The Best Top 5 Watercolor Pencils, Top 5 Water Soluble Pencils

[@incognitoedc]

I am a senior on an extremely low fixed income, which dictates what I can afford in terms of art supplies. After settling in to mostly working with ink, I decided to learn watercolor. Based on your review, I purchased the 48 set of Faber Castel Goldfaber Aqua, and about a dozen open stock Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils. I had researched a specific list of colors suitable for botanical illustrations. I decided to go with water soluble pencils instead of pans because I can't stand the messy pans, and palettes... Yuck. And, yes I added the Caran D'ache pallette. I've been using my pencils for a month now, and while the Albrecht Durer are sheer heaven, the Gold Faber Aqua pencils perform very well for a student grade pencil. And because both are Faber Castel, the numbers and colors are the same. I am hoping to someday have a complete set of the Albrecht Durer pencils, but for now am happy with my choices. Both types have light fast ratings and vibrant colors and as you mentioned, blend beautifully on the plastic palette. I think it very important to realize, not everyone can afford super pricey art supplies. I am grateful you include budget priced supplies in your reviews, which allowed me to make good informed choices when it came to going down the rabbit hole of water soluble pencils. I am able to grow as an artist, and still afford the basic necessities of life. Its good to see the Albrect Durer pencils made your top 5 list. Thanks again for what you do for the art community!

[@waymire01]

The Mondeluz are a very nice pencil and very affordable if you purchase them in their original cardboard packaging. Just a thought. I do feel that the Albrects are the best value among the big names. I'd just slowly replace your Goldfabers with them a pencil or two at a time as you use them up, then move out to other shades if you choose.

[@TerrieJohnson731]

I'm going to binge watch the individual reviews tonight 🎉 No one knows a pencil better than you do 🎉

[@leonnehaaijman4709]

I really rate Staedtler's Karat Aquarell. Apart from their weird Noris series, Staedtler comes out with excellent, budget-friendly products. Being Dutch, I will always have a soft spot for Bruynzeel 😉... I'm 54 now and I've been using their products since I was a little girl. And now living in Spain, I have easy access to Maped, for instance. Another budget-friendly brand that make really, really nice products!

[@raginighag6595]

Yes agreed with everything u said 👍 same here for maped 😊

[@christianem.7792]

Albrecht Duerer and Museum Aquarelle and the Koh-i-noor Mondeluz are my beloved watercolor pencils. Closely followed by the Supracolor II and the Lyras.

[@TerrieJohnson731]

Had a good look and found it Harry! Thanks so much ❤ I'm crazed for WC pencils and crayons Lol I have all the paint I will ever use 😂🎉

[@kassaArt]

Thank you so much for sharing Harry.. I struggle to use watercolour pencils but you have wet my appetite to try again!. Thank you! 🎉

[@sneaks6635]

Have you tried using your pencils on hot press paper? You'll get a much smoother lay down which will give you a more even distribution of color.

[@ninner196]

This is how I started with them, I just drew with them putting in crazy colors and they were just really cheap ones which made it more difficult. I bought the 24 set of Albrecht Durer Faber Castell and instead of using pencil to outline a watercolor painting I would used the lightest color of each area and I never had to erase and it blended right in with the watercolor paint. I did notice that the Caran de ache Aquarelle pencil lines didn’t blend in as well. I had just a bumpy plastic cutting board so I started to just scribble a bunch of pigment there and slightly wet it and I could mix it like watercolor and have fun in my sketch book or go back and detail out a certain area of a painting. Just sort of letting go and being spontaneous with no worries is the most fun and creates natural work lightly hinted at what it might be.😊

[@SMCCRADY2]

Your no 1 pencil really is the crème de la crème of watercolor pencils. Plus they give pigment info which for pigment nerds is great!

[@demiwolters4375]

As i grew up in Belgium I alsways had easy access to Bruynzeel products and I loved them so much. They may not be the best there is in the world but they perform excellent for amateur artist. I know also started using the design aquarelle set and I absolutely love working with them!

[@TheArtGearGuide]

I think that so many of the Bruynzeel products are amazing, I have reviewed so many of them and can't for the life of me understand why more colored pencil artists don't use them in their videos or talk about them more. I know some artists do this, but given the cost for Bruynzeel products and their quality, I just don't understand it. The Design range is beautiful, I only wish they had a bigger count, 48 for the Aquarelle set is fine, but for the pastel and colored pencil ranges, I would love to see them up the sets to at least 72 or if I am really displaying my greedy nature, 120 set. Thank you so much my friend for your comment, it blows me away knowing that people from all over the world watch the videos I upload and I can't thank you enough. Thank you so much.

