Fantasia Watercolor Pencils

Comments about Fantasia Watercolor Pencils:

This Fantasia 36 pencil set was an addition to my motley watercolor pencil collection of mismatched brands and colors. I made a comprehensive swatch chart on Fabriano Artistico hot press which showed the strengths and weaknesses of each brand, dry and wet.

While the Fantasia pencils had a fairly good range of colors, they did not translate well on paper looking dull and less than true. Layers of color were hard to build and were never good enough to stand on their own without water, unlike most of my other brands. They also did not "play well with others" when combined.

Water blending was OK with some colors, impossible with others leaving strokes visible. Pencil points broke often enough to be aggravating and did not always sharpen in true round.

All in all, this product performed below several other comparably priced brands. I would rate it Scholastic Grade and no higher.

Comments about Fantasia Watercolor Pencils:

Tried this first on a coloring book, was disappointed as there's not much pigment at all. Felt bad after the purchase, so I thought I should give it another try. I sketched and used it on a watercolor paper, and voila! It came out really good! The colors came out really nice. So in my opinion, the kind of paper you use will do justice for this watercolor pencils.

Comments about Fantasia Watercolor Pencils:

Not sure what the other reviewer was expecting but I can't find anything wrong with these pencils. They go on smooth and easy, blend very well, the colors are bright and crisp. I swatched these out on watercolor paper and wet them so I could see what the colors looked like wet. Truthfully, the colors are comparable with Derwent Inktense, as I said, very bright and clean. The only thing I find wrong with the pencils in that it only comes in a 36 set, so you're limited on colors, but they do blend well, so you can make other colors are needed, within reason.

One other problem is that the pencils lack lightfastness ratings. Frankly I suspect these are not lightfast but I don't know.

I use these for practice and working projects out and I also use them on things that are not intended to last for the long haul. I really enjoy them.

Bottom line: Great product, great price, strongly recommend.

Comments about Fantasia Watercolor Pencils:

These are terrible watercolor pencils. They aren't very pigmented, they don't blend well and they break easily. Even with a good sharpener the tip breaks constantly. I am definitely bummed because I thought these would be decent seeing as how they are listed under artist quality pencils.