Are All Of These Colored Pencils The Same Pencil?

[@kateboyd9374]

Harry, your channel is a treasure. Thank you!

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Thank you so much, you are far too kind, but it makes me happy that people find what I do helpful, at least in some small way.

[@GingahSnapsArt]

​@@TheArtGearGuidegood sir, you do not give yourself enough credit at all! Your videos are HUGELY helpful in more ways than one

[@kt.hartigan]

Thanks so much Harry. Really interesting comparison. I use adult colouring books and have the Brutfuner square, which I really like, a 180 Kalour set which are better than I thought they would be but not my first choice, and a set of 120 Markart, which are also a lovely pencil with a great palette. (Markart are apparently are rebranded Nyoni for the US market although I'm in Australia). I'm giving the Arrtx to my niece - don't like them at all compared to the others. Your comments about the paper are spot on. Sometimes the different pencils just won't work as well dependent on the paper. I'll often do a test in a book just to try the blend ability of a particular pencil. At the end of the day, the old Prismacolor get the most use and the others are great for a change of palette.

[@Cathy_in_colour]

This was really useful, thanks. I've often wondered about this, particularly with the Brutfuner and Kalour, and all the other similar results that come up on Amazon if you search those brands. I'm an adult colourist and I'm currently using my Arrtx set in Christine Karron's Wildflower Folk which is a beautiful quality book - I normally use my Polychromos in it but I'm pretty happy with the results I'm getting with the Arrtx. Like you say the paper quality in adult colouring books varies massively so it does have an impact on how pencils perform and feel.

[@ritacoinu7374]

Thank you Harry, very helpful review, as always. ❤

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Thank you so much, I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to know that the information in the video has either been of some help or just interesting. Thank you so so much for your support and for leaving your comment as well, thank you so very much.

[@stevemurray6543]

Thank you. Your work is to be appreciated by so many in the future. Stay well and remain positive. Your work is to be recommended reading for future buyer's.

[@misty0708]

Hello, thank you for the review. I 've noticed that the Nyoni and the Brutfuner square pencils share 58 colors with the same number.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Yeah you are completely right and it was things like that which made others, including myself, think they were the same pencil in different branding. I’m definitely going to compare the Marco Tribute, Phoenix Color, Nyoni and Seeing Essence. And just because this comparison was 6, I might add in different Brutfuner and Kalour pencils as well, not the ones I used in this comparison. Normally when I compare two pencils against each other, I will complete a piece of artwork, something simple like an apple. I draw the apple out and then trace it so that both images are identical, but I couldn’t do that for 6, it just would have taken forever. Thank you so very much for your support and comment I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it and I just love when viewers leave comments. For me personally, the most important part of my channel, is you guys leaving comments. The information I put out on my video reviews or written reviews is just the beginning of the conversation. When you guys leave comments or ask questions, it is you guys who continue the conversation on and provide amazing information from your own experience or ask amazing questions which only enhance the information I’ve put out in the video. I can’t thank you enough, I really appreciate your support and comment, thank you so very much.

[@misty0708]

@@TheArtGearGuide What a lovely and kind answer. A big thank you Harry for your channel and your work. Have a very nice day. And a very nice day to all of you "guys" too :)

[@wanderingstar5673]

Enjoyed seeing the comparisons.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Thank you so very much for your donation, your continued support for me and this channel is staggering, I can’t thank you enough. There just aren’t the right words in the English language to portray my gratitude. I have been so incredibly blessed with an amazing community that has grown from this channel and the love and support you have all shown me is just out of this world. I don’t know what I have done to deserve such care and kindness. Thank you so much my friend.

[@djevelhelvete]

Well, I am glad I saw this video, because I was thinking about buying Brutfuhner, but I hate Kalour’s feeling so… I dodged a bullet I think. Thanks for this great comparison, yes I would like to see the Nyoni pencils vs Phoenix and maybe other brands.

[@cheryl6716]

I've had the Brutfuner Square pencils for quite some time, but I've never used them or even swatched them yet. I have the Nyoni 72 set and they are similar to the original Star Joy set, that was sold before the Star Joy Gold pencil set came out. Great review as always Harry, take care!

[@stevemurray6543]

I have used Castle and Artex. I have gifted those and Prismacolor to local art students. I am pleased, but realize they are not professional quality, but good enough.

