I was contacted by a representative at Grabie online marketplace, which I had never heard of before. Since I love trying out new supplies, I decided to go ahead with a product review. I also love to find and share different art supplies with other art teachers. They sent me two art supplies to try out. I was not compensated for my review, other than the free supplies. I told them I would be completely honest in my review and that is what I will do. The first were some metallic markers, called Golden Shine Marker by STA company. Also, had never heard of them before.
These are nice, thick and vibrant colors. You can see on white paper they show up well. I really like how the darker pink/red and the light gold look.
They do show up well on black paper. I used standard black drawing paper. However, there wasn’t enough difference between the greens when shown on black paper, nor the golds or reds. They all looked kind of similar to me.
I used them on top of colored Kwik Stix as well. I liked how they showed up on top of the Kwik Stix. The colors showed enough variation for what I was expecting.
The price point is high for an elementary classroom, so I would not necessarily select these for my own classroom. I do like how the markers look on top of Kwik Stix and on top of white paper. Will I use them again now that I have them? Yes. Would I buy them for my classroom? Probably not.
The next product review is a set of 120 Watercolor Pencils by Brutfuner. I love watercolor paints and pencils so I was super excited to try out these pencils. If you don’t know what watercolor pencils are, you use them on your paper like colored pencils. Then, you can add water with a paintbrush. The water “activates” the color and makes it spread like watercolor paints. The result is a painterly effect. The price point on these was mid-range and they work out to about 47 cents a pencil. I love the range of colors this set provides. 120 colors!
I tried out many of the colors and I like how vibrant the colors look. I also like how easily they blend for most of the colors. There’s good color coverage once the color has been activated with water.
I did say “most”, because there were a few colors I had high hopes for, but they just didn’t blend as well as the others. The neon colors I was looking forward to trying out, but the neon colors did not perform well with the water. The neon colors also didn’t match the intensity of the color on the outside of the pencil :(. Sad face. Here are some swatches of color I tried out.
I LOVE that light orange color and the juicy light green color. The magenta and light blue are also very beautiful.
Bottom line: I really like these (minus the neon colors). I would definitely use these again for my own art journals and experimentations. I might buy them for the classroom. Since there are 120 colors, I would buy a few sets for the class to share. I also have several other brands of watercolor pencils and these work better than the cheaper ones I have and about the same as the other mid-range ones I have. I haven’t tried the Prismacolor watercolor pencils, maybe that will be my next review.
Are you looking for a fun lesson using watercolor pencils?
These whimsical landsapes inspired by Justin Vining are a favorite of mine.
Discover more from Art is Basic | An Elementary Art Blog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I’ve never heard of watercolor pencils before. I used to sub teach and now stay home with my toddler grandchildren caring for them during the day. Thanks for your review as I’m going to looking for them for myself and my older granddaughter as she likes to draw. I like the looks of watercolors but I never liked how I didn’t feel like I had much control over where the color went. It looks like the pencils will solve that issue.