Faber-Castell Polychromos Artists Color Pencils - Tin of 120 Colors - Premium Quality Artist Pencils

I was a little worried about shipping but they were packed well and arrived in perfect condition. Excellent pencils for serious artists.

I cant decide which I like better, the Prismacolor premiers or the Faber Castell Polychromos, as they are both amazing. The Faber Castell polychromos are oil based and therefore the core is strong and less prone to breaking. You can get a very fine point on them, and rarely have breakage when sharpening. For all over color they cant be beat. They give great coverage with little white showing through with very little pressure. The pigmentation is amazing, and while you cant pull the colors into one another like you can with wax based pencils, these can layer for days with no problem. You also cant get wax bloom with them. The 120 count pencil set has more than enough shades and colors, allowing you to create any color you can imagine. The quality controlers are on point as Ive never seen a single pencil off centered, broken, warped or chipped. They are truly beautiful just to look at. I use blending stumps, prismas colorless blender, and solvents, all of which work great with the Polychromos for blending. You really cant go wrong with these and you will fall in love the moment you try them!

I was a little tentative about ordering the pencils from online, but they shipped just fine and intact without any dents or scrapes on the tin. These pencils are above and beyond what I had before. I used to use Prismacolor Pencils, but with the downgrading of their quality since the company moved out of country, I needed an upgrade. And these Polychromos pencils were worth waiting for. They do take a bit of a learning curve for someone not used to oil based pencils as opposed to wax based pencils. I have had a little breakage, 3 of 120 pencils is still WAY better than all of 130+ for Prismacolor. Didnt even break that much, just once or twice. I figured that just happened during the shipping because the rest of the pencils were pristine. The colors lay down creamy and smooth and blend beautifully. Im learning how to use pressure to get varying shades still, and layering is much better. All in all, Im very happy with these pencils. Highly recommend these.

UPDATE: Faber Castell just changed the design of their pencils and now they added bar codes and “Made in Germany “ instead of just Germany so please please disregard the next couple paragraphs as I had the wrong information. Blick Art Materials replied to my email notifying me of the change and was super on top of answering me. They are not scamming anyone. Since 2019 Faber Castell made the change and it’s taking a while to run out of the old “edition”. I’m gonna try these pencils tonight and update it Old review: I’m disappointed that I went thru Faber Castell website to find their authorized resellers and it said Blick Art on Amazon are their authorized resellers. Well if they are this is a fake or they are lying cuz this set besides looking good is not the right one. The REAL Polychromos don’t have BAR CODE and it says GERMANY and it has the Mark SV! I just notice this now so I can’t return Hopefully you can see this review of mine and just buy straight from a physical store where you can see or from the official website. This seller ( Blick Art Materials) has kinda of ruined this for me

After much research, I decided on the Faber Castell Polychromos Colored Pencils (120 set). Although I am not a professional artist, but a hobby card maker, I find these pencils to be an excellent quality! Blending or building colors on one another works very well and using the white/cream pencils to create some highlights work great too. I understand paper/cardstock types can make a big difference when using pencils -- something with more tooth is preferable. The pencils stay fairly sharp after several uses, nice quality lead and barrel, and they fit in your hand nicely as well.

I am in love ... with these pencils. Before buying I read reviews wherever I could find them. I watched videos on Youtube about these pencils. Holding my breath, I ordered them. They work well for me. They layer and blend fine. I draw mainly in graphite, but have been trying different brands of colored pencils off and on. This is my 5th brand. I used to love Prismacolor, but not anymore. These sharpen easily without the pain of broken leads or shredded pencils. They keep a pretty good point. This 36 pencil set provides adequate colors to play around with blending. At least with Faber Castell we can buy single pencils to round out a set. I will be doing more drawing in color now.

I’m not convinced with all the rave about this brand of pencils! They are thicker than average pencils, and the cores are super hard and different from other pencils that I have used. The set is beautiful, lots to choose from, supposedly artist quality and giftable. These are expensive and I don’t think the pencils are worth the price being charged. The colors layer really well, I would not say they are “buttery” or super “easy” to use, there is a learning curve to using these pencils. They sharpen to a fine point, and do chip off on occasion, although one would expect that from any colored pencils. I’m just not sure I am convinced that the cost of these makes them exceptional to use. I have a set of Magicfly oil pencils and they are easier to work with than these polychromos. Not really impressed…save your money for something else!

I love these pencils! The first thing I do when I receive new pencils/pens/markers is to make a color chart so I can say even those I just received them today, Ive used every single pencil already. I love the variety of colors,especially the cool colors. They are gorgeous and I cant wait to use them. Ill upload a photo of my color chart so you can see what I mean. While the colors themselves are not quite as brilliant and rich as Prismacolor pencils, I really like the smooth texture of these pencils. These lay down color very smoothly and layer easily. They blend better than I expected, but not quite as well as the Prismacolors. They also keep a point well so they will be great at detail work. Hopefully I wont have to sharpen them as often and they will last longer. I think these are a bit of an extravagance unless you are an artist, but for me they are so worth it. Im going to love working with them.

New comment: dont know why I love them...but I do! Id give them a 5, except they have a fault which is a pretty serious one (below). First, what I love about them is the laydown. As much as I love PrismaColors, they tend to go down heavy. Having that buttery laydown and being able to layer colors and burnish - all great characteristic to have, and I think Prismas do all these much better that Polychromos. But, when you dont want full color laydown, but would rather have a rougher laydown, with some paper exposed behind the color - Polychromos are great for that. They erase much more cleanly, too, probably because they arent as heavy & waxy. Its hard to describe, but the laydown is really nice & you can get great effects. Where these are also way superior to Prismacolors is that the lead doesnt break when you sharpen it. Many Prisma users know the frustration of literally sharpening away 4 of pencil, just trying to get a workable point...you give up on trying to get a sharp point, you just want something you can apply to the paper, you can truly lose 1/2 the pencil length just on 1 sharpening session. (btw - if you have a breaker try microwaving the pencil for about 7 seconds...carefully - they get hot fast & you can blister the paint, but if you soften the lead & then leave it & let it cool you can firm up the broken sections, oftentimes.) Anyway, Polychromos tend not to have that problem, in my experience. The drawback is the STREAKING. The lighter colors frequently streak darker colors (yellow, for example, will suddenly streak red). It happens with the lighter colors - not constantly but regularly. This occurs because they arent mixing the wet lead thoroughly enough - during manufacturing the scraps or other reworks are frequently mixed into a new batch of lead...a perfectly legitimate thing to do - but if you dont those pieces thoroughly, its like mixing colored sprinkles into cake batter, you get flecks or pieces of color in the finished product. Great when its a cake, not so much when its on your artwork! This is a pretty bad issue...if it wasnt for the streaking thing, Id give these pencils 5 stars easy!! I bought the 36 set some months ago, Im graduating up to the 120 because they are nice pencils!! Prisma still rates #1...but these are a pretty close 2nd!

These are beautiful pencils. The pencils lay down like butter and the colors are rich and vivid and easy to blend. The pencils hold a point and sharpen beautifully. They are a pleasure to use, but I still find it hard to say if I like them better than the Prismacolors. Where other people have had a lot of trouble with broken pencils, I havent. Both of these sets are my go to pencils, with Derwents being a very close second, but then you can never have enough pencils and each set brings something new. I do think that none of the other cheaper sets of pencils reach the quality of the polychromos, prismacolors or derwents.