Castle Arts Specialist Colored Pencil Sets
Castle Arts Specialist Colored Pencil Sets
The purpose of this publication is to simply help clarify some information regarding the 24 sets of colored pencils by Castle Arts. I get quite a few emails or social media messages asking me about the Castle Art 24 sets and the difference between those pencils and the pencils in the larger 72 and 120 sets, hence this publication fo a little clarification.
I have already completed a review of the 120 Set Castle Arts Colored Pencils which you can of course watch by following the link. I have to let you know right from the jump that the pencils in the 24 sets are exactly the same pencils that are in the 72 and 120 sets
Castle Arts have broken their 120 range into smaller more manageable sets, naming them in such a way that selecting a smaller set is easy and more in line with either the genre of art or style of art. Given that the pencils are exactly the same, there is no need to go over the actual performance of the pencils or all the other tests and demonstrations I ordinarily complete, rather, we will take a look at the different sets and the palettes in each set. Should you be at all interested in purchasing one of the sets or a few of them, this review will help you determine the colors in the sets and if they are what you are looking for.
Inspirational Artists
There are 10 sets of 24, five of which are named after genres of art and the other five are named after historical inspirational artists and it is this five that we are going to look at first.
Monet 24 Set
The first set is Monet. Monet is a famous French artist, impressionistic and amazing use of color, of course Monet created lots of amazing pieces, perhaps some of the most famous was Popies, my own personal favourite is Camille Monet on a Garden Bench and then “Water Lilly Pond” which is actually the image on the tin.
Inside the tin is where the most important features lay and inside the Monet tin the following colored pencils are present. As you can see this set is packed with bright vivid colors very much in the style of Monet. Castle Arts have compiled an excellent selection of colors to enable you as an artist to recreate some of your favourite Monet pieces in Colored Pencil.
Cezanne
Paul Cezanne is the next artist in the Castle Arts 24 sets commemorating some of the greatest artists to inspire us. Cezanne’s work is a little similar to Monet with regards to palette. Some of Cezannes work is full of bright bold colors such as “Still Life With Basket of Apples” and “Ginger Jar and Fruit”.
However, there are other works of Cezanne’s that whilst done with oils, have a beautiful look of pastels to them, such as “House of Provenance Near Gardanne or “In the Woods”. The art work on the front of the tin is Cezanne’s infamous “Basket of Apples”. One of the things I really love about Castle Arts is that inside every tin of pencils is a booklet with follow along instructions to draw the image on the tin. I think it is a fantastic place for artists to get started
Kandinsky
Kandinsky was a Russian born artist, born in Moscow 1866. I am no art expert by any stretch of the imagination, however, looking at some of Kandinskys, especially that of his painting depicted on the tin, “Circles” he used bright bold colors.
I think the colors in this set portray this work beautifully for colored pencils, it is important to note that most of the work created by these amazing artists, was done so using paints of one form or another and so pencils are not always going to simulate these piece exactly.
Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli was an Italian artist, born in 1445 and an artist who’s work was said to epitomise art from the Renaissance period and in particular pieces such as “Primavera” and “The Birth Of Venus”. Incidentally the art on the front of this tine is that of “The Birth Of Venus”
Its important to note that what Castle Arts have done here is not to select a palette that will enable you to recreate or have a go at recreating all of the works from these artist, that would be impossible to accomplish with 24 colored pencils, particularly given the wide range of work some of them produces. The pencils in each set are selected to represent the image on the tin, in this case Botticelli’s “the Birth Of Venus”.
So much of Vincent Van Gogh, for the most part, is instantly recognisable as his work, his style is so unique and I know there are early works of his not so recognisable,. For me personally and this is only my individual perspective, when I see a piece from Van Gogh, I feel like laying a board on the floor, getting boldly colored paints out and splashing around in the paint. There is a chaos to his work, but equally a calmness and beautiful sense of order. I would absolutely love to see a real Van Gogh one day
I think after searching through the sets in this particular list of 5 from Castle, it is really clear that they haven’t just simply split the full range of 120 pencils and dumped them into 24 set tins. They have tried to group the sets into color genres, similar to the next set of five that we will look at, but they haven’t just done the easy route with Seascape, Landscape, Portrait etc, they have mixed things up a bit, made the sets really interesting.
However, perhaps most importantly, for young artists getting hold of these sets, they are going to learn a little bit about these artists, even if it is just their names and the rest they can look up on Google. All of the products I have reviewed thus far from Castle have come with some form of learning or tutorial with them in the form of follow along booklets of the art on the tin etc. I think it is a really interesting way to sell a product, rather than just opening the product and having nowhere to go, Castle have included something for you to get started right away and put your new art products to good use.
Castle Art Genre Specialist
To be honest, there really isn’t much to say about the following sets as they pretty much speak for themselves and of course the images on the front of the tins are excellent representations of the colors inside. As is the case with the artist based Castle Arts Specialist Sets, the 24 pencils selected for the Landscape, Portrait, Urban, Seascape and Botanical very much represent the images.
In the case of the Landscape Castle Arts set for example, the colors selected for this 24 set will clearly enable the artist to draw lots of Landscape scenes, however, you may not be able to draw and color every landscape scene you can think of. It is important to recognise these are sets of 24 and not the much larger 120 set or 72 set.
Portrait Castle Arts Colored Pencils 24 Set
Castle Arts Specialist Sets Availability and Pricing
Castle sell their products on Amazon or directly from their website, which is how many companies chose to conduct their business. however, due to the global pandemic, almost every single company on earth has been effected one way or another regarding sale or replenishing stock.
Here in the UK all Ten 24 sets of Castle Arts Specialists range will cost you approximately £17.99 from Amazon, if you purchase directly from the Castle Arts website the sets will cost slightly more, approximately £18.99.
For artists in the US wanting to check out some of the Specialist sets from Castle Arts, unfortunately this is one such occasion when you are going to have to wait until the pandemic is under control. Checking out Amazon US brings up none of the sets under discussion in this review, however the larger 72 and 120 sets are widely available.
For artists in Europe looking to purchase one of the sets showcased in this article, you can expect to pay approximately €19.99. As with the US, Europe has also been effect with stock pertaining to the Castle Art Specialist sets, whilst not all are available, a quick serach will list the sets available.
Castle Art Specialist Conclusion
I have always liked the format that Castle Arts sell their products under, adding the follow along booklet of the image on the packaging, enticing the artist to immediately start a new project. Every follow along booklet has been completed by Castle Arts in house artist using exactly the same products you have just purchased.
With regards to the specialist set, in particular the Artist range, not only have Castle included the follow along booklets for the artist to replicate some of the most famous pieces of art ever, but the information inside the sets may educate the artist. For me personally I wasn’t a hundred percent sure about Cezanne until checking out the booklet in the Castle Arts Cezanne set
It is also worth remembering that within all ten specialist sets you will find duplicates, the sets are indeed individual sets in their own right. If you would like to purchase a wider range of colors from the Castle Arts Colored Pencils series, you might be better looking at the 72 set or 120 set. Also if you would like to know more about the Castle Arts Colored Pencils you can check out my in-depth review by following the link. I have also completed a video showcasing the sets discussed in this post which you can watch by following the links
