Staedtler 72 Set Of Colored Pencils Review, Staedtler Design Journey
Staedtler 72 Set Of Colored Pencils Review, Staedtler Design Journey
Staedtler is a huge name in the world of stationary, goodness knows how many of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents had a staedtler HB pencil in their school bag. Staedtler has been instrumental in the application of learning for millions if not billions of people all over the world.
Those black and yellow barrelled graphite pencils or the red and black barrelled pencils, are surely ingrained into our minds from the first moments of our learning pursuits. With regards to art supplies however, Staedtler have always catered for such pursuits, but mainly for the classroom and certainly not for artists, at least not to the branding Staedtler has created in the stationary world.
But that seems to be changing and certainly the Staedtler Mars Lumograph graphite, carbon and charcoal range for artists are among some of the finest graphite pencils artists can use all around the world. The Mars brand was first seen in 1900, but the blue pencils we all know and love today, seen its change in 2006.
Aside from Staedtler’s Wonderfull array of stationary supplies, they are certainly upping the anti with regards to kids and student grade art supplies whilst adding in the odd artist grade. The Staedtler Ergo Soft Coloured Pencils were one of the first ever coloured pencils I used as they were among the pencils my daughter used in her Art GCSE at school.
Then quite recently ago, I had my first taste into the Staedtler Design Journey range when I reviewed a 12 set of Tinted Watercolour Pencils, which you can see my original review by clicking the link. the Staedtler Tinted Watercolour Pencils are such a gorgeous set of water soluble pencils to be in any artists kit bag or studio.
Staedtler 72 Set Coloured Pencils Design Journey Characteristics
I was so fortunate to have had Staedtler send me a few of their products from the Design Journey range and I showed the products off on social media, asking you guys which product you wanted me to review first and overwhelmingly, this 72 set of Coloured Pencils was voted for.
The first positive thing for me with this particular set of coloured pencils from Staedtler is the size, I’ve always thought a 72 set of coloured pencils is a good size, not overwhelming the artist with too many colours and not a small set creating blending difficulties. Up until very recently, Staedtler’s coloured pencil sets sizes have never really exceeded 36 or 48 and I understand why, but also when you find a good quality pencil, the greedy artist in me wants all the colours.
As you can see from the images, the Staedtler Coloured Pencils from the Design Journey range are hexagonal in shape, which is a big bonus for a lot of artists, helping to keep the pencil on the desk and not roll off all the time onto the floor shattering the core. The barrel of every pencil is lacquered the same colour as the core, making colour identification really easy for selection.
Although the Staedtler Coloured Pencils from the Design Range are perhaps more aimed toward student grade artists, adult colouring book community, the weight and feel of the pencil is along the lines of most artist grade pencils, so much so, the Staedtler Coloured Pencils from the Design Journey range remind me of a top quality artist pencil, which I will let you know the pencil in the conclusion.
The core of the Staedtler Coloured Pencil is 1.5mm which is quite a slimline core, held within a 3.4mm hexagonal barrel. As I mentioned the weight and feel of the pencil is well balanced and feels really good to draw with. I know this might seem silly, but the weight and feel of the pencil really does go a long way to helping an excellent drawing experience.
Along one side of the barrel is the company name in silver leaf “Staedtler” along with “Made in Germany”, which is where the company Head Quarters are. Along the other side of the pencil is the bar code and other numbers relating to company information.
There is no pigment name or numbers printed along the barrel which is the only downside to the pencils. Once you have completed the swatch, if you remove the pencils from the tin and replace them in any other order from when you completed the swatch, if will be difficult to eyeball the right pencil to the swatch you created. You could wrap some masking tape around the barrel and write a number corresponding to the swatch for future reference.
I have laid out the layers of pencils in the full 72 set and as you can see, Staedtler have compiled an excellent palette selection. Before we get to the swatch, even just looking at the pencils, there is not an over saturation of any one colour family. Sometimes in sets over 48, you can get lots of reds, yellows or blues in the set, this is not the case with this set.
