Review on Premium Artisto Colored Pencils Set Of 72 With Soft Core Leads, Blendable And Vibrant Colors, Ideal For Novice And Expert Artists by Ryan Mosqueda

I have to admit that I put off writing this review for a while because 1) I hate giving products bad reviews, and 2) I always like to think that I'm missing something initially when a product performs poorly. I'm a professional artist and sample many products routinely; I use only high-end performers for the art work I sell--Derwent Lightfast, Caran d'Ache Luminance, and the Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle, mostly--but I enjoy using budget items for my personal mixed-media products and journals. The truth is that, with so many budget colored-pencils out there that outperform this product, there's really no reason to buy it. The pencils themselves strongly resemble the Arteza CP line, and the Arteza line works better and has a greater variety of colors for a pretty spectacular price point. The palette for these CP pencils is nice but nothing special and, frankly, a little too bright for my taste. The leads breaks so frequently that you might as well be buying Prismas (which are still luscious and just plain terrific to use, despite the breakage). The tin IS gorgeous, so you may end up buying this product for the tin alone if you love the budgie, as I do. Otherwise, the pencils are aesthetically pleasing but way underpigmented, and I didn't even enjoy swatching them. I actually enjoyed the Spectrum Noir colored pencil line better, and that's saying a lot because I really don't think that's a strong line, either. The price point for this product is low, but do you really need another line of useless CP pencils cluttering up the house? I sure don't. I'd give these away but am betting my artist friends won't enjoy them, either! A hard pass on this product. Other, better possibilities? The Derwent Coloursoft (so creamy!); the Derwent Chromaflow (vibrant but with breakage, too); the Derwent Artists (lovely with the proper paper); all of the Black Widows.