Derwent Chromaflow Colored Pencils Tin, Set of 24, Great for Holiday Gifts, 4mm Wide Core, Multicolor, Smooth Texture, Art Supplies for Drawing, Blending, Sketching, Professional Quality (2305857)

These pencils are so saturated and pigmented. I purchased the 150 set after hearing that all of the colors will soon be available open stock from art stores. I mostly use Faber Castell polychromos for sketching and art, but I noticed a lack of the more bright, fun colors that a lot of the student brands have. I did not want to sacrifice performance and it was also important to me that the colors are available open stock. This set includes 4 great and very bright lime greens (Pear, Key Lime, Citrus Yellow, Lemon Lime) which are the hardest to find in the more "serious" professional art brands. I'm sure it has to do with lightfastness and subject matter, but I plan on using these in coloring books and love using bright, pigmented colors. On pencil quality, they are slightly smaller in diameter to the average Derwent pencil. They feel in the hand similar to a modern Prismacolor. The paint on the barrel is matte and there were some more textured pencils that I noticed, but did not affect my ability to use them. I also noticed some with chipped paint and incomplete printing, but also did not affect my ability to use them. They are extremely blendable and quite soft and buttery (to me, compared to Polychromos and Arteza). When I was swatching them I do not recall any scratchy colors. I also used the Prismacolor colorless blender and they are the most easy to blend of all of my pencils. I actually have to be careful to not blend or smudge too much! This also means that I can color faster because I can put down a light layer of color on the page and very easily blend it out to get the full color coverage that I want. They're not watercolor pencils, but the effect of using the colorless blender pencil on a light layer was similar to activating a watercolor pencil in that you can get a lot of color coverage and it does change the look quite a bit. The Derwent colorless blender used on a blend of blue and yellow actually blended to a green, where the prismacolor blender just brightened the colors and softened the texture. Overall I am very happy with these pencils. I think they're a great value and there's an excellent color selection. I wish they were a tad bit harder, but I also realize I'm probably in the minority when I gravitate to harder pencils and anything softer feels too soft. I definitely recommend these for coloring book enthusiasts.

At first I may have been a bit bias because it was my art teacher that designed and created both art pieces on the containers of this set, but after using these pencils for a few months now I am extremely impressed!! The color and pigment is gorgeous and there is no inconsistency in the formula so application is always smooth and consistent! These pencils are great for shading and blend nicely with each other, while the encasing of the pencil is hard and durable the core is soft and great for adding a variety of shading to your pieces! Even though I stated the core is soft it is also pretty tough too, ive dropped my entire tin, pencils rolling away and all, and not a single one has broken! The integrity of the core is still solid and hasn’t broken from impact as far as I can tell! The only reason I would rate these pencils 3 stars for beginners is because these pencils are a bit softer than prismacolors so when if used with a heavy hand they would most likely break and crumble, so I would suggest this upgrading list for beginners -Crayola: cheap for decent quality, good to learn color theory and blending -Prismacolor scholars: budget friendly prismacolors, good to start learning pressure and more blending -Prismacolors: little pricey but truly gets the job done, good to move on to bigger pieces with more detail! Also you don’t need a 170 pack to get the job done, they are great to learn color layering to create new colors and blending! -Derwent: more pricy but great quality! Good for fine detail, blending, layering, very soft durable cores and gorgeous pigments for more advanced pieces! And just a good tip in general if you are looking to buy any art supplies as a gift make sure you a buying a product and brand that the recipient likes and enjoys, maybe they only enjoy the supplies they buy or maybe they enjoy trying new things! Every artist is different so it never hurts to ask!

