Castle Art SuppliesHarmonious Colored Pencil Set | 72 Muted, Wax-Based Soft Core Coloring Pencils for Adult Artists' Relaxation | Presented in Tin Case

I went back and forth on whether or not I needed this set of pencils, decided I didn't, but ordered it anyway. Now I'm really glad I did. The colors are just beautiful--and so are the pencils. Most of Castle Art colored pencils have black casing with a colored end tip. The Harmonious Color collection pencils are coated in matte colors that surprisingly match the leads quite well. But it's the incredibly soothing FEEL of the varnish, incredibly satiny but not slick, that deserves a shout out. The pencils come named and numbered with plain white printing that is easy to read font that also avoids the annoying glare of the metallic labelling a lot of pencil manufacturers seem love more than the customers do. I suspect however, that some of the white may rub off after a time, because there are a few spots where the writing already seems to be doing this, and I haven't even used them all that much since I've ordered them. Nevertheless, I wish Castle Arts would do ALL their pencils this way. (I think their Pasteltint collection may have a similar coating, but I don't own these so I'm just going by the pictures). Speaking of pictures, yes, the pencils do come in this really pretty and sturdy tin box. I really don't like working out of multi-layer tins (or any tins or boxes for that matter), so I transferred my pencils into a hard cover zip case. This allowed me to include the 24 Botanical set and the 24 Kandinsky set of Castle Arts "soft touch" pencils and my 50 set of Brutfuner Macaron Colored Pencils which a pastel set. I had these three sets of pencils for awhile, and these help "round out" the Harmonious Collection.Which brings us (finally!) to the actual usability of the Harmonious set. I personally didn't have any issues with sharpening any of the pencils either by an electric or hand sharpener. There was no breakage with my particular set, so apparently they survived the shipping. As anyone who ever owned really soft leaded pencils (especially Prismacolor Premier), if you drop them, the entire lead can shatter and will just keep breaking off whenever you try to sharpen them. The leads were also well centered overall--I definitely didn't get any where one side of the pencil sharpened, but the other didn't because the cores were off. As for being advertised as their "soft touch" pencils, I don't think they are any softer than Castle Art's "oil-based" Gold Collection colored pencils. I don't really consider these as "soft" pencils at all, but it really depends a lot on the paper you are using them on. They seem to really go down well on paper that has a very slight tooth to it, rather than being overly smooth or overly rough. It's a matter of preference and how you plan to work with these. I have other pencils that are definitely softer, but these are maybe a touch softer than Crayola. The colors lay down nicely, blend well, and you can get at least 4-5 layers down if you aren't heavy-handed, and perhaps more layers with a lighter touch. These are not the set of pencils I would choose for any detailed work. I bought them mainly for coloring. Also, at this price point, they do not come open stock, so if you use up a pencil, you either will have to do without it, or you have to buy another set. Finally--something that I probably should have gone into more from the start--despite having 72 different colors in the set--Castle Arts Harmonious Set is not most people would consider a "stand alone set". What Castle Arts labels as "harmonious" is known more commonly as "morandi" colors--soft, muted grays, beiges, blues, greens, pinks, and purples. There are some darker colors in there, especially in the blues and browns, but they are deliberately dulled down by a grayish cast. There were so many colors labelled as "gray", I was disappointed at first since despite years of working with colored pencils, I have no idea what to do with the gray ones. However, most of the grays are tinted toward a pastel-like shade. There are no yellows--the beiges are closest. If you love soft pastel colors, as I do, then a set of colored pencils in pastel shades would actually compliment, and not really duplicate this set. For the best results, you need to add a set of basic colors to give yourself a wider range of coloring or drawing possibilities. For people who like to experiment with unusual color palettes, color pencil collectors, and people who just like soft, pretty colors and find them more calming than boring, I definitely recommend these. There is a blank color chart included with the set so you can swatch out the colors yourself. I copied the blank chart on some paper that I usually use for pdf prints. Castle Arts also has, like with all their colored pencils collections, included a color pamphlet with suggestions and directions to use the pencils for a specific art project. The price of all brands of colored pencils seem to fluctuate a lot these days, so keep an eye out for sales. I personally would not pay full retail for these if there is no way to replace individual pencils, and I love them . I've included part of a coloring page I did, just using the colors from the set. I did not complete the page since I would like to add other colors that are not in the set. All colors are either directly from the pencils themselves, or I blended two or more colors together in order to achieve it. The colors looks sloppy here because I intended to add in some other colors before final burnishing, or blending it out with Zest-It or Gamsol. The illustration is from Adriana Picker's coloring book "Where The Wildflowers Grow" which was probably not the best paper to do this test on. It reminds me of a cross between CreateSpace paper and children's coloring book paper, but heavier. I did do some small bits in better quality coloring books like Johanna Basford's, Hanna Karlzon, and even the Dover Creative Haven Coloring books. The better the paper, the better the results. This review is overly long already, but I might add other coloring examples when I inevitably have to go back to edit this review for length.