[@maureenmorley9555]

Thank you so much for doing this, I have wondered about the Museum quality ones. I love the Inktense pencils. I have been working with them and getting better with them. So thank you so much for doing this!

[@DieterPrivate]

I started to love water soluble pencils for colouring as it's so relaxing and magical to activate the colours. Having sets with less pigment and ones with more is a great mix. The Bruynzeel expression ones suprised me at how much colour payoff they have, as does the Staedtler luna ones. Of course nothing beats the beautiful colours and intensity of the Museum aquarelle ❤, which I only have a few of, but will collect based on the colours I use up from my other sets.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

The Staedtler Luna were a set that really surprised me in a good way. I watch this amazing artist, I think from India, it's that part of the world and I know there is a huge huge difference between India and Pakistan. Anyway, I always used to see this artist use Staedtler Luna, but at the time I had no idea what the pencils were. I eventually found out and when I ordered the set to review, I was so impressed with the result given how inexpensive they were. This is what I love about the channel I run, I love finding inexpensive art supplies that are gorgeous to use and produce excellent result. I love being able to showcase them off to anyone who watches my videos and show them that they don't always have to spend huge amounts of money in order to produce beautiful art and use gorgeous products. Thank you so much for your support and comment I really appreciate it.

[@sheilasinghal2922]

Watercolour pencils are one of my favourite things to use, but I'd never seen that Caran d'Ache palette. I love the Albrecht Durer pencils in particular, and covet the full 120 set. And I have long been a fan of the gorgeously saturated Derwent Inktense. Thanks for another great video! 😊

[@clairewalters8238]

❤i have the AD's and have had them for over 30 years. I do love the Fancolours by C'Aran D'Arche which only come in 40 colours but are up there in my opinion. Without a doubt the neo2's give you bang for your buck. I dont find myself using my derwent watercolour pencils but with inktense its a phenomenal set but i wouldnt use them unactivated like i do the AD's & fancolours. I think your choice of 5 is great Harry. I saw alot of unactivated pigment in the first two (at spot 5) but cant say much about them as i have never used them but they look very pigmented❤❤❤

[@wanderingstar5673]

I can aspire to developing enough skill to create great quality art that merits the use of Caran Dashe Museum Aquarelle. Until then , I’m happy with the Caran Dashe Swisscolor 40 set . Thank you for another great review.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

The Swiss Color are gorgeous and the Prismola are another excellent set.

[@SheilaLandry]

Thank you, Harry. I am fortunate to have collected the Faber Castell as well as the Derwent Inktense pencil sets. Both are beautiful. I feel no need to add to the collection(s) although seeing what is out there is fun and I love the comparison videos. I hope you do more porjects using water-solueable mediums. I would love to use them more and would love seeing more tutorials on them. You are awesome! :)

[@jude6752]

I only use Caran d'ache Aquarelle - once used, I didn't want to try anything else. I built my stock up one by one with open stock as budget permitted - they are worth every cent! Thank you for this review.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

I totally know where you are coming from, once you start using the Caran D’Ache Museum Aquarelle, it’s very difficult to use other water soluble pencils, although, there are still some excellent pencils available. Also the way in which you purchased your set is I think one of the best ways, buying open stock. Buying open stock will allow you to select the exact colors you want and need, sometime in these larger sets there is a lot of very very similar colors and of course with them being water soluble pencils, so many colors can be mixed with only a dozen well chosen colors.

[@mjpete27]

Hullo Harry, thanks for sharing your thoughts and opinions on these pencils. I have been a fan of the Koh-I-Noor watercolor pencils and I reach for them first! I finally purchased the Albrecht Durer’s from Faber Castell and they have the just deserved reputation as the best and they truly are, now some will argue with this, but they have lasted through the years and I have had small collections of them for years as well. I have the CaranD’ache plastic palette for the Neocolor sticks and I love it! I used to just use masking tape on the side holding my paper down as a rough area for scribbling a color down for mixing! I only have a small set of Inktense pencils, but I have a wider range of Inktense blocks! I find them much easier to create a picture with them! I am a watercolor artist from a very young age, so perhaps this is the reason I enjoy working with the blocks. I tried some of the CaranD’ache pencils, but I just don’t believe that they are so much better than the other pencils I have used for so many years! So they sit in the bottom of a drawer, unused. An Art supply that you don’t use is simply not the best, period. I put off buying the Albrecht Durer’s for years because of price of the entire set! I love how the Magnus pencils are just 30 colors up from 24! I have made more artworks than any other pencils combined! I once believed that the Koh-I-Noor pencils were the only ones that were water soluble! Back in 1970 you were limited in what was in your local art store! They were the only watercolor pencils they had in stock. I had no idea how to special order art supplies, how would I even know what was out there? Yeah I was just 9 years old when I purchased my first set of supplies, I went with my grandmother and she helped me pick out some things. She paid me for working in the garden pulling weeds and this was my reward. She was responsible for teaching us kids in the summers, there were 15 or so, not counting neighbors that came bye to learn from her, she was a very well known artist at the time! I remember my first crush decided to sit across from me at the table outside, she was a friend of my cousin Libby and she was visiting from LA! So pretty and a much better artist than me. Thank you Harry for jogging my memory, please take care, be safe and have yourself a lovely day!

