Colored Pencils I ALMOST bought but DIDN'T (AND WHY!)

I hear you, the struggle is real not to keep collecting. I succumbed to both the Phoenix Colour and Black Widows. The outcome was I swatched the Phoenix colour and put them on the shelf. The Black Widows are in a set of pastel drawers for easy use, I use them that often…. In colouring books. They are really nice pencils for adult colourists, and any artwork you don’t want to hang or sell. The story behind them is quite inspiring too, they were never intended for the Adult colouring market but more as a medical aid to depression (the company sells medical aids) but they are of a quality that hooked the colouring market, and the palette is different enough from the usual that they got me hook, line and sinker.

I have the black widows, prismacolor here are ridiculously expensive (EU) i bought them after many reviews and also Liisa Mitrokin (professional artist) using them.

I had a Stroke 3 1/2 years back. Coloring helps my brain to focus and calm my consecration on a task. I stick to a lower cost like Crayola and Amazon color pencils. Watching Videos like yours also helps me relax which at times I find myself getting anxious in my surrounding. Thanks

I actually like Kalour. The colors are very bright and they are smooth enough that they blend well. There are 2 things I don't like - you can't buy them individually if you use one up, and, they wear down quickly. I have Prismas and Polycromos as well as some Holbein and Caran d'Ache too but for an "everyday" pencil I do like Kalour.

I have all the Black Widow pencils all 180 and the Kalour 240 and want to get the Kalour 300. I'm a colorist and do color by number and sometimes need colors from 3 sets is why I want to get the Kalour 300. I also have the Kalour Macorins 62 set.

As Artist I only believe in colour fastness, so Caran D'ache Pablo, Supracolour (plus 30 limited edition extension set) as well as Faber-Castell all 120 Polychromos. Are more than enough. My very old Berol Krisma-colour is also brilliant but caran d'ache luminance is very much like old Krisma-colours. Very waxy. Not oil based like Pablo, Supracolour and Polychromos

The black widow break their sets up to tackle the issue with having open stock. Its easier to get 24 or 12 dupes than 100+ dupes if you run out of colours. Youll see theyre grouped in values and will show up similarly in grey scale, then two skin tone groups. Open stock is super expensive so they were trying to compromise in the budget world. Arteza's solution was to offer open stock in boxes of three at a time.

I have the complete set of black widows and I really love them. Prismas are way overpriced in my country so I'd say the blackwidows are the nicest I own, they feel more weighty and premium with the black finish compared to my artezas (whose names have started rubbing off) and my brutfuner squares (I really love these too their output is so vibrant but they feel lighter and cheaper).

Though i do think with all the sets out there should be some compilation set to buy. Even the first 3 could be in a 72 set. Id also prefer if they changed the labelling format a bit and used the small dipped ends on all of them so the color name is closer to the bottom, in a typical pencil case book with loops the loops cover some the sets names

I decided I wont be buying other pencils til ive worked through some the sets i own tho, so I've 5 sets total (artezas, blackwidows, brutfuner squares, brutfuner macarons, derwent inktense)

I totally understand your reasons ; I have gone through this ( still do !)
I did cave and purchased the Phoenix collection ( I also follow the Art Gear Guide; Harry , and he did a review of them , very positively, I might add)
This was about 2 years ago . So I got them for a birthday present and love them . The packaging is really lovely but to be perfectly honest , I don’t use these often . Not sure why , but perhaps it’s the awkwardness of taking the pencils in and out . I see them more as a piece of art and don’t regret the purchase .
I have the nyonis and they are the originals ; the Markarts are the imitators . I love my Nyoni’s ; bought them from Ali Express a few years ago and use them almost all the time . I have polychromos and find the Nyonis blend nicely with them . Great review by the way! ❤

I love the Black Widows. You don’t have to spend a bunch of money right away but you can slowly buy all sets whenever you can afford it. Have all except the first 2 sets. I have discovered that I actually prefer hexagonal pencils. So the pencils I use most now are my Caran d’Ache Pablos and the Black Widows.
I have Luminance and Polychromos too but I just don’t enjoy using them for some reason. Doesn’t matter how ‘good’ a pencil is to me, I have to enjoy them.

I have just purchased the Nyoni and the Deli from China. I think the Deli has a finer pigment but the Nyoni is a beautiful set. I am collecting the budget too because I will never have anything to sell. I save on my top of the lines and practise with these cheaper. I’m almost done collecting because I found the ultimate budget right under my nose. A set from Staedler 72, NOT the set with the sport shoe on the tin. Very very affordable.

I watch reviews first.
I used to just buy whatever looked interesting, but after acquiring enough junk art supplies to satisfy a small elementary school, I realized I needed to be more careful. Most of the junk art supplies are just really lousy and a waste of money and space.