[@DC-gh6dy]

The dedication, the music, the underlying mystery of a possible massive conspiracy theory regarding colored pencil manufacturers. 10/10 video 👍

[@mjpete27]

Hullo Harry, I have enjoyed watching your videos and marveling at your pencil expertise! I have completed a total of four color pencil only artworks in my 40 year career as a freelance artist! I have used color pencils for details on watercolor paintings, marker art, and other mixed media projects. I honestly don’t believe that anyone should be concerned about lightfastness in coloring books, children’s books nor adult books! I have scanned images from coloring books to have more than one copy for my nieces and nephews to color and not have a fight over who gets the Spider-Man or Wonder Woman picture to color! I have also used pencils to sketch out the layout for a painting in acrylics or gouache even watercolor. I believe that several pencil lines are made in the same factory in China! You can change the core and wood containers and use the same machine for assembling them! I have seen pencils made at the Faber Castell factory in Germany and they ran their Poly’s on the same machine as their budget “red” line! I doubt that the Chinese are any different! Just cheaper materials for cheaper pencils. I have sent more than a few people to your KZbin channel and they looked up the pencils they wanted to buy and you have helped me and them by your astonishing well done reviews! Thank you Harry.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Wow thank you so much my friend for that wonderful comment. I have been really suffering lately, actually suffering isn’t the right description; I’ve just had a difficult time. My mental health has really taken a knock due to some personal issues at home and that in turn has inflamed my pain so much. It’s just one of those things and I know so many other people who come to the channel are in the same way, so I don’t like to moan and complain. But your comment and the other comments I’ve been receiving have really cheered me up. I’m not sure what or why it is, perhaps it goes back to the work I did as a soldier, but I love helping people. It’s actually quite a selfish thing to be honest because when I have been able to really help people in terrible need get away from life threatening danger, the feeling I got was very self satisfying and serving. So what I do here on this channel is all I can do in terms of regaining a little bit of that feeling. I know it is only art supplies, but if I help someone understand a certain product much better than they had prior to purchasing, and my information confirmed to them the product is right for them or not, that makes me feel good. I love saving people a bit of money, that’s another reason I love doing so many giveaways. If I can give 120 set of Pablos, or a 120 set of Faber Castell Polychromos etc, all giveaways I’ve done on the channel, away, free to someone, it makes me feel good. I completely agree with you about the adult colouring books, I know people use luminance and lightfast etc pencils in colouring and that is absolutely their right to do that, but for someone new to pencils I’d never tell them or recommend they use such pencils in colouring books. Thank you so much for your comment and for recommending the channel to other artists, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it, thank you so much.

[@shandaril]

I'm looking for a decent set of coloured pencils for adult colouring and I was looking at Brutfuner, Kalour and Arrtx. I've not heard about the other ones, but after seeing your video I will take some other brands into consideration. Very useful, as always ☺

[@TheArtGearGuide]

All of the sets I showed in the video are excellent for adult colouring books in so much as they are not the most expensive pencils in the world, they don’t have any lightfast ratings worth talking about, but, they are decently pigmented and the cores are not super hard which in my opinion would require a paper with some tooth. I’ve not really delved too deep into adult colouring books and what I mean by that is, I’ve not taken too much interest in the various paper qualities inside every different adult colouring book. I of course love seeing the artwork artists create inside colouring books and as far as I am concerned, those who use adult colouring books are every bit the artist, I and many others are. For me it was a daunting and expensive task to purchase up a lot of different colouring books and study paper quality within each book. To know and understand the various paper qualities inside each book, would enable me to pin point a group of pencils that I could say work well inside this group of colouring books, but not so well inside this colouring book. From my understanding with a lot of adult colouring book artists, use the Castle Arts Gold Colored Pencils; in fact Castle have a selection of 5 adult colouring books they created specifically for their pencils. I would say of all the pencils I tested in this video, I don’t think the Seeing Essence would be particularly good for colouring books. The seeing essence pencils are a bit too hard and in my opinion work best on a velum type surface, a paper with a bit of tooth.

[@shandaril]

@@TheArtGearGuide Thank you for elaborating on this. I understand what you mean and I would never have expected you to test all of these coloured pencils in adult coloring books. There are people who do this and I can always refer to their channels. However, I value your opinion and reviews. You are honest, very thorough in what you do, and you create beautiful drawings. I like colouring because it's really relaxing. I can listen to a podcast, simply colour and turn my brain off. I have a few small/cheap/budget couloured pencils sets - they all work differently with different books. I would like to buy two larger sets (one with softer cores, and one with a slightly harder core for details) to have more options. I don't feel the need to invest in premium quality coloured pencils. It might change in the future - who knows 🤷‍♀ Noted on the Seeing Essence & Castle Arts Gold 👍

[@wanderingbishop]

