Review on Faber Castell 48-Color Premium Color Pencils by Amanda Castillo

Name: Very good well pigmented budget pencil I took these pencils as a set, that I was able to use for my new coloring book Where's Wally. Something I didn't mind using sharpening for fine detail without having high expectations for blending and shading. I wanted a decent pigment but didn't have high hopes for it. I was actually quite surprised that they did so well. Not as good as my artist pens and not as good as my new Micador ColouRush pens, but they still worked pretty well. I decided to do a big comparison of 8 of my pencil brands - 4 artist grades (Polychromos, Prismacolor, Derwent Artists and Lyra Polycolor) and 4 budget pencils (Micador, FC Classics, Marco Raffine and Fantasia). A la Peta, I used an 8-point mandala in one of my coloring books and divided it into 8 sections, choosing 9 fairly similar colors from each set. So it was the same paper at the same time so that was the best way for me to compare how they handle the blending and layering. So, as I like to do in my pencil reviews, I've tried to analyze the theses that are commonly used when rating pencils: Pencil Shaft: The pencil shaft is one of the hardest in my comparison because most of the others have some oil have in the binder, but definitely not prickly or anything. A good hard pencil that can hold a sharp point. Pigment/Layer: The pigmentation is very good - almost the same as Micador, so they did a very good job. They don't have the smoothness to blend particularly well. It takes a little persuasion, but they did it. Micador still won this round on the budget pencil side. Color Choices: I love the color choices and the set comes in 48 colors which is a large size. Not as stunning as 72 when touring with them, but they have enough 36 cans to give me my favorite shades of blue-green. Sharpness: So far I haven't had any issues with sharpening, although I haven't had to use it. enough that you need to sharpen more than a few of these because they retain good sharpness. Shape - Pencil Shape/Color/Marking: Pencils are simple hexagonal pencils to which color is applied. Nothing fantastic. The colors are numbered, not named, which I don't like that much. I prefer the name of the color as it's much easier to remember what color you just used by the name than by the number. Micadors are the only inexpensive pencils with a color name. Storage: Like most budget pens, they only come in a box, so I used a rolled up pencil case I already had at home. Replacements: As these pencils are only available in sets, you cannot purchase replacements from open stock. However, given the price of these pens, I don't see this as a problem. Overall I am happy with these pens. They're pretty good for a budget pencil and make a great addition to my Wally coloring book. Beautiful, vibrant colors, and they can be mixed and layered, but it takes a little more work. If I had to choose, I would choose Micador pens with a smaller color palette. Hence 4 stars and not 5.