Faber-Castell Art Grip pencils

My experience of pencil crayons extends to Crayola school packs, and that's about it. I've never had the opportunity to use an artist quality product such as these, and I tell you what- you the difference is blatantly obvious. These are hands down the best coloured pencils I've ever used. I haven't managed to try Prismacolor, which is the brand everyone raves about, but I'm not sure they could better these! Colour is bright at even the lightest of touches, becoming bold and vibrant the harder you press down.

They come in tins of 12, 24, 36 and 60, and have a huge spectrum of shades and tones, great for layering which they do extremely well. I love to blend from light to dark when shading things like flowers, but some pencils are just too scratchy to do the job. The lead on the Faber-Castell pencils is so soft and dense, you can actually feel that you're using a quality product when you put them to paper. The coverage is brilliant.

The pencils, aptly named 'Art Grip', feature a series of nubs running almost the length of the pencil which help you hold them without slipping. They are triangular shaped, so very comfortable to hold for extended periods, and finished in a very professional looking matt charcoal colour. 

Each pencil has its own glossy coloured tip, which is a very good match for the colour it produces- I often find, especially with markers, that the colour on the lid is far different to how it comes out! Each shade has a number, making cataloguing the pencils simple if you like to make your own colour charts. I've also found that they don't need sharpening very often, which is a bonus, and the leads rarely break. I suppose that's what you'd expect with this calibre of pencil.

The only slight criticism I have of the pencils is that they are supposedly smudge-proof, but I've found the opposite to be true (you can see it slightly on the girl with the black hair in the slideshow below). If you brush them with the side of your hand shortly after applying, they will smudge across the paper which is a shame, but if you're careful it shouldn't be a problem. Here are some pictures I have coloured using these pencils. I would highly recommend them, and I would love to have the full set as the blending possibilities would be endless!

I received these in exchange for an honest review. You can find them on Amazon here:

Art Grip Colour Pencils Tin 24 Pencils