[@berolinastrassmann]

What a lovely memory of your early childhood buying supplies. Thanks for sharing that. It made me think about my own discovery moment while using or getting art supplies.

[@wenceslaodelgado3691]

Thank you for the information from such important brands, I begin, many years ago, with Stabilo Aquacolor, next I painted whit Rijks Museum from Bruynzeel, next Mondeluz from Kooh-I-Noor, this last for me is very good, today I am going to try Karat from Staedtler. Thanks again for everything.

[@ninner196]

Thank you Harry! I use the smaller sets and in between those that are a bit more lightfast and love the ones that you mentioned. I do have to say that the CD aquarelle ones and FC I have found on an even keel. If one uses the palette that makes the difference. Using lines straight on Arches or Saunders etc sometimes leaves that initial line mark behind which can be annoying from the Aquarelle brand. But I have used about 4 different kinds and when I first started with the absolute cheapest quality which the leads would fall out😂 one can use those and still do amazing work. Yes I have grabbed Pablo’s when reaching for a Supracolor too. These all work great for dry media too, and nobody knows😂😊🎉Thank you and nice video!

[@Susiecat24]

Albrecht Dürer Are my favorite but I do not have any Caran D’Ache pencils other than Neo II which are cool as a water medium. I have Inktense but they are so different in how it lays down and the way it dries I don’t normally use them much. But my Albrecht Dürers I dearly love and use them wet and dry because they are just the right level of not too hard or too mushy for my heavy hand 😂

[@artonthecreek]

Okay! Albrecht Dűrer has been my go-to choice for years! I guess I’d better try the Museum Aquarelle❤

[@ArtandDiamondsWithEskies]

Thank you so much for this top five lists you confirmed my decision that museum aquariums are the ones for me to pull in on a professional level first. I just received my 20 set of landscape Museum last week

[@diannedupuis2960]

Great video!

[@beuvelain]

I love Supracolor and Albrecht Dürer because the color laydown is very similar to the wetted version. I use them dry too over ingres/pastel paper. They kind of act like smudge-free pastel pencils that way. I don't like how Inktense pencils feel when used dry... It's mostly dark colors. But activated with water they're gorgeous of course. I just prefer the versatility of classic watercolor pencils. I tried Museum Aquarelle but they're almost too pigmented for me. I guess I want to have more control over my watercolor drawings.

[@marytesta3003]

I love my Faber-Castell set. They dissolve like a dream. Graphitint is my favorite in pencils and love the pans too. Yes, the Caran d'ache palette is awesome. It's light weight and a perfect size. Thank you for this great video. It's so confusing with so many choices.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Yeah the Faber Castell are gorgeous, but I personally just love Caran D'Ache products and you are so right, the amount of choices out there is crazy. Thank you so much for your comment and support, I really appreciate all your support. Thank you

[@DC-gh6dy]

Just commented to remind you that you are awesome 👏 Have a great week! 💛

[@hazelpurls]

The Faber-Castell Magnus pencils are gorgeous - but I think they are sadly no longer available. With some hunting around I managed to get all the colours (there are 30 I think).

[@mjpete27]

I have the full set of Magnus pencils from Albrecht Durer and I purchased the new colors just last year and they are still available at Blick’s and Jerry’s Artarama in sets and individual too!

[@jillwiswall5386]

Great list, Harry! I love the wood less watercolor pencils by Koh I Noor! They dissolve better than most of my other pencils and the pigment level is high! I wish they came in a larger set! I want to get a set of the Mondeluz to see if they’re the same core, because if they are, that could be great.