Staedtler Coloured Pencil Performance
The core of the Staedtler Coloured Pencil is medium with regards to hardness, it is not a very soft core, but it is an excellent core for layering on the right paper, which is all too often the case with so many pencils. I completed the swatch on Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Velum, which is quite a smooth surface but with a little bit of tooth. You can see on the swatch that the colours are quite bright and well saturated, from a heavy application to a lighter application, the colour looked well.
I then tried to conduct my usual layering and blending tests on the same paper and this was were the Staedtler pencils stated to lack a little bit of kick. As you can see the layering was fine and this is mainly due to the harder core, but blending was not very good on this Bristol Velum paper. However, don’t stop here thinking that is the entire story, there is so much more to this pencil.
I moved on to completing the artwork and for this I used a sheet of Derwent Lightfast Paper, which is a high quality archival paper you wouldn’t ordinarily use student grade pencils with, nevertheless, I wanted to see how much, if any, the performance of the pencils differed on such paper.
The layering and blending was next level when completing the art work on the Derwent Lightfast Paper and the entire drawing experience was so enjoyable. I have also completed a speed drawing video of the artwork over on the YouTube channel, as well as still images from the drawing process by following the link. I wanted to investigate this further and see if slightly cheaper papers with a bit more tooth, could provide better results.
I then tested and tried out a mixed media paper in an Arrtx Sketchbook and this was a very similar experience to that of drawing on the Derwent Lightfast Paper. Given that the Staedtler core is a little bit harder and not super pigmented, using a paper with tooth is going to completely transform the pencils into an overall excellent set of pencils at an affordable price point.
You can clearly see from the images of the sphere’s, they have both been drawn with the exact same pencils and colours, however the results are clearly very different. With regards to layers etc and pressure used whilst using the pencils, they are both very similar, certainly the layers are identical with only the pressure being used on each pencil perhaps different. The final results are so incredibly different, so much so they look like they have both been drawn with different pencils. The final rust is simply down to paper texture and the paper on the left side of the image as you look at it, is on the cheaper paper in the Arrtx Mixed Media Sketchbook, with the sphere on the right done on the Strathmore 300 series Bristol Velum.
Staedtler 72 Set Coloured pencils Design Journey Prices
To purchase this set of Staedtler Coloured Pencils Design Journey here in the UK, on Amazon you will pay approximately £28, which given the quality and the artwork I was able to achieve I think they are an excellent find.
For artist in the US on Amazon you will pay $52 for the Staedtler 72 Set of Coloured Pencils, I do think that is quite a high price for this set in the US and I can only assume that with Staedtler being a German company, the export duties help push the cost up.
Staedtler 72 Set of Coloured Pencils Design Journey Conclusion
Of all the Staedtler products I have tested and reviewed so far, the Tinted Watercolour Pencils, the Luna Watercolour Pencils, Staedtler ErgoSoft Coloured Pencils, Mars Lumograph and Lumograph Black, I have really enjoyed them all, the only Staedtler pencil I have not really got on with is the Noris.
With this set of 72 Coloured Pencils, I have really enjoyed using these as well and I was really happy with the artwork I completed. The main suggestion I would make is to not use them on a Bristol Smooth or Velum paper. Some Velum’s are a little smoother than others, so it would depend on the surface, but in general, paper with a tooth and you will get excellent results.
If you really wanted to use a Bristol Smooth paper you could still get nice results, but I don’t think you could achieve the depth I was able to achieve in the artwork I completed. So to answer the statement I made at the beginning of this review regarding the artist quality pencil the Staedtler reminded me of was, the Caran d’Ache Pablo. Obviously the Staedtler is a lot less pigmented than the Pablo, but the feel of the core and layering etc all reminded me of using the Pablo.
Student artists and adult colouring book artists I think would have a wonderful experience with the Staedtler 72 set of Coloured Pencils. Most adult colouring books that artists use nowadays have a nice surface to them and a medium to hard core like the Staedtler would perform well.
Don’t forget to check out the speed drawing video of the artwork as well as the YouTube video showing the Staedtler Coloured Pencils reacting to Odourless Mineral Spirits and finally if the speed drawing videos are not your thing, you can check out the still images of the artwork by following the link. Thank you so much for all your support.
