- Ellie Taylor
Review of the October 2018 ScrawlrBox and Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencils
Derwent has released a new set of lightfast colored pencils and ScrawlrBox featured them in its October box. So what's all the buzz about these pencils? Let's take a look!
For those who want to try these supplies for themselves, I have included my Amazon Affiliate links down below including my UK and Canada links as well.
When I opened the October ScrawlrBox this what I found! Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencils! Awesome! I'd been itching to try these.
Cutie Boots says 'Where's the Gelly Roll pens?' (He loves Gelly Rolls.)
The main art supply in this box was the six piece set of Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencils. These colored pencils are the newest product from Derwent and they are really lightfast and not just light resistant. The colors in this set of six are Mid Ultramarine, Sandstone, Yellow Ochre, Champagne, Wheat, and Midnight Black.
Next there was a Staedtler HB graphite pencil with an eraser. These are available at Amazon in packs of 36 for $14.99.
Then for blending the colored pencils there was a Koi Coloring Brush Pen. This pen has a water based dyestuff ink which is used for blending. You can find it on Amazon in a pack of three for around $11.49.
There was a Derwent Pastel Pencil sharpener for the Derwent colored pencils. It retails for $6.99 on Amazon.
Last there was two pieces of Hahnemuhle Bugra Butten A5 paper: one white piece and one cream color.
Then there was the supplies list, a ScrawlrBox sticker, a print of the month by Judith Selcuk, and a Menthol Eucalyptus (candy?). In the United States we use the Menthol Eucalyptus lozenges for sore or dry throats, but not for candy. This is not a flavor that I have ever been very fond of. I prefer cherry flavored throat lozenges, so I gave this one a pass. I did taste it though and sure enough it tastes like Halls Menthol Cough Drops.
Dick Blick had a huge Black Friday sale and I managed to get the big set of 36 Derwent Lightfast colored pencils for around $85. Normally this set costs around $110, but it goes on sale occasionally on Amazon and Dickblick.com, you just have to keep an eye out for sales. These are available in groups of 12, 24, and 36. They are also available open stock for $2.99 on dickblick.com.
Right now Derwent only has 36 colors in this highly lightfast series. Most of the colors are landscape type colors of browns and greens. There are a few colors like red, blue, yellow, and purple, but they are not very bright. Derwent is still working on developing lightfast versions of brighter and lighter colors such as oranges, pinks, more blues and purples, and brighter reds.
Doodlin' Time!
The pack of six Derwent Lightfast colored pencils were mainly shades of browns and yellows with one blue pencil. The Staedtler pencil was nice for sketching and the Koi Coloring Brush Pen seemed to blend the Derwent pencils pretty well. The Derwent Pastel Sharpener worked great on these pencils and made a nice point.
The 36 set of Derwent Lightfast colored pencils is an oil based colored pencil instead of wax like some of the other brands. These pencils aren't as soft as Prismacolors and Polychromos, but they lay down quite a bit of color. You do have to use a little more pressure for a heavy layer of color.
"Chimayo Coloring Page"
by Ellie Taylor
I tested these pencils out on one of my coloring pages that will be in my soon-to-be-published (I hope) coloring book. They are pretty smooth and they blend fairly well even without the Sakura Koi Coloring Brush Pen. I didn't use it on this coloring page because I printed it out on card stock and the printer ink would have smeared. The colors in the Derwent Lightfast set were perfect for this picture which needed lots of landscape hues and browns for the adobe church. I used the brighter colors on the designs around the main subject.
Overall, I think these Derwent Lightfast pencils are a very nice professional colored pencil set. I hope they can expand on the selection colors and get some brighter ones. The Derwent Lightfast colored pencils would be great for professional artwork because they are so lightfast. I am really glad that the ScrawlrBox featured them in October so that I could try these colored pencils out and see that I wanted more of them.
Check out the ScrawlrBox at http://scrawlrbox.uk/ They start at £15 a month with free shipping in the UK. Everyone else pays shipping costs. For the US, the total cost is roughly $25 to $30 including the shipping cost.