black. The last two pencils are of course the burnisher and blender but we will look at all these beautiful colors laid out on the swatch Ive created further along.
The core of the Kalour Colored Pencils is a generous 4mm, encased by a well weighted, round 7.9mm barrel. Each barrel is two tone in nature, with the lower half sporting a natural wood appearance and the entire upper half dedicated to the pigment identification, this is neatly separated with a small silver band on every pencil.
Along one side of the pencil we have the name “Kalour” printed in metallic which can make reading it in certain light be a little bit difficult. Further along we have the word “Expert” printed toward the very end of the barrel. On the opposite side of the barrel we have the pigment name printed, followed by the lightfast ratings assigned by Kalour. This lightfast legend comes in the form of Plus symbols from one to five.
Kalour Colored Pencils Performance
I have created a swatch and this time I have used Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Velum paper, this is a perfect surface for such budget colored pencils. On applying the colors onto the swatch I was impressed with the ease at which the color left the core onto the paper. The core is quite soft, yet sharpens into a fine point when using a quality sharpener. I did however notice that there was a bit of crumbling as a little bit of pressure was applied.
With every color, when I applied them to the swatch, I started off with a heavier hand, lifting off the pressure creating a dark to light gradient. I fell this helps to show of the range one can achieve with a well saturated colored pencil.
I applied a few colors to black paper, this is not a test of the pencils quality, simply that some colored pencil artists prefer more opaque pencils over the more translucent. As you can see from the image provided, the colors applied to the black paper vary in opaqueness and translucency. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with just how opaque the white colored pencil was as many colored pencil artists seek out such a pencil.
I like to complete a few elementary tests before discussing the actual artwork using the pencils; in this test we look for blending, layering and how the pencil reacts to Odourless Mineral Spirits. However on this occasion I have also included the appearance of the burnisher and blender. If you would like to watch the OMS, Burnisher and Blender test happen in real time, follow the link to my YouTube video review, otherwise I have included images.
You can see the blending test, this is where we apply two colors hoping to achieve a third, this is an easy exercise with paints etc, but not so much with colored pencils. Here you can see the yellow and blue has created a clear green, the red and yellow has created a faint orange and the blue and red has created a nice purple.
Next up we have the layering test, this is where five light layers are applied and then a single heavy application. You can clearly see the change in tone from the single light layer all the way up to the fifth layer, you can also see just how saturated the colors are on every heavy application. Even on a relatively smooth surface such as Bristol Velum, applying the light layers was simple and with no blooming or tackiness at all.
Below you can see an image depicting the spheres before using odourless mineral spirts, the blender and burnisher; followed by an after image of the spheres once the burnisher, blender and OMS has been applied. You can see for yourself what might be the best application for you.
I created a piece of art and for this I found this amazing artist on Pinterest and Instagram @digiart.of.alex who generates digital IA images of bugs and other such images. I found them to be absolutely amazing and with the permission of the original artist, was allowed to recreate such amazing art only using the Kalour Colored Pencils and not the vast array of colors from the digital world. I have tagged and left links back to Alex’s pages where you can view her amazing works of art for yourself.
Using the Derwent Lightfast paper, I was able to layer and layer without any issues at all from the Kalour pencils. Obviously, using such an expensive paper with budget colored pencils may not make sense for a lot of people, but at the end of the day, you as an individual can use whatever surface you like; you do not need to seek permission from anyone.
Kalour Lightfast Ratings
On the inside of the Kalour tin, there is a lightfast legend, after looking at the legend and then counting the pencils in accordance with the lightfastness, the entire process became even more confusing. As the Kalour tin states, One + is equivalent to “Extremely Lightfast”, ++ is equal to “Good Lightfastness”, +++ is equal to simply “Lightfast” whatever that means, ++++ is equal to “Limited Lightfastness” and finally +++++ is equal to “Less Lightfast”.
The terms in their own right mean nothing, it is nonsensical to put it politely. however what makes matters worse, is the actual rating on the pencils. There are no pencils whatsoever with a + or ++, Ten of the pencils have +++ rating, Thirty Two pencils are rated ++++ and Thirty pencils are rated +++++. That means that all the pencils in the set are of the lowest lightfast ratings, so why include the ratings in the first place? it deosn’t make sense. Also with regards to the Blue Wool and ASTM lightfast standards, the standards in the Kalour set are simply not comparable
Kalour colored Pencil Pricing
As I have mentioned, this Kalour 72 set of colored pencils including the Blender and Burnisher pencils are priced in the budget range, making them accessible to everyone.
Here in the UK on Amazon, you can expect to pay approximately £32, this will of course mean a faster shipping time.
Alternatively, if you live in the UK and purchase the set from AliExpress, you can expect to pay approximately £15, quite a bit cheaper but a longer delivery time.
For artists in the US I was unable to locate this set on Amazon and so to purchase the set on AliExpress, you can expect to pay approximately $23
Kalour colored Pencil Conclusion
My biggest issue with this set of colored pencil and many like them, is the misuse of terms such as “Professional”, “Expert”, “Artist Quality” etc and the like. For seasoned artists, they know to disregard such terms on the marketing if the product is below £100 for a 72 set of colored pencils, but this is not the case for young artists and new artists to the colored pencil medium. I feel it is incumbent upon me and other reviewers to ensure people do not get sucked into this marketing frenzy with a view to perhaps sell commissions. A young or new artists could purchase such a set, with the very best intentions in the world and unknowingly sell a commissioned piece as highly lightfast, when it clearly wouldn’t be.
The pencils themselves are gorgeous to use, the layer really well on both velum, smooth and hot pressed paper. The colors are strong and vibrant on dark paper with some displaying translucent qualities. The burnisher and blender pencils are a personal choice but as you can see from the test results, the Kalour pencils also reacted well to OMS. I was also pleasantly surprised with the final art piece and happy with all the qualities mentioned above once combined into one solid piece.
To watch the YouTube video review of the Kalour Professional Colored Pencils follow the link. If you would like to watch a short speed drawing video of the artwork come to life, follow the link. Alternatively, if speed drawing videos are not your thing, I have included images taken of the artwork throughout the drawing process and displayed them on The Art Gear Guide website. Here you can click on any image you like and as it enlarges, you can inspect and view in your own time.
