Arrtx Watercolor Pencils 72 Set Review | Review of Arrtx Watercolour Pencils
Arrtx Watercolor Pencils 72 Set Review | Review of Arrtx Watercolour Pencils
Over the past five or six years that I have been reviewing Arrtx products, I can’t think of a single product that I haven’t enjoyed using. Considering that the Arrtx products are aimed at the budget end of the market, I have always been impressed with the quality of their products. Perhaps one of the things I have been most impressed with, is that the ingredients in their products have not changed five or six times over the past few years, unlike some other companies in the same arena.
In this review, we are going to be looking at the Arrtx Watercolor Pencils and unfortunately, this may be the first Arrtx product that I have one or two minor discrepancies about. In this review we will delve into said discrepancies and not forgetting that you will find additional review information in the YouTube review to accompany this post, along with the speed drawing YouTube video and still images take of the artwork, all to help you build up as comprehensive an understanding of the product, without actually getting the opportunity to use it yourself.
Arrtx Watercolor Pencil Characteristics
For this review I have been sent the 72 set of Arrtx Watercolor Pencils and whilst there are other set sizes in the range, their packaging is all very similar. As you can see from the images, Arrtx have chosen to stay away from the traditional tins we have all become so used to when it comes to our colored pencils. This was the case for their traditional colored pencils also and now for their water-soluble pencils.
On looking at the packaging for this 72 set of Arrtx Watercolor Pencils, I am not sure if it is just me, but there appears to be a very retro, 70’s vibe to the pattern. I am not sure if this is intentional on Arrtx’s part or even if it is a thing and not just a figment of my imagination. When I see the packaging, I am taken back to my childhood, the wallpapers in the house or even the plastic table covers; if you are not from this amazing time, you could be forgiven for thinking, “Harry has finally fallen of the wall, he has finally lost it” and absolutely forgiven you would be.
On front of the box, is clearly marked the set size, along with the company name and at the bottom, what the pencils are and, on this instance, “Watercolor Pencils”. On the back of the packaging there is a color chart indicating the colors within that particular set. I am happy to see that it states below the color chart that; “The color swatch is only for reference”. This might seem like a silly thing to have included, however, for new or younger artists, when they see these machine printed color charts, they expect the pencils or markers etc, inside the set to be identical and of course this is not the case.
On removing the top cover of the pencils, gaining access to the pencils, you are then able to fan out the layers of pencils. Not everyone likes this type of system, but it is an excellent system if you have a group of kids sat at a table sharing the pencils, it allows everyone visual clarity on the pencils and easy access. In some of the other products Arrtx have produced similar to the Watercolor Pencils, the pencils would be inlayed into a foam base, this is not the case with the watercolor pencils.
The overall barrel of the Arrtx Watercolor Pencil is hexagonal in shape and each barrel is representative of the pigment color, this makes color selection visually fast and easy. The core or the Arrtx Watercolor Pencils is a hefty 3.8mm in diameter and the barrel is a well weighted, well balanced, 7.4mm.
Along one side of the barrel we have printed in gold metallic, “Made in China” which is the country of origin for Arrtx. Further along the barrel there is a decorative star and dot motif, which leads to the company name, “Arrtx”, all printed in the same gold metallic.
On the opposite side of the barrel, we are presented with a bar code and two longer alpha numeric numbers, for what they represent I am unable to find the answer to. Finally on the very end of the barrel we are presented with a small brush icon, which of course indicates that the product is water soluble, beside which is an alpha numeric figure indicating the pigment. There is unfortunately no pigment names, either on the pencil, packaging or Arrtx website, so when you create your own swatch, ensure you write beside each color swatched, the number on the barrel.
Next in this set, Arrtx have included a small round watercolor brush, which I think is fantastic. It is not always the case that companies provide watercolor brushes in with their watercolor pencil sets and the issue I have with this, especially from a parent’s perspective is, when a new or young artists buys for the first time a water-soluble set, they are not always going to have a selection of watercolor brushes to select. This means that the set is not going to be used to its full potential and fun until the parent or artist can buy a watercolor brush.
Nevertheless, the brush Arrtx have supplied with their watercolor pencils is really nice and it looks like a brush you could get out in public and not feel ashamed of. As you can see from the images, this little round brush included in the set is gorgeous and I show the performance in the YouTube video review.
Arrtx Watercolor Pencil Performance
I have to say, when I completed my testing, artwork and demonstration with these watercolor pencils, I really struggled with pin pointing what it was bothering me about them. I have spoken about this on my YouTube video review of them and I hope between my video and this written review, I am able to transfer the madness of my mind to you guys in a coherent manner.
The first thing I done was to complete a swatch, and of course, once I complete the swatch in its dry form, I take images of that, as water soluble pencils in their dry form can be just as interesting as in their activated wet form. As you can see from the swatch, the Arrtx water soluble pencils are bright and vibrant.
