Reviewing The Derwent Artists Coloured Pencils - The best British pencil?
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- The Derwent Pencil's are everywhere here in Australia and today were looking at the original Coloured Derwent pencil, the Derwent Artists Coloured Pencils!
The Derwent's (here in Australia at least) are one of those pencils that are given as a gift or what people seem to buy when they want to take up the artings. I even have it on good authority they are the recommended art supplies for many highschool Art Courses.
But are they actually any good? Or is it a case of all hype and frankly just being a name people know? Well lets review them and find out :)
This is the Big Review where I take pencils (and art supplies) and throw a series of tests at them. Some scientific, some opinion based, but through out it all I'm trying to give you enough information that you can make your own mind. This is the Big Review!
The good, the bad AND the ugly you get to see it all as as we look a these Classic Derwent Artists Coloured Pencils.
0:00 - The Introduction
1:06- The Design of the Derwent Artists Colour Pencils
4:53 - Test 1 - Saturation and Vibrancy - How Saturated and Vibrant are the Derwent Artists Coloured Pencils?
9:48 - Test 2 - The Straight Gradient - How well do the Derwent Artists Coloured Pencils Gradient?
12:08 - Test 3 - The Blending Test - How well do the Derwent Artists Coloured Pencils Blend?
14:47 - Test 4 - The White Factor - How does the Derwent Artists Coloured Pencils White Perform?
16:27 - Test 5 - Color Accuracy - How accurate is the Derwent Artists Coloured Pencils barrel to the pigment?
18:04 - Test 6 - The Break Factor - We break some pencils!
21:53 - Test 7 - The Joy Factor - My opinions using the Derwent Artists Coloured Pencils.
24:58 - The End and the Big Score
Hope you enjoy!
Sunshine
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#Derwent #Derwentartists #colouredpencils
The old Derwent Artist pencils were made to a different formula and the pigment was more intense. The modern Artist pencils need a paper with tooth to get the best out of them. There’s always Derwent Coloursoft, Lightfast and Chromaflow if you prefer a softer pencil
I wondered that, I may have to see if I can buy some second hand older ones online and have. A look just for my own amusement. So many people said to me they remember them as being more vibrant.
I have the lightfast and the pro color coming up to look at ☺️💜
@@StuffBySunshine they are, until I can I will get the old versions single pencils to refurbish my 72 tin. they remade em in 12o tones and now they are discontinuing them. think they want to push Lightfast brand. A piece of history disappearing
I have to agree and disagree with some of your observations. These pencils are definitely a layering pencil and it depends on what kind of paper you use. The paper needs to have a little tooth. I have done some small drawings with them and they had a lot of drpth because of layering.
I’m curious what other pencils you normally use? Most pencils will blend ok (or better than one pass anyways) with layering but in comparison to other wax pencils these really did struggle. I have some more Derwent pencils to review soon so I’m very keen to see how they go☺️
Amazing!Please do more of these.Thank you Sunshine
Thank you, I will💜
Amazing review, i've been looking in youtube to find a nice review for these derwent pencils, and i finally got it
That’s wonderful to hear! I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Please also check out the in-depth review by The Art Gear Guide on the Derwent Artists if they interest you. They are rather unique.
I love the test where you drew with different "weights"... it made it easier to see the pressure you applied. Great review!
Thank you so much! I'm glad it was helpful!
Amazin' review as always, Sunshine! I'm so curious how Crayolas would compare to some of these higher end brands when put to the same tests
You know what, i've only really played with crayola crayons. I'm going to add some of the pencil collections to future tests as your not the first one to mention them 😊💜
Hi Good Evening. You're one of the greatest reviewer of art mats and I love your effort in how detailed you review them. Can you please review the Lightfast one if it's worth buying. Thanks
Thankyou for your kind words ☺️💜. A few people have asked for the lightfast pencils so I’ll add them to the list. May be a few months before the tests come out unfortunately as I’m super swamped with work!
These pencil are hard and all about layers so the paper to use needs to sanded paper or similar. It's almost always about paper.
I'm a complete Derwent Fan Girl & own all their different pencils. The Artists were the first professional pencils I ever used, way back as a teen in the 80's. I live near the actual factory. Just found your channel when looking for a review of another pencil brand I'm keen to try out. Not that I need anymore haha
Subbed & great review. Love your style & enthusiasm.
Thankyou very much! I haven’t had a super lot to do with Derwent over the years but have just brought the pro colour and lightfast to review in the next few months. Very excited to see how they go as they are supposed to be excellent!
