LYRARembrandt Polycolor Colored Pencils - 36 Professional Colored Pencils for Artists and Students - Vibrant Smooth Colored Pencils for Drawing Coloring Sketching Portraiture and More

Like many artists,I suspect ,I hadn't realised how much non-soluble coloured pencils had developed as a medium in their own right The newer ranges are a far cry from the hard, scratchy ones I had rejected as unsatisfactory back in college.This Lyra set is a good example of this improvement. (I've also rediscovered the delight of big tins of pencils, which takes me back to childhood Christmases.) For your money you get 70 pencils and two blenders in a solid tin. There is also a good grey set available which expands the range. The 72 pack has the colours and light fastness handily shown on the back and only two - the magenta and dark violet are of low light fastness.These are softer than Polychromos and Luminance, lay down smoothly and have the advantages of speed and not needing as careful application as the aforementioned brands. (I was delighted to find that even rather rough shading evened right out after several layers were applied - which is a boon for the impatient or heavy handed.) The downside of this is that detail is difficult as the points tend to crumble but as these work well with Polychromos I use these for fine detail.There is a good range of colours with an especially nice selection of subtle greens and earths but the blues are a bit disappointing.(I like an indigo for creating my darks and have to go to my Polychromos set for this.) However these are tremendously good value for money and marvellous for quickly creating the first layers in a piece. Anyone on a budget could get this Lyra set and add a few Polychromos from open stock for a fraction of the price of the premium brand and still get some great results.So whether you are expanding your collection of pencils or looking for a set to begin with without breaking the bank, I was delighted with the price and quality of this set and can recommend them.

I don't usually write product reviews, but had to for these pencils because I'm so impressed.I've had these for a about a week now and have been using them for my university art work pretty much everyday.I usually use faber castle polychromos, but needed a wider range of colours, at a more affordable price.Having used some different lyra coloured pencils before, and having been really impressed with the results I decided to give these a go and I'm so glad I did.They set comes with a huge range of colours that give you professional quality and vibrancey and really bold pigments for such an affordable price.Usually I'd be looking upwards of £100 for a set of this size and quality, which is too expensive for a student budget, so the price of these was a life saver.The colours are beautiful and the set comes with two blending pencils which honestly make a huge difference to your work. I've been playing around with them today and they can turn a highly textured drawing to beautifully smooth in a matter of minutes, leaving you a glossy smooth surface to draw over and add yet more layers and detail!The only issue the leds can be quite crumbly when you're sharpening and are prone to breaking quite a bit which isn't a problem I've experienced with more expensive pencils, however ignore the slight frustration of extra sharpening this is a fantastic set for a bargain price!

I bought these to expand on my selection of greys and see if I liked Lyra polycolour pencils. I've only recently begun exploring coloured pencils as a medium in their own right and apparently most of these are not duplicated in the Lyra polycolour 72 set so it seemed a inexpensive way of trying them before committing to a large set. I was pleasantly surprised by them.For a start they are all lightfast, there is a good range of warm and cool greys, three blacks - soft, medium and hard - and a good white. (See photo) They have a lovely creamy lead that lays down and layers well and produces an even colour without having to be too careful with ones shading. They sharpen well but the soft lead doesn't hold a point too well, unlike my Polychromos, so are not best suited to fine detail. However the softer lead allows one to build up colour really quickly and there are several warm greys that I don't have in my other brands - even in my costly Luminance and Polychromos sets.It is advisable to give a new pencil an immediate sharpen before using it to get the best performance - I suspect that the tips are wax dipped to protect them in transit.I was delighted with how quickly I could work with these and pleased with the quality. I think that they will work well used in conjunction with Polychromos for finer details and, considering the modest cost of them, think that they are good value for money.

This is such a good value set of artist quaIty pencils. The barrels are standard size, like Crayola, unlike the thicker polychromos. They are beautiful wood, softer oil based pencils, so they lay down quickly but also layer well. I got the 36 set which has a great range of colours, but is lacking pink and purple. Luckily you can buy these open stock. The tin is attractive silver, and the cardboard sleeve has gorgeous artwork on it. Would make a lovely gift. I like the splender blender too.

I was a little reluctant to give them five stars because of some minor issues, but the majority of the pencils are truly a pleasure to work with. (I got the 72 tin)A minor issue: one of the pencils has the information printed the wrong way. Meaning the color name/code will be sharpened away after some use, and that's a bit sucky. I'd prefer my set to be completely uniform, but it's not a major complaint.As other reviewers have noted, some of the colors are scratchy. In my experience the lighter colors are the main culprits: 031 medium flesh, 038 violet, 039 light violet, 047 light blue, 062 true green. They are completely useless for me as the sound of them scratching the paper triggers my sensory issues; I absolutely cannot tolerate that sound. A few other colors feel a bit harder than the rest, but they are pretty OK compared to the five colors I've just listed.The vast majority of the pencils however are an absolute delight! You can layer and blend them beautifully, the application is smooth and the variety of colors is quite decent. The dark blues and the greens are a strong feature I think, and this is probably the first set that makes me excited about earth tones. Browns and ochres aren't usually my thing but this set has a nice selection of tones that remind me of amber/honey/cinnamon etc.The pencils are slimmer than usual, for example Derwent Coloursofts are chunkier than these. This is fine with me, but might be an issue for some people.All in all, if you can get these for a decent price (I got my set on sale), I highly recommend buying them.