As you can see from the following image, once the Arrtx watercolor layers in their dry format have been activated, their vibrancy remains. The overall palette selection is okay, it’s not the worst by a long chalk and not the best either, there are a few colors missing that I would like to see. I know with them being water soluble pencils, loads of colors can be created, but I am referring from the perspective of young and new artists,
If you look closely to the swatch where the pigments have been activated, if you look closely, you will still be able to see the remains of the layer in its dry form. There are a few reasons for this, if the ingredient is binder heavy or a certain type of binder has been used to keep the pigment in the barrel mould this can occur. It was this result that was the beginning of my confusion.
I then moved on to the artwork, which you can see come to life by following the link to my YouTube speed drawing video or to view the still images. For the artwork I used the St Cuthberts Mill, Millford Cold Pressed watercolor paper, which has a textured surface. I started out trying to add a gradient background to the bird I was painting and for this, I applied a few layers of watercolor pencil dry, moving dark to light and then added water. However, despite using the darker colors in the selection and applying medium to heavy layers, the result was very light and not what I was after.
I then used my Caran d’Ache Palette, were I thought, mixing the colors on the palette and then applying them to the paper, would help me achieve the look I wanted to create. This was when the real frustration and confusion occurred. No matter how hard I applied covering of the pencil on the palette, when adding water to mix, it was almost impossible to achieve a consistent dark mix, without of course using black.
There was something not right and I couldn’t work it out. As I was applying coverage to the palette with pencils, as the core of the pencil wore down, it felt almost like I was filing away plastic, the core felt plastic and again, I help demonstrate this in the video review. The reason it was strange and confusing was due to the fact that when applying the Arrtx watercolor pencils directly to paper and then activating them with water, there was no issues at all. A lot of you might be saying, “What is all the fuss about, don’t use the palette”; and this is a fair critique, however, if you are a watercolor pencil artist and do use the palette, then you will want to know about this.
I did start to think that this was more to do with me than the pencils, and so I gathered a few other water-soluble pencils, in the student grade area, Caran d’Ache Prismalo, Supracolor Soft II, Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer and tried the same tests with them. The results were black and white, and this is part of the review that you need to see on the video. However, you can see from the images provided the difference between all four pencils being used on the palette.
Overall, the artwork turned out okay-ish, certainly not my favourite piece that I have ever done, but the process gave me an excellent understanding of the Arrtx water soluble pencils and aided in my confusion and frustration with regards to the issues.
Arrtx Watercolor Pencil Price and Set Sizes
The Arrtx Watercolor Pencils are so far available in three set sizes, 72, 48 and 24 and to the best of my knowledge, all three sets come with the same watercolor brush in them, I have sent an email to my contact and once they reply I will change this if needed.
Here in the UK, the 72 set of Arrtx Watercolor Pencils will cost approximately £38, the 48 set will cost approximately £27 and the 24 set will cost approximately £15.
For artists in the US, the 72 set will cost approximately $36, for the 48 set you will pay roughly $26 and for the 24 set you will pay approximately $16.
Artists in Europe can expect to pay for the set of 72 watercolor pencils €42, for the set of 48 pencils you can expect to pay €30 and for the set of 24 you can expect to pay €18.
Arrtx Watercolor Pencil Conclusion
As you can see, I had a few issues with the Arrtx Watercolor Pencils, or rather should I say, I had a few issues trying to explain the matters I encountered when testing the pencils. If we take the Arrtx Watercolor Pencils and only consider them in their traditional format, that is to say, applying the pencils to watercolor paper and then adding water to create watercolor paint, there are no problems. The pigments are bright and vibrant in both dry and wet formats as well as layering in their dry format.
It was mainly when I tried to use the Caran d’Ache Palette that I experienced some issues and I will concede that, using a palette is not a traditional way to use the pencils, however, more and more artists are using such tools to help get the most from their art supplies. Initially I used the palette because I was unable to achieve the dark to light gradient, but after encountering the issues explained and compared my theory with other water soluble pencils, it was clear to me that the Arrtx watercolor pencils lacked something on this occasion.
I am unsure if the issue is related to the type of binder used in the core, or if it is the amount of binder used, the binder to pigment ratio, which could also account for marks being visible once the pigment is activated with water.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I am quite a big fan of Arrtx and the products they have released, remaining consistent with regards the ingredients. I really don’t think the issues I highlighted in this review are huge issues or even issues that would cause all artists problems, but I do feel it might be worth Arrtx taking a closer look at the core ingredients. To the best of my knowledge, this is Arrtx’s first toe dip into the realm of water soluble goodness and if this is the case, they have done a decent job with no shame in revising the ingredients.
I think for this review, to understand everything I’ve spoken about, watching the video review on The Art Gear Guide YouTube channel would certainly help. As always, I have added still images of the artwork along with a speed drawing video, which altogether, I hope will help convey my findings. Sometimes I can never find the right words to explain matters and I think this is one such occasion.