I have the Kalour 240 set of pencils and I love them. One because of the price ( I'm poor on widows pension ) so I can't afford Holbein or Polychromos I had to scrimp and save just to get my Prismacolor pencils. So for a lot of us, we have to rely on "white label" brands. I know you can't understand this but there's a whole community of people who aren't getting good lessons because they don't have the expensive brands...and that's a shame.

I like this video. I appreciate your thought process. I have the Kalour Red 180 set and I love them! I also use the Brutfuner square (my fave budget set) and they compliment them well.

Oh, those Black Widow pencils are really good, but because is difficult for me to buy them open stock, (you can get them but not on Amazon or anything like that).... I had them all, and I loved them, I still do, but I gave them to my daughter, because of the difficulty of getting them open stock. But if they start selling them open stock on Blick for example, I will buy them all again.

I dont buy colored pencils unless they can be bought open stock... That been said, that package is so beautiful, that if I had the money, I would buy them, give the pencils to my grandkids and filled those boxes with my pencils. 😅

Hello Jane. I subbed and gave this vid a like. In my opinion, when it comes to the Blackwidow sets, you may like the skin tone sets and the Monarch, as these sets have very unique shades in them. I own all three and will in the future order the same sets again, though I do find the cores can break like Prismacolors do. I look forward watching more of your vids. Have a good day.

I wanted this set I might get it for Christmas 🤶

Love love love the shirt! I love my Polychromos and I actually really like the Arteza Expert 120 and the Castle Arts Soft Touch Pencils. I have Kalour coming today the 75 ct set. Will be interesting to see how they are.

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This is the thing about the black widows.. they are being pushed all over the net so they have a popularity boost, but they are not budget pencils. They seem cheap because they come in small sets but if you do the math they are just as expensive as Prisma, sometimes more. They also have no real open stock so you can't just buy one or two you use up. They have a bunch of people going around saying they do.. but you have to email the company, pay $3(!) a pencil, pay shipping, sent your money to a random paypal account, and wait for them to be sent from Australia... so yeah, not a deal. I'm going to stick with my Prismas that I can run down the street and buy when I want or toss in an order to any major art supply. I do feel bad for people who "collect" these cheap sets, only they actually have two or three of the same exact pencil with a different name on it. Plus they could actually have gotten entire sets of the highest quality for that amount of money by the time they bought 12 cheap ones.. and they can maintain that set for a fraction of the price when they need a replacement.

I purchased the Marco tribute 120 tin set but I still haven’t used them 🙃

Awesome Vid I like this type of video

There are a few here that I have had in my cart too, but I decided no more budget pencils. My last set that I have gotten are the star-joy gold. I’m a new color pencil artist, although I’ve been dabbling in other art mediums for years. I love the star joy gold but my favorites will always be the professional line just so that I can buy a pencil when I’m out rather than buying a whole new set. Plus I have way too many pencils as it is.

I LOE he skin set by Black Widow and thought about buying the rest... we see. But I have just started my colouring journey.

I have the 7 sets of Black Widows. And is not that I regret buying them, but to buy them open stuck, even though is possible, is not as simple as with other brands.
Last week I did a HUGE declautter and decided to keep only the brands that are sold open stock and that I truly love.... So not only I only kept 11 brands (not counting the Black Widows) but I also picked a smaller set of each brand. Like for instance, I took my 150 Prismacolors and pick some colors according to the color wheel to have a full range of colors and then I threw in my favorite colors of that set. I did the same with the Luminance, the Polychromos, the Pablo, the Stabilo, the Conté a Paris, the Pitt Pastels, the Inktense, the Albretch Dürer, the Graphitint, and the General Kimberly. I only kept the Derwent Drawing complete but all the rest from each of those sets I put away in a drawer, and ALL my other colored pencils, Blick, Coloursoft, Faber Castell Classic, Indra Creative, Deli, Goldfaber, Crayola, some brands I dont even remember the names lol... etc etc etc, I gave away.
I should have get rid of the Black Widows because I only wanna keep the pencils that I can easily buy open stock and that I really like..... but the Black Widows I REALLY LIKE , so that I dont want to give them away.... but I dont want to use them either cause is hard to get them open stock 🤣🤣🤣🤣..... so now they live in a drawer. 😅

I don't have them, don't want them, but the new Brutfuner 520 set, holy crap can you imagine not only putting them in color family BUT swatching them? Now I swatch all my pencils as like you I'm very ocd, so having that many in 1 set, NOPE not going to even give it a try.

I have all of these pencils except for the Kalour sets and the Marco Masters and I like everyone of them. You are correct about the Nyoni they are the same pencils as the Market set. I am VERY tempted to get the Marco Masters but like you said it’s an expense. Great video, thank you

Markart and Nyoni are the exact same pencils. Kalour are my favorite brand of pencils. I have all of the expensive pencils from Holbein on down, but definitely prefer Kalour, especially the large core and the lightfast set. No they are different from Soucolor. Unique unto themselves. I have collected all of the Black Widow pencils but don't use them.