Watched this expecting to have my own bias that most are the same confirmed, but I own the 520 Kalour and the 520 Flower Box Brutfuner, and I don't find them to feel the same at all. Are those the sets you are using? I know that there are different Brutfuner sets, like square versus Flower Box vs Yellow Box,and they aren't even a match from set to set.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Thank you so much for your comment. The Brutfuner set I used in this comparison was the Square set, but I can’t remember if I mentioned this in the video or wrote it in the description. I have 5 different Brutfuner sets and I think about the same for Kalour. I would also like to compare all the Brutfuner sets in one video and the Kalour in a separate video. I don’t have the 520 Kalour set so I think I am going to have to try and save and buy that to review now that I’m taking everyone down this rabbit hole. Also Brutfuner have two sets of 520 and I only have the flower sets as you mentioned. The thought of reviewing another 520 colored pencils gives me nightmares 😂😂. The last time I reviewed the 520 Brutfuner set, it took me forever just to sharpen and swatch every pencil, that was when an electric sharpener would have been amazing. But you can find that review on my channel. I think I have a lot of work to do in trying to decipher the differences between all these pencils, if there is in fact any difference and publish my results here on the channel and people at least then will have an opinion and an open discussion about the pencils they may have some concern over replicating pencils they already own.

[@wanderingbishop]

@TheArtGearGuide I only just finished swatching both sets myself. I plan to next use a Spectro 1 to measure all of my pencils to have LAB values of all the colors. I don't have the square Brutfuners, but I did also buy the Macaron 72 sets of both Brutfuner and Kalour, and the Kalour set is identical to the pencils in the Kalour 520 set, while the Brutfuner Macaron are different to the Flowerbox Brutfuner.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

@wanderingbishop so would you say that the 520 Brutfuner and 529 Kalour are very similar with regards to the core? I’m not sure if I have understood you correctly which is totally on me, I’m not the brightest bulb in the box

[@wanderingbishop]

@TheArtGearGuide no, Kalour is more scratchy, Brutfuner more creamy

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Oh I see, I’ve not tried the Kalour 520 set yet so that was why I asked. I’ll have to get the Kalour 520 and give them a review. Oh my goodness, another 520 pencils to swatch 😂😂😂. Any way thank you so very much for chatting with me and sharing your experience and knowledge with me as well, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

[@amberlong3942]

I have Kolor and Brutfiner, I love both sets and I color on black and white printables and coloring books, I used to be a prismacolor but now I am full on Brutfiner and hate prismacolor now!

[@kyliescolouringindownunder3098]

Hi Harry what a lovely honest review of these pencils thank u for sharing ❤❤❤😊😊😊xxxx

[@TheArtGearGuide]

You are more than welcome and thank you so much for your support and kind comment. It makes me so happy when I am able to help others no matter how small that help might be. Because of my injury I can’t do what I used to as an Elite Soldier, so this is the best I can do for now. Helping people make informed choices when they are about to part with their hard earned money, is important to me. I know how people struggle financially and so when they buy art supplies, for the most part it is a real treat for them, but at the same time could be a very necessary purchase if they are having difficulties with their mental health. Any way thank you so very much for your support and for dropping a comment it really helps the channel and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it, thank you.

[@lauren_read_color]

This is so helpful. Thank you Harry!

[@kathsmith5064]

The video I have been waiting for. Wish I had this information before buying sets of each. Lol.Thank you so much Harry.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Oh I am so sorry it came a bit late for you. After reading all of the comments so far, I have so much work to do and have been given so many ideas in order to help you guys make even better informed decisions when buying products. Don’t forget, I and this channel exist purely to help other artists when buying new products. So if there is a a product you are looking to buy, drop me a message and I will do a review of it before you spend your money or I might have already reviewed it and I can provide a link directly to that review. I have almost 550 reviews on my channel and so a lot of them get a bit lost, so always check with me if you are not sure. Thank you so much for your comment and support I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.

[@joaoaraujo2296]

I also wonder if manufacturers of coloured pencils change or simply the formulas of the cores change. So it's possible that brands like Kalour and brutfuner at one point share the same manufacturer and have the same pigment core formulas but later they could be produced by different manufacturers. Even if the manufacturer is the same, I suspect the formulas keep changing. How many iterations of kalour / brutfuner had we in the past?

[@Abi.Cadaver]

Many Thanks.

[@andreaharutunian3838]

Thx, very informative cause I wouldn't want to buy very similar colored pencils under a different name!🎉

[@angelashortall9778]

God, I owned all of these in my collection before it got stolen away. Makes my chest hurt. I found some differences with most of them like with the original castle arts, it didn’t matter if it was marketed as a watercolour pencil or a regular pencil. They were both watercolour pencils. Lol.

[@moonDolk]

I have all the sets in the video, and they are certainly not the same. the 2 who are closest are Brutfuner and Kalour, but still not exactly the same. I prefer Brutfuner cause Kalour is harder and scratchy.The Marco tribute are horrible pencils and can't work with them in any coloring book I own. The arrtix are the softest I think but way different then all the others. Nyoni is a another one. however they look like Deli, they are not the same. the nyoni are great pencils and the comparison with the tribute pencils is way off in my opinion.