Thanks for the review, the pressure with a scale is interesting to see. It is a way to review different pencils I have not seen done by other artists online. One tip/suggestion is you should post shorts of this video maybe the first or last test sped up with the pencil type and a link to this full review. I think it would help people looking at certain aspects of art supplies and help people find your review! A request I would have liked to see in this review (regarding pressure) how hard you would need to push with a blending stump to spread the pigment and if the pencil smudges if you rub it with your finger. Now I'm off to look at your other videos.😊
No worries! Glad you enjoyed ☺️.
I’ve been thinking about shorts, but worry it’ll be too much me telling people what the pencils are like rather than walking it through with them. So they can make up their own mind with what they’ve seen sort of thing🤔. But I’ll think about it as yeah your right, much more people will watch a 2 min episode rather than me prattling on for 40 min😂.
That’s a great idea thankyou! I’m actually trying to make these shorter (but not really succeeding) but that’s a really quick really interesting add on ☺️. I’ll try and add it in the next one💜
The 120 tin or wooden box is still available for purchase. It was said that in the future, Derwent will produce only a 72 set. So if anyone would like the 120 buy it soon.
Interesting! I thought they used to be available in 120 kits but couldn’t find any evidence of it. Glad I wasn’t just remembering imagined sized kits😂
You can still buy all 120 open stock from Derwent, but yes, they are no longer providing sets larger than 72.
I'm still testing them out on different papers but so far I can't really get a feel for them. I'm not as used to Derwents and I prefer Polychromos but of the ranges I tried, I like the Coloursoft and I got a few singles of Procolour which are pretty nice too.
You’ll be happy to know I have a set of procolors here to test in the next few weeks ☺️
I personally love these pencils, even if admittedly they are very hard. Up until 2024 before the expansion of the Chromaflow line, they were Derwent’s line with most hues (126), though unfortunately the only 120 set comes in a wooden box, and there is a separate six set for shades of black and white (whose body is not green but black). So you have to go through hurdles to get the full range. It also seems like Derwent is slowly phasing them out, as you can rarely find them open stock in most outlets.
Yeah, I’ve heard they are phasing them out. Apparently the pro color is a mix of the artist pencils and a new blend. I’ve got them lined up to check out in the future so stand by ☺️
@@StuffBySunshine you will find the pro color not super saturated and on the hard side too. They are meant to be reliable for artists that scan their work since they don’t produce much glare.
Something you may find interesting is to compare the vintage Artists (which have their bodies made in a single color) or the vintage Studio. They are much softer and nicer.
Interesting! I’m just going on what info Derwent has been able to provide about the Procolor so yeah I’ll be sure to compare to the artists.
Are the studio and artists different? I was under the impression the studio was just a slimmer barrel but same core mix?
@@StuffBySunshine you are absolutely right. The current Studios are a slimmer and hexagonal barrel version of the Artists (and also, I don’t think the Studios have 120 shades, but I may be wrong on this one).
However, if you can get your hands on the older studios (they have black barrels and dipped ends), they are way softer and nicer. They made 72 of these shades. It’s more likely you find them under the Rexel Derwent name.
I bought a set of these online recently, they won't be here until next week, so I'll maybe update this comment with my assessment of them then. I actually purchased them because I loved the colors and heard they were going to discontinue the 120 count set so I decided to try them now in a smaller set so that if I like them I can grab a larger one before they're gone forever or sold for ridiculous prices on ebay lol. I'm usually a soft core pencil girlie but lately I've been really into the pencils I have with stiffer cores like my Polychromos pencils. Because of this, I decided to try these Artists pencils to see if I like them at all. I'm very curious how I'll feel about them, I like collecting colored pencils anyways, I almost find uses for every pencil I own. I heard these perform better on toothy paper so I'll try them on a few different kinds probably. I'm more of a colorist than an artist nowadays and I know people who are doing coloring books usually don't like these as much but I'm hoping my toothy cardstock paper will work for them. If not, I have somd fancier art paper I can try as a last ditch effort lol. So excited to recieve my 24 count set and try them out, I love Derwent products. I have some of their Coloursoft, Lightfast, and Inktense pencils, and all of their Drawing line. So many great pencils. The Chromaflows are next on my list to try after the Artists. After that I'm planning on getting the 100 set of the Lightfast pencils when I can because they're just so beautiful and they work amazingly well with Luminance and Polychromos pencils. I haven't tried them with Pablos but they supposedly work well with them too.
Anyways, I'll update when I recieve them!
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the artists 💜☺️.