Ahh, I too am a sucker for fine packaging and I will probably get the Phoenixcolor set just for decoration. Simply too gorgeous to pass up. The only set I think you might reconsider is the Black Widow. These pencils are super smooth and enjoyable to use. Only downside is the inconsistent way they were produced... pencil labeling and lead thickness is different with each set.

With that opening, I can tell you're an 80's girl like me :)

I've held off on most of the sets you mentioned, because as you noted, many of them are the same, and even the ones in gorgeous packaging are, at the heart of it, still only pencils. (Although the ones in the diorama-packaging have such lovely, delicate gold-foil designs printed on them!)

I did buy most of the Black Widow sets, and also the Brutfuner squares, mainly for one reason: I want colors you don't find in the standard professional-grade colored pencils. (Particularly a wide range of pinks, and periwinkle-lavender tones that are vibrant, rather than pastel or bordering on dark violet-blue.) I have the full 150 Prismacolor Premiers, 44 Faber-Castell Polychromos, 17 Caran d'Ache Luminance, and a few colors from other mid-range brands like Kohinoor and Lyra Polycolor. I even have the Crayola 100 set, and would you believe, nearly half of them are unique, compared to the other sets I've mentioned. I would love to replace them with pencils that blend better, though.

Thus I am super grateful to all the people out there who do color-swatching videos, especially those that have accurate, white-balanced colors (Tip: use daylight-bulbs), so I can pause the video and compare the colors to my swatches at home, and hopefully only buy those sets that will give me some unique colors. So far it's yielded good results. Both the Black Widows and the Brutfuner squares have many unusual colors. Plus, the colors in the Brutfuner squares-set look like they were chosen by an artist. When I went to organize them, most of them fell very neatly into tri-color tone families, rather than being kind of random, like even the professional sets like FC Polychromos.


Would you have any suggestions as to colored pencil sets you've tried that have a lot of colors not in the professional-artist sets? Lightfastness is not too important, as my work will be in sketchbooks and also scanned into my computer anyway. Although I wouldn't mind picking up some of those new Derwent Lightfast if their color range is unique.

Can totally relate to your opinion. Both on the "white labeling" and pretty packaging views. Last year I flat out got the Prismacolor set and the Arteza 120 set (after the hype controversy settled down). My goals this year are to save up to either get the holbein pastel set and a backup prismacolor set OR splurge on a polychromos set. I've acquired the Brutfuner square set and the original Star Joy set last year just to dabble with oil based pencils and see how they work and a spare Star Joy when they changed over to the gold edition. On the same note I do have the Black Widow sets on my wishlist, but fail to want to just buckle down and purchase them myself. 👍❤ Super jelly over that shirt girl! That's on my wishlist as well. I'm not a collector I want to use and enjoy the products I by and not feel overwhelmed or cluttered in my work space. And I'd rather display the art I create over some pretty boxes taking up space. Sorry if that was a but much, but I'm glad others have the same opinion. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to do the opposite (there is no art police) and feel that you presented your preferences and views as your own and in a friendly and non judgmental manner 👌🤘

Really enjoyed your video! I have the MarkArt 120 and agree with other commenters that they are same as Nyoni, I do like them. I like my Black Widows. Tried the Kalour 240. Some pencils had issues and messaged the seller first, trying to resolve. Wasn't impressed with the offer, felt pressured and returned entire set to Amazon. I like my Artezas but probably won't buy again as I too feel they're overpriced for what they are. I also tried some of the oh so popular Brutfuner varieties and frankly, am not impressed. I keep hoping to find a really good budget brand, but I've become leery after some bad experiences with them.

I do like these kinds of videos. Do you have any Caran D'ache colored pencils?

Hi Jane, I have alot of these. I am a colourist in the antipodes where professional pencils have really pricey tags. So, my thoughts. I have the Marco Renoir 120's. So I am still on the fence about whether I shell out 1/3 more money for exactly the same colours with a pencil set that is only slightly different in quality. The Markart pencils ARE white labelled Nyoni's (NOT the other way round). I bought my Nyoni's in late 2020, and when they arrived they instantly became my favourites. Love them. I briefly had the Kalour 180, passed them on because they ARE the same as the other black barrels, and I already had another set of those. Hurt because my husband bought them for me. Nobody needs 2 sets of those. Nice pencils though. Recently i got the Kalour 240, nice pencils, smaller core and different core from the 180's. Nice pencils, and fill a few colour gaps left in the 180 set. Now for the last- the Phoenix. Saw them, bought them, couldn't wait to colour with them. They are very nice pencils to use, feel very similar to the Nyoni's. So I put them in the same case and swatched the whole set so that my OCD is happy with the rainbow. They are now first equal favourite with the Nyoni, and I'm considering buying a backup set that I'll probably never use. Backup sets I have are Nyoni, and Marco Renoir (had to up from 100 to 120 when the bigger set came out). Oh, and I just got enabled to buy the 50 Macaron Brutfuner set- this is very interesting. A duplicate of the Holbein pastel set, for $25? Grabbed it quick! So far I've swatched them. Seem to be not bad at all! Similar to the Kalour 240 rather than the black barrels....but I haven't done anything except swatch them yet. Yes, I have too many pencils. But it was only 50, and they were on sale...

