Product Review Series - Coloured Pencils | Ft. Solabela Fine Art Materials

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

Every now and then we are lucky enough to stumble across something that turns out to be an amazing find.  That is how I felt with the Solabela Fine Art Materials. I literally was scrolling through Amazon looking for an inexpensive set, and these popped up. I had never heard of them, so I took the opportunity to try out something that was brand new (at least to me).

Features:

• Wax based
• Hexagonal barrel
• Soft, thick cores
• Smooth application
• Includes Silver and Gold
• Good variety of colours

These pencils came in a cardboard box, which as I have mentioned makes me a little sad. I strongly dislike the cardboard box, and so I have divided them up into colour families; Reds and Purples, Yellows and Oranges, Blues and Greens, then Earth tones and Grays. 

In the 48 pack, there is a great selection of colours. For me, there is never enough yellows and oranges, but I found these to be decent compared to other sets that I have. There was only one flesh tone, and it wasn't until I was swatching it that I even realized it *was* a flesh tone. It was labelled "Light Slenna" and after some serious googling, I have to conclude that this is either their word or a misspelling of Sienna.

The pencils come pre-sharpened, and generally that's just not good enough for me. However, with these I found that I didn't require them to be sharpened immediately. Which was delightful, I mean who really wants to sharpen if they don't have to?

There are numbers on the pencils, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what they are for. They seem to be all over the map as you can see from the swatch chart below. They may simply be for the manufacturer, I'm not sure.

For testing, I stamped the small sunflower from Lawn Fawn's "Our Friendship Grows" stamp set, with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Staples Brand 110lb cardstock.

The core is soft, but not as soft as Prismacolors (there will be a review of these in the future), and only a very light touch is required for first layer application. They lay down very much like some of the oil based sets I have tried, until about the third layer. Then there is a noticeable wax bloom.

I included the swatching for this set to show an interesting take they did on a few of the colours. Rose Madder Lake, Pale Vermillion, Lime and Grass Green lay down like neon colours. I have never seen this in any other set and found it interesting. I'm super glad that I swatched them and found this out before I was using them on a project.

I found this blank swatch paper online, and have been in contact with the creator to see if I can provide you guys with a link. I'm still waiting to hear back from her. Once I do, hopefully, I'll have a link for you guys so you can print out your own blank swatch cards. This one is fantastic. So fingers crossed.

Final Breakdown:

Pros:

• Good variety of colours
• Has a silver and gold
• Names on the pencils
• Smooth application
• Has some neon colours
• Quality vs Price is very good
• Blends well

Cons:

• Wax bloom after third layer
• Crumble waste when colouring - make sure you have a paper duster
• Box case

I hope you enjoyed today's review. Don't forget you can follow me over on the right sidebar so you don't miss any future reviews or project posts, if you have any experience with these pencils I'd love to hear your thoughts, toss me a line in the comments section below!

Click here to check out my review of the oil based Marco Raffiné Fine Art pencils.

Click here to check out my review of the wax based Color Collection by Conté.

Product Review Series - Coloured Pencils | Ft. Marco Raffiné Fine Art Pencils

Hey everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

I was over the moon to try out and review the Marco Raffiné Fine Art Pencils. I have seen and heard a lot about these pencils from other artists and paper crafters, and I was thrilled to have an opportunity to get my hands on this 48 piece set.

Features:

• Wood Casing
• Hexagonal Barrel 
• Lots of browns/earthy tones
• Includes a Silver and Gold
• Oil based cores

Sadly, this set did not come with a tin box. Sounds snobbish now that I write it out and actually read it, but it's unfortunate. It means that I won't be able to store them in said box and have to come up with other means. As shown above, the pencils that do not come in nifty little tins get separated into basic colour families and bound together. 

There is a great selection of browns, greens and blue. I was, however, incredibly disappointed in the serious lack of yellows and oranges. To even make a separate grouping worthwhile I included the skin tones instead of keeping them in the neutrals as I usually do.

These pencils came sharpened, but that's factory sharp and as I've mentioned that's just not good enough for me. For sharpening, I use an inexpensive electric sharpener that I purchased from Walmart. Since switching to electric, I've never once had the breakage issues that I used to have with manual sharpening and I get a great sharp point. I cannot recommend one enough. 

