Derwent Watercolor Pencils Review

I have to admit, Derwent is one of my favorite art brands. I’m a loyal fan of several of their colored pencil lines, including the Lightfast (my all time favorite) and Chromaflow lines. I decided to check out their watercolor pencils. I don’t have a whole lot of experience with watercolor, but have recently been experimenting with getting into the medium. I created a mixed media piece a while back with a base of watercolor pencils (Faber Castell Albrecht Durer) and regular colored pencils on top.

I loved the result.

For this review, I’ve printed out a coloring page and am working on Stonehenge paper. (I actually realized that Stonehenge is actually not a watercolor paper; their Aqua line is watercolor paper), but I did enjoy using the regular Stonehenge for this project.

Product Features

Available in sets of 12, 24, 36, and 72
Amazing blending capabilities and color saturation
Core is quite soft, and easily breakable
Sharpens to a fine point but the point dulls down quickly
Smooth laydown
3.5 mm core, so fits into most sharpeners

The pencils come well packaged in a metal tin with shrink wrap protecting the pencil trays, so they don’t get damaged in shipping.

As for the pencils themselves, the barrel is dark, with the color name written in silver, so it’s easily readable. Before using these pencils for the first time, I did swatch them because we all know that it’s hard to know ahead of time what the colors will look like when wet.

Lightfastness

Ok, so there’s a bit of noise out there regarding lightfastness, with some artists living and dying by only using highly lightfast pigments and others who aren’t concerned at all. Derwent does test their pencils for lightfastness (using the Blue Wool Scale), but it is important to note that this testing was only done for dry pigment (not pigment activated by water.)

For professional work that I’m planning to sell, I won’t use anything below a 4 on the blue wool scale. If I’m working in a sketchbook or a coloring page, I don’t worry about it.

For the set of 72

15 pencils are below a 4
19 pencils are listed from 4 through 5
The rest are from 6 through 8 which is generally considered excellent lightfastness

I created a color chart bundle for 10 different brands of colored pencils. The bundle includes printable charts, along with the lightfast ratings for each pencil. Check it out here

Sharpening and Breakage

I was using a Kum hand held sharpener to sharpen these. They do sharpen to a fine point, but I did have several colors break on me when sharpening. I didn’t experience breakage while actually working on the project, so it’s possible my sharpener was the problem

To read more about the supplies I generally use for colored pencil work, including my preferred sharpener, read this post over here.

The Ultimate Guide to the Best Colored Pencil Supplies

Performance

First thoughts

I loved these pencils the second I started using them. I printed off a coloring page on Stonehenge paper (my printer doesn’t jam with this paper which is why I grabbed it), and I initially thought Stonehenge was considered a watercolor paper but later on realized I was mistaking it for their Aqua line.

Anyway, these laid down BEAUTIFULLY. They weren’t scratchy, and they felt so smooth as I was working with them. I made sure to use light layers because if you push too hard with watercolor pencils, they don’t blend out as well. I did about 3 layers before blending out.

Blending

The blending ability of these pencils is my favorite part about working with them. They are an absolute DREAM to work with. As many of you know, regular colored pencil takes a while to get a good blend, but these blend out SO smoothly and so saturated after just 3 layers.

I did make sure I wasn’t scribbling when applying the initial layers, and made sure I was getting an even laydown. For this specific project, I did some layering, blended out, added more layers, and then blended out a second time. I didn’t use any water after the second time through, and just used the pencils themselves to add detail.

Final Result

Based on the price point, these are perfect for artists new to watercolor and who just want to try out the medium. I have yet to check out the Faber Castell watercolor pencils on a full project, but will be doing a review of those too.

I did add some colored pencil over the background because the set didn’t have a dark enough teal color, so I couldn’t resist grabbing my Derwent Lightfast Pacific Blue to darken up the background.

Final Thoughts

Pros

They come in open stock
Pricing is quite affordable compared to some other watercolor pencils
Beautiful color saturation and laydown
Blending is phenomenal
Their white pencil is BEYOND AMAZING

Cons

they break easily
they don’t hold their point very well
Not all lightfast, but that’s a common feature of the watercolor medium as a whole

Free Color Chart

I’ve linked my color chart bundle earlier in the post, but I also have a FREE Prismacolor chart. This is one of the ten charts I’ve included with the bundle, so you’re getting a front row seat of what the whole bundle is like.

More Resources

Visit Derwent’s website to learn more about their lightfast testing and the ratings for these specific pencils.

Here is the link to purchase the pencils if you would like to try them. I have the 72 set but you can always get a smaller set if you’re on a tight budget