The Art Gear Guide is your one stop shop for the most recent, up to date, honest reviews on all your favourite art supply products.
After I completed the swatch, I wanted to see how the Derwent Tinted Charcoal reacted to water and Odourless Mineral Spirits. I know that Derwent don’t sell the Tinted Charcoal Pencils as water soluble, but lots of charcoal artist apply water to the medium and can create some stunningly beautiful effects.
I really tried to get the best from the Art Track Colored Pencils, I tested them on various papers, various surface textures as well as using Odourless Mineral Spirits, something I never use in my artwork. I think I have said all that needs to be said about the Art Track Colored Pencils, if you would like to watch my YouTube review where there is a small clip of the artwork coming to life, all you have to do is follow the link.
For me personally, after using the Paul Rubens Artist Soft Pastels, I likened them to the Unison Pastels, perhaps not quite a soft, but if you watch my YouTube video review, you will see both pastels side by side and there is very little difference. Like I said, I would say that the Paul Rubens Pastel are a bit harder than the Unison but this is to be expected given the huge price difference.
The Fine Nib or Bullet Nib, whichever you prefer of the Prismacolor Premier Marker is much finer and detailed than most bullet nibs in other markers. A lot of other markers that provide bullet nibs or Fine Nib markers provide much more rounded nibs, the Prismacolor Fine Nib is pointed, almost chamfered at the end allowing the artist to use the nib for the most intricate detail or place the nib on a 15 degree angle and produce a slightly thicker mark.
The Cretacolor AquaGraph barrel is round sporting a gunmetal grey appearance with a metallic silver print. The core of the AquaGraph is a generous 3.8mm, encased within a well balanced and weighted 7.3mm barrel. The core of the Cretacolor AquaGraph pencils sharpener incredibly well and considering a water soluble core, holds its point quite well.
In this review we take a look at the Arrtx Acrylic Marker Pens, both the tradition color set and the metallic color set. As I am sure many of you are aware, the two mediums I have never used or reviewed is Acrylic and Oil paints, not for any reason in particular other than the preparation time and cleaning time required before and after use.
Before we get into this, I have to warn you that this is probably going to be the most boring review you have ever read and if you want to give up an hour of your life, watching the YouTube video were I demonstrate the erasers will really bore you.
In this review we take a look at the Posca Colored Pencils, I have received quite a lot of requests to check these pencils out and provide an in-depth review for them and I was fortunate to have had Uni Mitsubishi reach out to me just before Christmas 2021. I apologise for the long wait but I have had so many projects on the go as well as trying to work through so many products to review.
In this review we take a look at the Etchr 24 Half Pan Watercolour set, we also take a look at the Etchr Watercolour Brushes they also set in a roll. I have to say that I am by no means an expert on watercolors, I have however really worked hard testing various watercolors on the market from artist quality to student quality, travel sets and studio size sets; I have also tested a lot of watercolor papers as well as really working hard on my watercolor skills to hopefully help demonstrate the paints in the best way possible.
I was aware of the Sketchmarker brand about a year and a half ago or two years, there about’s; ever since then I have been desperate to get my hands on a set to test and review. However, despite the company being well established and providing top quality products, their products were hard to get hold of here in the UK and to the best of my knowledge the US.
Over the years of running The Art Gear Guide, uploading reviews and loving art in general, I am often asked by viewers and subscribers to tell them what my own personal top 5 artist quality colored pencils are, or my top 5 budget colored pencils are, etc.
First things first, as you can see in this review I have the full 72 set of Cretacolor Pastel Pencils, if I can I always try to obtain the full set so that I can showcase the full palette. The main tin is covered with this cardboard sleeve which displays artwork completed by the very pastel pencils in the package.
In this review we will be testing and demonstrating the brand new 72 set of Arrtx Colored Pencils as well as showcasing artwork completed with them and hopefully helping you to determine one way or the other as to whether or not the Arrtx Colored Pencil are for you.
In this review we take a look at a brand new product from Faber Castell, the Faber Castell Pitt Graphite Matt Pencils. Faber Castell produce some of the finest graphite pencils in the world, their graphite is smooth and provides consistent coverage. However there is one issue that plagues all graphite artists and in turn all graphite manufactures, with this product, Faber Castell feel they have eradicated such an issue.
Now we get to the exciting, yet bitter sweet part of the Derwent Chromaflow, if you cast you mind back to the beginning of this review I mentioned that part of the reason Derwent decided to create the Chromaflow was due to the love of the softer cored colored pencil, such as Prismacolor.
In this review I will be mostly talking a look at the Pastelowe Colored Pencils, but also comparing the 50 set of Holbein Pastel Tone Colored Pencils. In the past six or seven months, the colored pencil community has been, pleasantly bombarded with pastel toned colored pencil sets. On their own, pastel tone colored pencil sets are fairly limited, but in addition to a secondary traditional set of colored pencils they are incredibly helpful.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of this article, please let me say that I am in no way telling artists how they should or should not categories their supplies, how we all categorise our art supplies is a completely personal affaire as is the way we use them.
As I mentioned, there are three boxes of Tombow Irojiten, inside each box there are 30 colored pencils, but each box contains three smaller boxes that are designed to resemble books and inside each book there are 10 Tombow Irojiten.
In this review we take a look at another new addition to the Castle Arts collection, the Castle Arts Pasteltint Colored Pencils. Castle Arts really have kept their finger on the pulse with regards to listening to their customers, always adding new products to expand their range and always striving to maintain a high level of quality.
The Staedtler Tinted Watercolor Pencils sport a hexagonal 7.0mm barrel with a 3.4mm core, which is quite average for a colored pencil core. The barrels themselves are a gun metal grey color, with each pencil looking identical, on the very end of each barrel, where the pencil is capped, there is a small indication of the color present in the core of the pencil.
