PRO ART - 3078 Pencil Set Sketch & Draw, 9.38" x 9.38" x 0.25", Graphite & Charcoal

This is a great little set for a pretty good price. I've been out of the art scene for close to a decade now and after crying over the complete regression of my skills I decided I needed a new set up to get back into the swing. Being that I'm not diving into full-scale pieces or anything just yet, I didn't need a serious set with enough stuff to last me 5 years or with so much it'd be overwhelming while I'm brushing up on my basics all over again. Different pencil types, an eraser, and a charcoal is perfect, enough variety to get different tones and finishes but not so much that I can't decide what to pick up and when or have my stuff scattered all over my little workspace. The kneaded eraser is A+++ and absolutely necessary for anyone, I've always been a bit heavy handed with pencils and the white eraser can't always get rid of my harsh lines but the kneaded knocks out everything (and I've always thought they were just super pleasant to squish too, it's comforting!), the charcoals are bold, and the pencils are very sturdy. Again, I'm heavy handed, and these guys are not breaking on me at all. This really is a professional grade set! That also what makes this set great for any beginning artists! It's not only very affordable but it's excellent quality and exactly what someone new and just starting out should be aiming for at the start line. Enough to have variety and find your footing but nothing all that fancy. Nothing is more frustrating to me than when I see new artists being pushed to buy huge loadouts when they're probably not going to know what to do with half of it for a while. It can be overwhelming, confusing, and honestly a waste of money for a beginner. Keep it simple; a handful of pencils, a few charcoals (if you like them, some don't and that's okay!), some paper, and an eraser is all you really need and this set takes care of everything but the paper. I absolutely recommend this set to anyone considering it. You won't regret it.

It came in perfect condition! Nothing broken or cracked, and on Christmas I'll open it up and try it out. I will then give a full review on it! UPDATE: Amazing. These are very good quality pencils. My sketching pencil is nearly down to a stub. Made some amazing drawings. Tips: Draw with your HB pencil first, then trace over it with a darker color when satisfied. Charcoal 6B is great for shading, but try not to press down too hard on the paper with the pencil, because it being a charcoal pencil, it is hard to erase. Which is why you start with the HB pencil. Some pencils are almost exactly the same shade, although some of them have different textures. Not that all shades are the same, some of them just look similar. Blending stumps aren't really necessarily. You can blend with your fingers or tissue paper. I prefer to shade with my fingers. You can shade with pencil, and blend it in by rubbing it with your fingers. It's easy. This kit is not only for beginners, but also professionals. The charcoal sticks are great, but I don't recommend taking your charcoal drawings and placing them in a folder for a very long time, because eventually the charcoal may smudge and it'll look faded. The sketch pencil is what I recommend for you to sketch with first. Hence the word "sketch" when saying "sketch pencil". Although you might think it's just like a regular #2 pencil, when you compare the way it feels to write with, and how much better it looks on paper, it's so much more different! If you have a young artist, a teen in high school, or you ARE an artist, I truly and honestly recommend this! Along with a link to a sketch pad on amazon. It has 100 pages, but the pages are 80 pounds, which means that the papers are thick. Permanent marker and water color paint don't leak through it. The price is worth it! Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003V1DJNU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3GV4E65TPRC6U

I'm aware that there are some who claim to be knowledgeable about art supplies that these aren't the highest quality, or that the selection is inadequate. I imagine that these are the same people who go to a fast-food restaurant and complain that they don't serve a good Chateaubriand. This is clearly a student/starter set and I don't think the makers intend this to be a comprehensive set. It's offered at a very attractive price point and is a good entree into using higher-quality art supplies. You get a selection of pencils and charcoals, along with specialized erasers and sharpeners. You get several variations on each medium, ostensibly to provide an affordable way to find the one--or at least something closer to--you'll prefer to use. This set is about exploring your options. You will notice immediately that these are far superior to using office supplies for drawing. They will also help you find a style. Right now, I'm exploring my artistic tastes and talents and this set is part of the equipment I've acquired to do so. So, from a novice point of view, this set is great.

I took an art class this past semester, and had purchased the Kimberly Graphite Drawing Kit for it. My reasoning for making that purchase was because it was almost the cheapest one at michaels, and happened to be the same set I had purchased for a high school art class 15 years ago and had seemed fine. Then, I misplaced it. I came to look up the price on amazon and this set popped up on my screen for the same price (less than 10 dollars). I think the cheapest I've ever seen 4 woodless graphite pencils alone sold for was six dollars, so for the price this kit is great. I subsequently found the other graphite pencils the day after these arrived in the mail but i've stuck with the ones from this set. With only these things in mind I would have given this set 5 stars. The coloured pencils are ok, maybe slightly harder than your typical crayola coloured pencil. Yet, the watercolour pencils leave much to be desired. After purchasing this set I was so excited about the watercolour pencils (which I hadn't ever used/seen used before) that I looked up some videos on youtube. The first thing I did when this came in the mail was to pull out the watercolour pencils and try them out and unfortunately the pigment just didn't want to cooperate. I was not using watercolour paper, but even so, I was unable to get the pigment to spread out in a way that looked like paint any more-so than one could adding water to a graphite pencil sketch. For the price though, I really do recommend this set (unless you are only looking for cheap watercolour pencils)

This is a fantastic set! I'm really impressed with the quality of the pencils, and I say that as someone who didn't have a lot of faith in such a low cost set. My professor tried to sell my class a really expensive set that had a lot of these same tools, but I just said I'd buy my own and bought this. I've been drawing since I was a little kid, so I know my pencils, and I LOVE this little set! I'm in art class at the moment, so I've been using it A LOT, and I'm happy with the quality, especially the graphite pencils. I've used absolutely everything in this set, and I can say that not only are these pencils smooth, they don't break into shredded pieces when sharpening! That a plus, no matter what kind of pencil you're using. I'll get a lot of use out of this, and when I've used it all up, I'll order another one!

This is a fantastic set of pencils and charcoals, perfect for beginners as well as experienced artists. It was very inexpensive as well! It comes with numerous drawing pencils of varying hard/softness, charcoal pencils and sticks. The set also includes 2 erasers, one of which is the kneaded kind and if you have drawn you know how invaluable this is! Oh and in addition to all that, 2 sharpeners! One for lead pencils and the other for charcoal pencils. I can't see the need for anything else, I love this set and will order it again when I have used most of this set, which will take me a very long time! You absolutely will not regret purchasing this item!

This is a must for the beginner, as well as anyone wanting new materials. It not only includes a full set of artist pencils and charcoal pencils and sticks, it also includes an artist eraser and a kneaded rubber eraser. To my surprise, it also included 2 pencil sharpeners: one for pencils and one for charcoal. The only problem I had was that the packaging could have been a little more user-friendly. It opens up at the top pretty easily, but if they'd made one side open up easily, it would have worked as a case. I tried opening the side and it ripped. Otherwise, this is a great set. Would absolutely use this seller again.

One of my co-workers "adopted" a few families for the holidays and I volunteered to get something for the 12 year old boy. On his list he had "drawing supplies". I looked around at Michael's Craft Store thinking I would find something there, but everything there was really expensive. This set was very reasonably priced & has a good variety of supplies. My own son likes drawing with the graphite pencils, so there are plenty of those of different hardnesses. My daughter likes using a kneaded eraser for her sketches and this set comes with one of those, too. There are 2 pencil sharpeners - one for graphite pencils and one for charcoal. This 18 piece set is really a good value when you look at everything it comes with. The similar sets that I saw at the store were all in the $25 range.