A new brand of colored pencils has become quite popular recently. They are called Castle Art colored pencils. They are economical and come in a big set! I have included my Amazon affiliate links down below for those who are interested in trying these pencils for themselves.
Castle Art is a new brand that is starting to branch out with different art supplies. They also have watercolor pencils, watercolor markers, gel pens, watercolors, and acrylics. This is the first generation of Castle Art colored pencils, but there is now a second generation with a different picture on the tin. However, the colors in the set should still be the same.
The back of the tin shows all the colors in the set. This set retails for around $48 on Amazon. There is also a 72 color set for around $38.
Inside the tin there are 3 tiers of pencils stacked on top of each other. These pencils do not come in open stock.
Cutie Boots liked the strings on the edge of the original trays. The new tins have a groove on the edge instead of string handles.
Tier 1 has shades of yellow, orange, red, and purple.
Tier 2 has shades of blue, green, brown, and earth tones.
Tier 3 has more pinks, purples, blues, greens, browns, and greys.
Doodlin ' Time !
I swatched out all 120 colors. In the first generation of pencils there was no color names. Instead they just had a number. However in the new generation, I think they have added color names to the pencils. These pencils are wax based and have soft cores.
'Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta'
by Ellie Taylor
You can download this coloring page at https://gumroad.com/ellietaylorartist
Here I colored a page from my upcoming coloring book on New Mexico. I thought these colored pencils blended really well and were similar in feel to Prismacolors. They have nice bright colors, although the darker colors are more intense than the lighter colors.
There doesn't seem to be any information on lightfastness so I would just recommend using these for sketchbooks or coloring books to be on the safe side. I wouldn't try any major commissions with these. You might want to perform your own lightfastness test on these to see what happens.
In conclusion, I really liked these colored pencils! They reminded me of Prismacolors except for the lightfastness issue. I would say these pencils are great for hobbyists because they blend well and are very affordable. I definitely want to try out some of the other Castle Art products such as their watercolor pencils and their acrylic paint.
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