I have the portrait colored pencils set from Castle Arts and I love the colors in that set. When I saw this set online, I was excited to try it out. This set is presented beautifully in the metal case with an easy to follow instruction booklet filled with handy tips and a thick high quality test card to test all the colors. It is great having a tester sheet with all the colors in front of you while using the pencils. There are three trays of colored pencils in the set and there are ingenious little handles on the tray edges to take the trays in and out of the metal case so the pencils stay flat and in order. Each pencil is numbered clearly so it matches the tester sheet. Definately take a little time to create the provided sampler of all the colors because it provides an excellent reference guide for any future drawings. I was skeptical about using these on wood but they are beautiful on soft sanded grain light wood. I'm totally in love with drawing with these on wood. I saw the wood suggestion in the booklet inside the set. I decided to do a set of coasters for a friend and I started with an avacado (photo added in review). I'm so in love with these pencils on wood. I did not use a blender or any additional materials to soften the pencil either. It's just the pencil drawing...it just turned out beautifully buttery. I'm going to seal it with a varnish and make some more.I also did some drawings with this set on heavy drawing paper and cold press watercolor paper and they are gorgeous. The set comes with examples to follow and you can even print things from their website and follow their instructions. One of my favorite castles is highlighted in the booklet too...Magical!These pastels in pinks, purples, blues and greens make a nice starting point for anyone to get aquainted with cool colors in their drawings to express mood and personal voice.One thing I noticed right away was the quality of the wood in the pencils is far superior to most colored pencils I have seen on the market. These feel more professional than other brands and I'm loving them. When I hand sharpened them they held together exceptionally well and had zero flakey bits of wood shavings like other brands with low quality wood components in the pencil.The set is excellent value for the money also and considering the prices of quality art materials now days, I highly recommend these for color quality, price, and ease of color application on a variety of papers and smooth wood surfaces. I'm looking forward to using these on canvas next!

These are beautiful colors. They are wonderful pencils. They are so smooth and very blendable. Great to work with and complement the other Castle Art pencils

When I first saw these pencils, they were being sold at a discount on Prime Day. It took me 24 hours before I decided to go for it, and I am glad that I did. As most of us know, the color we see on our monitors might not be what color an item is. These 72 Harmonious colored pencils looked rather dark when I saw them online and I wasn't sure that I would get colors that I generally work with.However, when I got them the next day and started swatching them I was very pleased. There are pink toned pencils as well as purple, both light and dark, also shades of blues and greens. All the pencils are numbered and named and named with interesting names including Cumulus and Cirrus, the names of cloud formations and they looked to have the shades of those clouds in the pencil. The colors are lovely. I have not used these in conjunction with any of my other pencil sets which these are promoted to be able to do so. They are made to go with any pencil set, both Castle Arts and other sets of colored pencils.I did try out one thing though, after swatching them. I had just gotten this scrapbook paper set; Daisy Scrapbook Paper [ASIN B0FBW167P2] as the set had many pages of daisies as so using this pencil set exclusively, I filled in some of the daisies. The colors seemed to be a perfect match. I only colored part of a page and glad I did as the paper seems to have disappeared.The pencils were easy to use. There was no tip breakage in transit nor when I swatched the pencils.