[@kyliescolouringindownunder3098]

Hi Harry I have most of those pencils I have love all of them it’s hard to choose my favourite from my collection i do have a set of prismacolor watercolour pencils too

[@moppeliini6614]

Yes . I go along with you. I do love Koh- I. noor too...

[@HemanthSanam-l2x]

I love your channel it help me in choose product thanks 🙏 very much

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Thank you so much bbq I really appreciate it that, thank you so very much for your kind and generous comment.

[@katecurrie7499]

Thank you Harry, so useful as always 👍

[@IraMishchuk]

I love Albrecht Durer and Supracolor the best. Museum Aquarell are really gorgeous pencils, but a bit pricy for me. Prismalo and Mondeluz are very good, especially for the sketchbooks. But I want to admit that I have an old set of Mondeluz and they work beautifully. I've tried to buy a fresh new set, but they are not as good as my old one, so I immediately gifted them. Maybe Koh-i-noor changed their formula? I also have a set of Inktense but I don't like that they don't correlate with their barrels' color and for me, it is hard to predict what would be the actual color of the pencil.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Thank you so much for your comment, what you said about the Mondeluz is really interesting, I wish I could have tested the difference. I hope that companies are not cutting back on the amount of pigment they used to add due to the cost of living crisis, the Koh-I-Noor Mondeluz are a lovely set. Thank you so much for your wonderful comment and your support, I am so grateful, thank you

[@judygrandstrand9784]

Thank you!

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Thank you so much

[@alejandromorales9516]

I use these extensively as drawing tools. I use watercolor and gouache, so the ability to have a pencil that I can make marks with and then use a waterbrush to quickly lay out values is very useful. I also am able to then put watercolor or gouache over it. I also love bringing them into wet washes or dipping the pencil in water. My preferred pencil is the Museum Aquarelle. The core feels very smooth and creamy to me plus it has the lightfastness since I sell work. I find the Supracolor II draw just as well as the Museum Aquarelle ... smooth and very creamy but their lightfast ratings seem lower overall. Then I love the Albrecht Durers which draw silky smooth like the Polychromos. I find the Inktense hit or miss. I have a Sahara Gold in my pencil case that I love because it gives me a Quinacridone Gold like vibe in pencil form and I love the way the lines don't entirely dissolve, but I find the core really sticky and grabby on the page and not as giving as the Caran d'Ache and Faber Castell offerings. I wish the Museum Aquarelles were available open stock by me though. I have to order them online whereas I can pop into any Blick in NYC and get the Supracolors or Albrecht Durers (or Inktense).

[@super60sand70s]

I don't say this too often but note that I love your videos. Your reviews are the most comprehensive than any other You Tuber.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Thank you so very much, I can’t tell you how much your comment means to me, thank you.

[@ninner196]

Harry, a question, sorry to bother you. I do multimedia and drawing as my core base, wc, pastels, graphite, charcoal, colored pencil and ink but had experience in acrylics and oil painting. If one layered acrylics lightly and used a sort of wc color affect do you know if Inktense pencils can be properly used over or should be such as for details and how it might interact? I have a family member who might want to know. I have another one who has painted and taught her whole life and in 10 years will be a centurion. She fell in love with the wc pencils that I use and the cp. Both have absolutely beautiful work. They firmly feel that we all can continue to learn therefore if you or anyone knows about acrylics and combining Inktense please feel free to share.Thank you!😊

[@TheArtGearGuide]

I personally haven't tried Inktense over Acrylics, Acrylics and Oils are not my medium at all. I need to use a medium that when I suffer in pain with my back, I can just stop and move away from my work without having to tidy everything away and not worry that Im going to waste paint drying out if I can't tidy it all away. However I do know a few acrylic artist that have added Inktense onto of acrylic in a mixed media piece. let me reach out to them and ask them what they thought. the final piece looked awesome but Id rather ask them what they actually thought of the process. Thank you so much and I will get back to you as soon as I can

[@ninner196]

@@TheArtGearGuide thank you, no hurry, I understand the difficulties of living with a severe disability, every day or even moment is a challenge. Thank you.

[@waymire01]

Watercolor/Inktense isn't going to go over acrylics well.. it needs an absorbent surface. IDK if you have ever seen someone watercolor over gesso.. it goes on but it's a smeary uneven mess. You can use acrylics over watercolor though, and a wax based pencil over acrylics. You could possibly get watercolor ground to go on top of acrylic and provide an absorbent additional layer.. but I've never been a fan of the stuff. Inktense will also work other other non traditional absorbent surfaces like cloth or wood.