I had used them before I did this review and always found them basically the same way. I do think it’s just a really old mix of pencil that they have continued to produce because people still buy them.
I’m doing the same thing as you and just adding them to my collection as a historic pencil , I may have to grab the 120 before they are gone tho as they are very cheap now!
Oh also! A set of 36 lightfast just arrived and is sitting on my desk for a review in the next few weeks ✏️🎨🎉!
It was interesting to have Sunshine declare that Derwent were popular in Australia. When I had to down-size my art activities due to travel in our motorhome, I shifted from paints to coloured pencils. The stores in the regional town in North Queensland where I lived offered only Mont Mart and Derwent, so I went Anglo. with the Artist 72 set, then soon after the Chromaflow 72. Pretty happy with them but need to use solvent and lots of elbow grease to get up the colour, also on the thinner paper in published colouring books, a prep layer of gesso. I also bought the Derwent shapener but had trouble because the shavings drawer would not open no matter how I pushed and pulled. Then my daughter who is mechanical and no-nonsense, gave it a whack and, lo, it opened just fine. Get a woman to do it. Sunshine's presentations are excellent, fun and meticulous at the same time.
Thankyou 😊. Not to denigrate the Derwent's but yeah its surprising how common they are here. Fully half of the officeworks pencils are Derwent's. Very much looking forward to trying out the other ranges from them in the future!
Great review.I also felt so special as child to have owned a 72 set of Derwent pencil. But I agree Sunshine not really impressed with them now there are so many great pencil now.I gave my set away…pretty good for children to use.
It really makes me wonder what it was back then that made them the ‘go to’ pencil. I’m really starting to feel like maybe they were the only thing around!
Thanks for telling me about your Derwents I’m really enjoying hearing everyone’s stories 🥰✨
Did you get a ‘Monday’ set? I love the artists pencils. It’s like the Polychromos, they last forever.
😂 sorry I don’t understand a Monday set? I can imagine the Derwents last forever, while they Arnt super hard they don’t put down a lot of pigment so in theory they should last longer than others
@@StuffBySunshine you probably already know this but the Derwent Studio are the same pencil core aa Derwent Artists (though the Studio are thinner). They do last forever! I still have my Studio and Artists pencils from childhood - they are very short and I use them rarely now as an adult because I want to preserve them for sentimental reasons... but they still work just the same!
Yes! I discovered that in my research. I actually think I’d have liked the size of the studio ones better as they are thinner but the artists are the classic ones so I went that way ☺️.
@@StuffBySunshine hi, the Monday set is the first one made after the weekend. They would have flaws because the workers making them are still in weekend mode physically as well as mindset. Not paying 100% attention or can’t because they might still be a bit tipsy 😵. It’s just a saying we have here.
Have you tried the Derwent Coloursoft ?
Oooh! That makes sense! Well I may have got the Monday set, but the be fair I have used these pencils before and they always handle very similar ☺️. No I haven’t, do you rate them?
No, but why did I let them go, once I was looking for art supplies in the market, and I saw this brand of loose colored pencils but there were several of them and since I didn't know they were a good brand, I didn't buy them. true sad story
Well Maou don’t beat yourself up so much, there are plenty of other pencils in the sea!☺️😋💜
Drawing, Lightfast, Inktense, Metalic, Chromaflow, Colorsoft, possibly ProColor also are all better than Artists. Derwent Artists are the worst pencil going. the pigment is very poor. i swear they are not the best derwent pencil but worst.
Well they are not the worst pencils I’ve ever used, but they didn’t score super high on any of the tests to be honest. They feel super dated, but yet they are still very popular here. Go figure 🤷♀️
a Australian Derwent rep told me the Artists are NOT artist grade. I think people think they are because of the name. I told her how can you call them Artists and not be Artist grade. You see i got 2 x wooden sets on sale before i knew what they were like. I refunded both. the pigment imo is very poor. way to hard. I think they are popular because of price & the name.
@@StuffBySunshine
Interesting, I actually think I was right in the video. They have just been her so long people (who don’t go through pencils quickly) only really know a few brands and they are one of them. That and officeworks stocks them as premium artists pencils 🤷♀️
Officeworks state all kinds of things. don't mean its true. I would never look at any chain store when it comes to Art Supplies. @@StuffBySunshine
I got a set when I was about 13 for Christmas, but back them they were the pencil that everyone at school wanted. It was the expensive well know brand, so it was what we all wanted. We didn't have American brands like Prismacolor available back then. I assumed they were literally the most professional pencils you could get.