Hey Jane, I gotta say, I LOVE YOUR SHIRT!!! I would totally wear that!!!

I love the Phoenix colored pencils too I wanted them but I haven’t purchased them either….(yet). I just couldn’t see spending the money when I already own so many high quality colored pencils sets. I’m actually reorganizing my entire Art Room right now and I have a ton of stuff I really don’t need anymore stuff. I shouldn’t buy anything else this year. I do have a few G/C I was given so… those I will spend on supplies I’m running low on.

Stay Colorful My Friend, XOXO 😘 💋

Hey Jane, I gotta say, I LOVE YOUR SHIRT!!! I would totally wear that!!!

I love the Phoenix colored pencils too I wanted them but I haven’t purchased them either….(yet). I just couldn’t see spending the money when I already own so many high quality colored pencils sets. I’m actually reorganizing my entire Art Room right now and I have a ton of stuff I really don’t need anymore stuff. I shouldn’t buy anything else this year. I do have a few G/C I was given so… those I will spend on supplies I’m running low on.

Stay Colorful My Friend, XOXO 😘 💋

I've stopped buying sets as there are just to many colours that I just don't use (bright pinks etc.) so am instead now investing in individual colours from higher end brands.

As a beginner, I’d rather have one really good set over several sets of a lesser quality. A beginner that has to struggle with layers, etc will be less likely to keep coloring or panting.

I am not an artist. I color occasionally color. However, I want the good stuff. The “professional” pms usuall have more pigment, lay down more smoothly, blend better. Why struggle with less than pencils.

Pretty packaging so often reels me in, as I am sure it does for many others. There are so many products being released it is becoming impossible to accumulate everything, which isn’t to say I haven’t tried, lol. I’m slowly becoming more picky but it is hard to resist some of the lovely pencils out there! I adore your Polaroid shirt. ❤️

Kalour red tin says brutfuner on them, black widow are good you want them all, nayoni are mark art I was told the same pencils, the first ones I might try and the last set but I'm like you I've been spoiled with my caren d ache, Holbein, Prisma Derwent light fast Pablo, need I go on I love the more expensive pencils because there blending and lay down is so much more. tyfs ❤️

Oh My Gosh! Im sooooo tempted by the Phoenix pencils too! 💖✨💖They look so gorgeous!

Great video, amazing idea. Thanks, it was very interesting. 🥰👍🏻

Hi friends. Please understand that the term “oriental” in the title of the Phoenix colored pencil set is not a personal reflection of how I feel. I don’t agree with the term, and please understand that this is only used as a factual title. Unfortunately, this is what the colored pencil set is called. If I can find a contact for Phoenix pencils, I will bring it to the company’s attention.

I have the entire Black Widow collection and I love em, not because they're like super amazing, they're just like any other good quality wax colored pencils. They just LOOK SO COOL!!! 😂

I don't really keep up with all these Chinese pencils that have popped up. I've been fortunate enough to have the full sets of Caran d'Ache Luminance, Holbein, Prismacolor, Faber Castell, Derwent Drawing, and on on, so it's only throwing money away for me to buy those other pencils. That said, I don't want to sound snobby, because there was a time when all I could afford was a 72 set of Prismacolor Premier and Arteza pencils, and I was really thankful to have those, and I was happy to and excited to explore the alternatives to the more expensive brands and see what I could do with them. But now that I'm here I see no reason to go back, unless it's Black Friday and there is some abnormally incredible deal, or a situation like that.

The packaging on the Phoenix is incredible. I think it’s one of those sets that too pretty to use. I’m doing a no buy year so it’s a no for now. Enjoyed the video.

In the end is what you want or what you thiink is useful for your art. I have the polychromos collection of 120. but I dont want need inferior pencils even if its a bargain, I am searching for different colors rather than have seperate new colletions. But I lust for the best of the best, and I will buy few luminace ones, Also I can can see myself getting the prismacoror because I need some..

but everything depends on what you what, polychromos are good for details prismacolor are good for blending.
derwent Lightfast is nice companion to carandache luminance.

For me I wand a watercolor set + the prismacolor150