[@learnartwithme3766]

Are the Supracolor soft the same as the Supracolor II soft? Can't find the latter.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Yeah I just left the II out, I shouldn’t have but I think it never makes sense to say Supracolor II Soft, sounds like Supracolor Too Soft 😂😂

[@niederrheiner7701]

I love my 1. Lyra Aquarell (72) 2. FC Albrecht Dürer (72) 3. Koh-I-noor Mondeluz (72) I would also like the Caran D`Ache Supracolor. But that's just another shopping spree. 🤣

[@1gabhriel]

hi I have brought some secondhand old Derwent watercolour pencils which I have not used yet, any good?

[@TheArtGearGuide]

I have not used the Derwent Watercolour pencils in years, I first tried them about 8 years ago and it was only a 12 set and to be honest I am not even sure I was using watercolour paper to test them. I can remember not really liking them, but like I say, I don't think I used the right paper and I had only just got started in art, so don't take my advice too literal on this particular pencil. I'll get a set of them and review them. Thank you so much for your comment and support.

[@Cynthia-vm3ee]

Caran d'Ache Aquarelle are too expensive to me. Mondeluz pencils are in my top 5, I love them.

[@ivmara9987]

I'm not gonna bring that Caran d'Ache pallet in my province because grandma might think it's a chopping board.

[@heatherhoward2513]

Lol, I have heard that those chopping boards may be like the pallet, you could check hers out!

[@artbybenjamin]

Derwent Inktense is the odd one out, isn't it. Close to watercolor pencils, but different. I started out with Bruynzeel Design, they're great. They have a huge advantage over Prismalo and that's excellent lightfastness. I upgraded to Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer. I like them, but some colors aren't that lightfast at all, contrary to the information FB gives. My next step was Caran D'ache Supracolor, in my opinion better than Albrecht Dürer, but opinion is personal. That would be the only difference, I would have Supracolor on 3 and Albrecht Dürer on 4. I have some Caran D'ache Museum, definitely the best, but also very expensive. End of last year I finally got some Derwent Inktense in a sale and I really love them a lot more than the others. My goto water soluble pencils now. Good review Harry!

[@ninner196]

Yea just a few of the more lightfast ones creates plenty of contrast. Hopefully they will figure out how to use the Quinacridone family of pigments in the pencils, wouldn’t that be great! Transparent and permanent 😊

[@brianerskine1332]

I purchased the 24pc set of Faber Castell is there isn’t a single purple.

[@scarlet1100101]

man muss noch das folgende betonen. Eigentlich sind Derwent Inktense keine Aquarellstifte, sondern eher Tuschestifte. Die Farbe bleibt permament. Es gibt keine andere Tusche Stifte, die an Derwent Inktense rankommt. Museum Aquarell liebe ich total. Die sind sowas von smooth und trotzdem hoch pigmentiert. :) Allein die 2 Produkte sind unschlagbar.

[@queenria7]

Derwent klassifiziert allerdings die Inktense als "Watercolor Product" und sagt explizit, dass es keine Tusche ist, sondern nur "tusche-aehnliche Eigenschaften" hat. (Quelle: Derwent Website FAQs)

[@ninner196]

Yes Harry did emphasize that they are not in the same classification as watercolor pencils and that when dried that they do not lift up, it has some “strange” properties as compared to watercolor. Some either like it or they don’t. I personally would rather use regular acrylic paint and work with it like that myself. Wouldn’t it be interesting to combine them? I haven’t talked with anyone personally about using the Inktense pencils over a layered softly acrylic painting. I use many forms of media already so that one I would have to pass on.😂

[@veystone2580]

Come on! Prismalo, not Prismola! PrismAlO, not PrismOlA!

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Thank you so much for your concise direction on my mistake and your attempt at public humiliation into the bargain. This was an auto correction error, which I failed to notice on creating the subheading for that particular section of the video. I would say congratulations for your effort on trying to publicly humiliate me, however, almost all of the people who watch and support my work, are clearly much more empathetic toward simple mistakes, for which I am eternally grateful. The world would be a terribly bitter place if everyone relished in public humiliation. Thank you so much for stopping by the channel and leaving your wonderfully helpful comment. I hope you don’t stay too long as I can guarantee you, I will make more mistakes, but I could absolutely do without the attempt at public ridicule and humiliation. Your negativity excretes from your every pore and that my friend, is something the online art community could do without. I hape I dod bettar in my spellang this time and it wis much more to your sitisfaction.

[@heatherhoward2513]

​@TheArtGearGuide great answer! I personally don't care how you pronounce it, just what you say! Very interesting btw.