For testing, I stamped the small sunflower image from Lawn Fawn's "Our Friendship Grows" stamp set with Memento Tuxedo Blank ink on Staples brand 110lb paper. This is my go-to cardstock for most of my projects, it's got a great tooth, it's Copic-friendly and very inexpensive. Which makes it a card maker's dream paper. 

The pigment from these pencils lays down very smoothly. It takes only a very light touch to get down the first layer and building the colours is nice because of it. Given the hexagonal barrel, griping the pencil is a little different, but I found that my hand adapted quickly.

Final Breakdown:

Pros:

• Quality vs Price is quite good
• Smooth application
• Standard size
• Blends well
• Great selection of browns and blues

Cons:

• No colour names on barrel
• Ridiculous lack of yellows and oranges (4 yellows and 1 orange)
• Core is very soft and needs a lot of sharpening to maintain point

I hope you enjoyed today's review. If you have any additional information about the Marco Raffiné Fine Art Oil based pencils I'd love to hear it, please leave a message in the comments section below. Don't forget you can follow me over on the right sidebar so you don't miss any future reviews or project posts!

Click here to check out my review of the Color Collection by Conté.

Product Review Series - Coloured Pencils | Ft. Color Collection by Conté

Hi everyone, thanks for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

I thought I would mix things up a little bit and do a product review. Expect a series. Not just because of the blog title, but because what's the point of a review if you aren't reviewing a bunch of stuff? I mean honestly.

Right now, I'm super into coloured pencils. Generally I cannot use my coloured pencils until the summer months because of the arthritis in my hand, but for some reason this late winter/early spring has been okay for me to use them. So, YAY!!!

The first set I will be review is the Color Collection by Conté. In Canada, they are available in Walmart for about $20 (as of this writing). I got my set on Amazon, for slightly less than I would pay in store.

Features:

• Tin Case
• Bright Colours
• Sturdy Core
• Wood Free - the casing is plastic (I'll get to this)
• All black casing

First impression on opening the tin was "These look sharp." No pun intended. Well, maybe a little. The contrast of the cores to the casing is very attractive. However, there are no colour names on the individual pencils, and while I know I can look at the core, I like to see the names. OCD? Maybe, but we give names to stuff for a reason. 

I made a super quick swatch chart and adhered it inside the lid. The number is the last three digits of the stamped number at the end of the pencil. The third and fourth pencils had the same number so I added the "D" and the "L" to indicate dark and light. I wasn't able to find colour information online, but to be honest I didn't spend a whole lot of time looking. 

The pencils come sharpened, but that's only factory sharp, and I like super sharp. For sharpening I used a very inexpensive electric sharpener. I found early on with my first set of Prismacolors that manual sharpening = breakage which in turn = sad me. 

These sharpen like any other pencil, but I did notice that there was a warm plastic smell when I used my sharpener. Not really a problem for me, but if you are sensitive to smells that may be something to consider. 

For testing, I stamped the small sunflower from Lawn Fawn's "Our Friendship Grows" stamp set using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Staples brand 110lb paper. This is the only white cardstock I use for card making as it is Copic-friendly and very sturdy.

The pencil feels like any other in my hand, though very smooth, almost slippy. This could be my imagination, knowing beforehand that these are a plastic casing and not wood.

When colouring I start out with a light to medium pressure, the core feels springy (for lack of a better word) as though there was give and it felt slightly odd. The colour goes on smoothly, though not as vibrantly as I would have liked.

Blending is decent, though when applying the 125 over the 145D, it took more passes than I am used to to get the contrast I was looking for.

Overall, these pencils are okay. I probably wouldn't buy another set or replace this set once the pencils are used up. As far as I know, these are not available in open stock, and I wouldn't buy them if they were. I think that these will likely by my wax-based travel set. Pretty okay to work with, but I won't cry if I forget them somewhere.

Final breakdown:

Pros:

• Tin Case
• Relatively inexpensive
• Smooth application
• Standard Size
• Blend moderately well
• Sleek look

Cons:

• Price vs Quality isn't fantastic
• Slippy feel when gripping
• No colour names on barrel
• Plastic smell when sharpening
• Not a lot of online information
• Colour isn't super vibrant (but that may be a pro for some people, just not me)

Hope you enjoyed today's review. I'd love to hear about your experiences with these pencils, so please send me a message in the comments section below. Don't forget to follow this blog over on the right sidebar so you don't miss out on future reviews or cards!