As an adult, wanting to get back into drawing, I immediately bought the 72 set of my childhood favourite pencils. It was only after I bought these, did I discover other brands and realise that other pencils were so much softer and easier to use (well easier to move the pencils). I really hate the reds in the set, there is nothing that is really bright and strong.
You keep saying saturated and I think you mean opaque. Saturation is about grey to colour. Low in saturation would be grey, but same value strength. The pencils are low in opacity and get stronger with each test.
I’ve heard a similar story from several people. I had an older relative request these for Christmas as they were getting back into art after 40 years. She only really knew this was the pencil artist used as she’d used them back in the 80s. Actually one of the reasons I started doing these reviews ☺️💜.
I’m using Saturated in the way it’s used for photography as in the intensity of the colours at each given weight. True I could talk about opacity here as well, which may actually be an interesting measure on how much color the pencils put down with pressure. I’ll have a think about it for future tests 😊
Imho Derwent’s best pencil these days is the Lightfast, which is far superior to the artists range. Way more pigmented, and great to blend
I was considering checking out the lightfast pencils in the near future. I have a growing list that I need to get through😂 I’ll add the inktense ones to that as well!
Drawing 24 set. If they made 100 set Drawing would be as good as any pencil on the market
@peternewport5626 I agree, the Drawing range is in my top 5 favorite pencils of all time and I'm pretty picky. Lightfast, FC Polychromos and Caran D'ache Luminance are in that list too for reference.
I like Holbein very much. The strength of color and quality selection of color. I think Lightfast are great if your a true artist but i mostly do coloring stuff. However as far as pure value goes. Nothing beats Polychromos & Prismacolor. since they are half the cost of the others. in Australia they seem to be @@ReverieOfThorns
the Artist range have just cut 48 colors from production. NOBODY Is buying for a reason
They are a older range the coloursoft and light fast pencils are better quality bought a tin of 108 in 1996 still use them.
I’ve heard that, I’m including another Derwent in the next series of tests so they can redeem themselves 😂. Likely the lightfast if I can get it here in Aus ☺️
I'm use to red breaking at higher pressures in these tests, when I was expecting them to break lower
so now it actually broke at lower pressures, it's making me want to review the science.
Especially with the blending tests.
the way the tests went and your descriptions, they sound like, oil based pencils that are starting to dry out.
I also don't understand the hype over Derwent either. I've tried u number of there art supplies and I have got to say I have bee underwhelmed by them, I wouldn't include them in the student grade art supplies.
They work, they're not as bad as dollar store quality, they just seem somewhat lacking, compared to what you can get now. even in student grade.
I guess there’s a lot of variables in these tests but I think the Derwents are just an older type of blend in the pencils. Apparently the artist (and studio) are the original Derwents blend and i guess they are sticking to the classic which isn’t super great (by todays standards)
i do kind of get the feeling that they have an older feel, but it's like 100 years ago. so much as 30 years ago I use to use dollar store watercolor tray for kids that were pretty good. and you've seen what I can do with crayola markers and crayons, so I wonder why they do it.
Inktense, Drawing and Lightfast are imo Derwent's best pencils, the Inktense pencils being water-soluble. I've heard Graphitint is good too, also water-soluble. People have mixed opinions on everything else. I think Coloursoft aren't bad at all, they blend well, but I think the colors are a bit muted and sometimes they're almost muddy when you blend them, but I've found that the paper you use matters with those. I have yet to try Chromaflow but some people find those better than Coloursoft. Those have brighter colors imo and I hope that they expand that range someday because 72 pencil ranges are very outdated nowadays. Most artist lines now have 100-150 colors typically.
I haven't gotten my Artists pencils yet, but from what I gather it's an old formula so they're basically just really old fashioned style pencils, which isn't always a bad thing. Also, the paper definitely matters with those, I have seen some use them on textured paper and get much better results. It is a bit odd to me that they haven't bothered to update the formula though, if they wanted to they could probably make pencils that compete with Polychromos pencils, or at least try to. I know Chromaflow and supposedly Coloursoft are supposed to compete with Prismacolor. From what I've seen Chromaflow is closer to that but Coloursoft imo is not very close to Prismacolors in terms of texture nor color range, blendability or the fact that Prisma's colors stay crisp after blending and Coloursoft's kind of get a bit muddy.
You certainly don't have to agree with me about Derwent still being an artist grade pencil, but at least acknowledge that Lightfast, Inktense and Drawing are at least artist grade lines, if nothing else. They really are the best and I highly recommend them if you've yet to try them.