I was inspired to purchase these pencils from last year’s portrait drawing thread over on WetCanvas – done by moderator Al for his “portraits in three part harmony” class last year. It wasn’t much of a “class,” per se, but it was interesting to use a new medium for portraiture! Some people had a hard time finding the right pencils but I got mine from my local JoAnn Fabrics (your local Michael’s should also have singles – you can also get them at DickBlick.com).

To be fair, the set does contain other drawing/sketching materials but I’ve hardly used them. I tried the graphite that you can get wet (“graphitone”) and I found it less than satisfactory. I’ve always found that wetting my drawing surface ruins it for later drawing. Your mileage may vary. I don’t understand how the three “wash” pencils differ from the graphitone; however, like I said, no thank you when it comes to getting my drawing surface wet.

The “pastel pencils” are too chalky for my tastes. I think the white pastel pencil would work well in conjunction with the black charcoal pencils, though, and I plan to try a portrait using said combination. Tony Ryder seems to like white pastel with black charcoal, so it must be good (Tony’s book is FAB-U-LOUS).

A real gem that I’ve come to really enjoy are the 4 sticks of charcoal – sticks, no wood (though there are three charcoal pencils surrounded by wood). When I get going in charcoal, I really get going and I like to have the medium all over my hands. Call me crazy but that’s how I like my charcoal. The charcoal isn’t as good as the vine charcoal made from pure willow that I also have and doesn’t erase as neatly as vine charcoal, but there’s a lot there and it’s a lot sturdier than vine charcoal. Pick your charcoal according to your goals.

CONs:
-Graphitone is lame
-would be better with more Derwent drawing pencils

PROs:
-good variety for experimentation
-relatively inexpensive for the quality