[@gertietheduck]

yeah, Brutfuner def feel smoother than Kalour. Kalour have scratchy bits in them. The Brutfuner feel like the same pencils… but with better quality control. I like my Marco Tribute though. But I use them in my sketchbook, so maybe they don’t work the same in colouring books? also I like to layer with lots of very light layers to build up pigment slowly rather than press down on the pencils to get maximum lay down in one go (I don’t like Prismacolors, for example, as they are way too soft for that), so maybe that’s why my feelings about them are different? I like to do the pressing down thing with Neocolors, but not with pencils, so I prefer smooth but slightly harder pencils, like Polys, Luminance, Holbein. But not too hard. I don’t like irojiten or Koh-I-noor

[@mariemyriam5616]

i have the kalour and the brutfuner and i agree with you....they feel different ...and i also have the brutfuner 72 skin tone and they feel more buttery than the brutfuner 72 classic set...i didn't try the arrtx because its way more expensive than those and i wasn't sure of their quality...

[@TheArtGearGuide]

My goodness I completely forgot about the Deli, I am going to have to add those to a future test. Thank you so much for your comment it is fantastic. I completely see why the Marco Tribute don’t fit in with your needs and you are a perfect example, and other artists like you, as to why in my reviews, I try to demonstrate the pencils on a few different paper surfaces. A set of pencils might be excellent on a Velum surface or Fabriano Hot Pressed, but those exact same pencils on a Bristol Smooth might look and feel terrible. The Deli and Nyoni are very similar to each other as you quite rightly mentioned and they are also very similar looking to the Mitsubishi Uni pencils. The more I read these amazing comments the more and more work I have ahead of me but I love it and I feel refreshed, like I have a new lease of life. I love doing reviews but doing the same thing for ten years, requires a little something different along the way to mix things up. The Nyoni and Tribute may well be way off in terms of similarities, but I think in my next video of this type, I will test the Nyoni, Marco Tribute, Deli, Phoenix, Brutfuner 520 pencil and Kalour, (Not the Kalour set in this comparison). However I think I am going to have to test and demonstrate them on different paper types as well. When I was first sent the Marco Tribute, I completed some artwork on the Derwent Lightfast paper, but that paper is exceptionally high quality paper, 100% cotton, perfect amount of tooth etc. The artwork turned out really well, but I am not sure if I tested them on a smoother surface, which I am guessing would be more inline with a paper surface from an adult colouring book? I think I am going to have to buy a few different brands of adult colouring books and use them as part of my reviews. There are so many adult colouring book artists out there and I am neglecting them by not including the medium of their choice in my reviews. Which 5 different brands of adult colouring books could you recommend for me please to buy and use in my testing for reviews? Thank you so very much for your wonderful comment and for providing me with ideas that will keep me in my studio for the entirety of 2025 😂😂😂 thank you so very much.

[@gertietheduck]

@@TheArtGearGuide wow Harry, the amount of work and care you put into this channel is amazing. I am not a colouring book artist (nor specifically a pencil artist) but your comment here really shows how much you care about your reviews!!! I recently started my own channel (not this account) so I know just how much work that is, I am amazed! I recommended the Marco pencils myself and seeing the above comment I feel like I may have done a disservice to the colouring community! This is why your channel is such a valuable and unique source of information to anyone into pencil art. What a great idea to include the books! And it’s going to be educational and informative for all of us, even those who don’t use the colouring books! Keep up the fantastic work you are doing!

[@JAMIES_LIFE_101]

Great Video

[@TheArtGearGuide]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate your support and comment thank you

Very helpful, thank you 🙏🏻

[@incognitoedc]

I generally really enjoy your videos, but the loud music is obnoxious.

[@TheArtGearGuide]

But you understand that when I select a music clip from the KZbin Copyright Free library, the clips are what they are, I can’t make them louder or quieter in my editing software. You also know that you can turn the volume down a bit on whatever device you are watching on, it could be that the volume on your device is too high. I think the use of the word obnoxious is what has made my response a bit sharp, as if somehow I am trying to deliberately annoy people with loud music. It is incredibly difficult to create content that makes everyone happy, I used to get upset about this when I got comments like yours and I would frantically try to change whatever was being complained about. However, I now know this is an impossibility to please everyone and get everything right. At the same time I absolutely have no issue with people critiquing my videos or writing or whatever it is I am doing, in fact I personally feel that my videos are better now for me listening to certain critiques, but I certainly don’t get upset when criticism is aimed at me, so nobody has to soften the blow by saying something nice and then dropping the criticism. I am sorry you find the music loud, but the volume button on your device will change that in a second and then it will be the perfect volume for you.