I purchased these pencils within days of their release. I paid 2x the current offering price, so I wanted to take that into consideration and give myself ample time to assess them properly so I can provide you with a fair and comprehensive review. The Chromaflow line was rumored to be Derwent's attempt to bring a Prismacolor dupe to their UK market, as the former were becoming more difficult to obtain across the pond. Some of you were a little salty about the heritage brand doing a first release in the States, understandably. A choice made, I think, with the best of intentions. They needed to test the pencils in a market familiar with the product they're trying to improve upon. (PC) Chromaflow feature a sleeker barrel than the chunky barrels we've grown accustomed to from Derwent. The pencils are extremely lightweight and elegant with matte black barrels. The gold lettering on the pencils make the text extremely easy to read. The capped ends feature an extremely accurate color representation making selection a breeze. The absolute standout feature of CF is an extremely smooth and even laydown. You can get very rich color payoff with the lightest of applications. These would be great for anyone with dexterity or mobility issues that make using garden-variety colored pencils challenging. I can't stress this next part to you enough. I never realised how much I needed a savory pencil before I had one. It's such a refreshing change to see the standard cream pencil transformed into PARMESAN. I think they're at an awesome price point now, but I'm evaluating them at the price I paid. Please make these available open stock and double the range. I love them! PROS: - rich color payoff with even a light application - easy to sharpen - holds a point longer than competition - fun pencil names - layer and blend seamlessly CONS (objectively) - soft texture could be a hindrance to those with a heavy hand. - not open stock (yet, I hope) - slimmer than the Derwent standard - a limited range compared to US competitor Buy these even if you "have enough pencils". Do not even hesitate if you don't have access to PCs. Treat yourself to a set of my new favorite Derwent pencils so together we may get more Parmesan into the hands and hearts of the those who need it!

They were well protected for shipping, and the tin and pencils arrived in perfect condition. I sampled them in various coloring books for a quick test. The colors are vibrant and they glide when laying down the color. I especially liked how they lay down on the paper in Maria Trolle’s books. I sharpened a few without any breakage using a manual Kum sharpener and Prismacolor sharpener. The pine wood is different than all my other pencil brands, and it seems the Dahle 133 will sharpen the wood the smoothest. Overall, I am very happy with this purchase, and am looking forward to continue finding the best paper for these pencils. Derwent does such a good job with color selection, and I will enjoy using these pencils.

These pencils aren't anywhere near as soft as prismacolor, but they very nice and the colors are vibrant. I do feel an electric sharpener will eat through these pencils very quickly due to how sharp they sharpen to a point. I think these are an excellent option for coloring books and are very nice to use! I was able to buy the 24 set for a cheaper price than the 12 set with a featured 30% coupon making them well worth it.

Love the colors in this set and the color lay down when drawing with them. This is the only set of Derwent that has a Dark Purple, which is becoming my new black- it’s so dark and rich. The pencils themselves are much thinner than all of my other Derwent pencils, but they work well. I use a Derwent manual sharpener and they come to a great sharp point. I use them on Pastelmat mainly.

I have purchased 5 sets of color pencils, and chromaflow is my favorite! The core is soft and creamy, (but not as soft as prismacolor), which I enjoy that the point seems to last a bit longer. The tints are vibrant and beautiful! One thing that I noticed from other reviews was the breakage with sharpening them. Well, there is a special way to sharpen the soft-core pencils. Use a handheld shapener only. With the sharpener in your right hand, turn the sharpener not the pencil, going over the pencil (turning sharpener to the right). I hope that helps someone save their pencils.

Derwent makes excellent pencils so when I noticed this ChromaFlow set of 150 colors on sale I figured I would get a set of quality wax pencils that lay down smooth and wouldn’t rub off/fade right in front of you while you’re coloring it, and have quality wood surrounding the core, also, for $120 would come with a color chart. There is a decent variety of colors, and the round wooden pencils are very light, almost too light, cheap feeling, but easy to color with. Some colors as with most wax blooms at some point even with careful layering, especially the darker colors, some of the lighter ones performed well without bloom. As you can see in the picture below a lot of white can be seen even with the darker colors like Redwood even after I built up several layers and added brown to the mix. My Kalour 120 set of wax pencils lay down, blend and are overall a better buy than these. The wood surrounding the cores is almost frayed looking and cheap, doesn’t always hold the cores securely thus the cores break easily when sharpening on several of the pencils, and a lot of them are warped. Overall there are some nice colors but they don’t dry or set well, they just seem cheap, and I wouldn’t purchase again and wish I would have tried a smaller less expensive set, and cannot recommend. Customer service was exceptional because my first set had 6 colors that were repeated, Amazon/Derwent replaced the entire set and received it overnight, they arrived without any broken or dented cases also!