Top Model 006710 Pencils, Pack of 24, Multi-Colour

Product Information

They aren’t quite as soft as those more expensive brands, which should have the benefit of making them more durable, while still providing a creamy touch on paper.

Top Model Colouring Pencils - Basic Colours x 24 - The Pencil Top Model Colouring Pencils - Basic Colours x 24 - The Pencil

That means, once you’ve shaded something, rubbing water over it using a paint brush will produce a watercolour painting-like aesthetic. Because of this, it’s easy to get a lot of the high-pigment lead down on the page without applying much pressure (press too hard and you’ll blitz through your new set in no time). This set would make an incredible gift for any budding artist that will be cherished for a long time to come. The only thing that comes close is the Caran d’Ache Luminance set, but the Premiers tend to offer a more opaque look that blends beautifully between colours like butter.Quality: When it comes to quality, you’re generally looking for pencils with higher proportions of pigment, which should result in richer colours coming off the pencil. But that’s not to say we can’t nudge you in the right direction with our guide to the leading brands for artists. There are the brands that artists know and trust, such as Faber-Castell and Caran d’Ache, who produce professional-grade pencils. The 3mm lead is a little smaller than others on this list, but it is tightly packed and not as prone to breakage as other wax pencils – in fact, they act more like oil pencils due to their hardness. Pencils vary enormously too, in the hardness of the lead, how they feel in the hand and in the variety and depth of pigment.

Top Model - The Pencil Case Top Model - The Pencil Case

Type: To start with, you’ll want to decide whether you want oil-core, wax-core or watercolour pencils. Lightfastness is pretty solid too, with only a dozen of the 72 pencils not being recommended for professional work. The Van Gogh Royal Talens colouring pencil sets – as the name suggests – offer quality that the artist would be proud of. Not all manufacturers use this standard, with some making their own scales of lightfastness – for instance, Prismacolour use I – Excellent, II – Very Good, III – Good, IV – Fair, V – Poor. From everyday workhorses that can be used again and again, to beautifully crafted models that might be saved for special works, coloured pencils vary enormously in quality.

We recommend keeping the tip fairly short to avoid breakages mid-draw, but the velvety softness delivers that high-quality look that artists crave. As the name implies, these pencils imitate the look of watercolour paint since the coloured pigment is held by a water-soluble binding agent rather than wax or oil. Over 60 years ago staff at 3M, whilst trying to develop super strong adhesive, found that their rejected adhesives were ideal for sticking memos to colleagues screens or marking interesting texts in their books.