Review on 🌍 Faber Castell World Colors Ecopencils: Vibrant, Sustainable, and Global-Inspired Artistic Tools by Amanda Castillo

Overall: This is a great starter set of colored pencils for school kids for anyone who wants to try oil based pens instead of wax based pens. The color palette is well balanced and the complementary portrait/skin colors make it a great choice for most standard color needs. If you don't like oil-based crayons, I imagine the Prismacolor Scholar line is comparable to the wax pencil line in price and pigmentation, but not in build quality. Colors: There are 30 colors in this set: 24 basic colors. including white and silver, plus 3 double ended/two tone pens adding a superb range of 6 skin tones to the mix. I want the skin tones to be 6 separate full size pens. The white pencil is good for buffing/blending, otherwise it seems pointless. The colorless Prismacolor pen blender also works reasonably well. Light green and gray-green colors don't match as well as the rest. They look like a Crayola crayon compared to them. The silver is softer, almost creamy than the other pens, but applies well. I would like to see more separation between orange and yellow-orange and purple and plum. I would also prefer medium gray to dark gray. Silver is fun too, but I'd prefer a goldenrod/yellow ocher color. Otherwise, the color choice is pretty well thought out. Leads: Leads are strong enough to be sharpened and written in minute detail without breaking. They rarely crack, break, or shatter like I've experienced with other similarly priced brands. I've been carrying them in my purse for several months now and only one tip has broken. I've found them to be easier to write on (for colored notes) than hard verithin pens or softer pens that crack or break. lose points quickly. They seemed to require less pressure to apply color than many of the other cheaper and some more expensive pens I've used, which helped prevent fatigue from prolonged use. CONSTRUCTION AND QUALITY: The base set of 24 colors is hexagonal to prevent rolling. 3 additional two-tone round pins. All pencils are approximately the same thickness as standard #2 school pencils and/or Crayola crayons. The wood the pencils are made of is very strong and more resistant to cracking, chipping or breaking than probably any other pencils I've tried. from cheap Crayola pencils to more expensive Prismacolor Premier. I find that both the bars and wood will tolerate old crank tips with little or no problem. These are probably the highest quality pencils I've found in this price range and even higher. Identification: Each pen in the basic set of 24 is printed with the name of the color (not always with Faber-Castell sets). Two-tone skin tone pencils only have alphanumeric designations (T1-T6). The painted body of each pencil is a fairly accurate representation of each pencil's performance. Great: These pencils work just like the Polychromos line, although not as well. Given that these aren't professional grade pencils, it would be unreasonable to expect more, especially at this price point. The difference between a student/amateur grade pencil like this and a professional grade pencil like Polychomos is that they contain higher quality pigments, higher pigment content and better binders. For their price and class, these pencils offer good performance and better build quality than other well-known brands. Layering/Blending: The advantage of an oil-based wax stick is that it can be easily built up. I can easily apply half a dozen to a dozen coats with these pens. After several coats of wax crayon you will most likely have a filmy/cloudy residue called wax coating. This may not be a problem depending on your drawing or painting style. Oil-based pens have harder leads that leave less dust and residue than wax-based pens. As a result, they don't blend like wax-based sticks. Oil-based sticks need to be layered to create a blended effect. They can also be mixed with the application of oil based thinners or mineral spirits such as Gamsol but be aware that the paper you use as alcohol/thinner may bleed or leave an oily residue similar to a greasy cloth. Base pencils blend a little more naturally with one another for two reasons: they dust a bit when they apply color, and the waxy coating they form with use traps pigmented dust, causing it to smudge and blend. Some wax-based pencils can even be mixed with water or alcohol. Colorless mixing sticks are simply made from wax binders with no added pigments. Erasing: On cheap notebook paper with 1 or 2 layers of light color and a heavy border, I was able to erase most of the color with the Pentel Click Eraser. On sketch paper with samples that consist of multiple layers, the Factis Black 18 eraser gave decent results. Areas that were heavily applied or where either a clear blender or white crayon polish was applied did not rub off properly, as expected. Everything worked out with ballpoint ink on notebook paper. They were lighter compared to graphite pencils on notebook paper as the graphite had gotten a bit dirty. On sketch paper, which isn't as smooth as notebook or printer paper, they tend to pull the pen's ink off the page. If you write on construction paper with a liquid ink pen, porous needle, or felt tip pen, they work well if you let the ink dry first. I hope I've covered the most common aspects to help other buyers make their choice. I really like this set. Actually I bought a metal set and plan to buy a 60 color set because I really like these pens. I carry this set in my purse with a cheap travel notebook. It's nice to make them stand out for adult coloring, painting/zentangle or similar off-screen activities in restaurants, waiting rooms, road/camping trips and the like.