I think I found the new best cheap colored
pencils for beginners, but they might not be
the oil-based Polychromos alternative that you think they are.
And in today's video,
we're going to see just how good these budget pencils are back to back and against
some of the best colored pencils I've already reviewed.
But before you run out to buy your own
set, stick around, because there's a little more to this story.
These look almost the same?
And I couldn't help myself but to investigate.
I am always on the hunt for the best colored pencils, and after my huge pencil
review, I've been flooded with requests to try the Brutfuner colored pencils.
These are an affordable colored pencil
with a fantastic reputation for being easy to blend and perfect for any skill level.
So even though I definitely don't need any new pencils for myself, I finally gave in to all
the recommendations and bought this set of Brutfuner colored pencils.
In fact, I bought both sets. Let's open them up.
When I first opened these, I thought there are a few pencils missing,
but it turns out they just moved around so no need to panic.
I think they are all here.
They come with this handy swatch sheet, but we'll be making our own, so
I won't actually need this.
OK, these definitely have a smell.
Which is probably the packaging more than
the pencils and is common for cheap pencils.
This actually reminds me of the smell
when I first opened my Castle Arts pencils in a previous video.
Those pencils don't smell anymore, so they should settle after a while, too.
But wow, that smell is pretty strong right now.
Speaking of Castle Arts.
These look almost the same?
I might have to look into that a little
later into this video. Each pencil is nice to hold,
there are numbers on each of them,
but the color names on the square ones are in Chinese.
That's OK. I usually just use the numbers anyway.
Whenever buying a new set of pencils or
markers, I recommend creating some kind of swatch or color chart to give yourself
a permanent reference of the colors in your set.
I haven't always done this in the past,
so I've got some catching up to do on my old sets.
But when I have done this,
it has saved me so much time in finding the right colors when I draw.
And has saved a lot of pencil or marker
in not having to scribble on a scrap piece of paper.
I've just sorted these into a basic color order
that makes sense from what I can see of the pencil leads
but this order isn't perfect because the color of the outside of the pencils
isn't a perfect representation of the actual pigment color of the pencil.
This is something that is extremely common with budget pencils,
but is actually also pretty normal with any art supplies,
which is exactly why we are creating a swatch. As I'm watching these pencils,
I really like the color ranges in both of these sets.
There are no obvious gaps in the color choices and there is a huge variety.
There are some colors in the largest set of 180 that feel very similar to each
other to the point that they feel unnecessary.
But again, these pencils are so cheap that this isn't a deal breaker by any means.
I've also found some metallic pencils among this round set, there are 11 here,
although I've heard some people say that there were supposed to be 12.
So it's possible that I've got two of another color somewhere here.
And then I'm actually missing a pencil, but I haven't found it.
So let me know if you spot it.
I'm not really worried because honestly, I never use metallic pencils.
If I'm wanting to color something shiny, I'll either use normal colors to create
a photorealistic metallic like I showed you in my "how to draw gold" video,
or I would use a metallic paint marker or super metallic product instead of pencils.
These pencils come pre-sharpened, but I've ended up re-sharpening almost all of them.
They feel much nicer to use after being
sharpened again to a better point and seem to lay down more smoothly on the paper.
I guess this is a good time to test out
some of my different sharpeners that I've been buying.
If you're keen to hear more about these different sharpeners,
subscribe now and turn on your notifications because I've got a full
comparison coming in a few weeks with my thoughts on the sharpness and more.
I've been using them for a few weeks now
to really work out which ones are my favorites.
Oh 180 is a lot of pencils.
I don't think anyone really needs this many... 120 is definitely enough.
This is a lot.
I've created these in columns,
so I can cut them into strips when I'm done.
So it's much easier to match my colors
to the page or reference photo I'm using then trying to use a whole page color chart.
If you want to grab a copy of this swatch chart, it will be available on my website
in the near future, along with some other handy color charts and resources to help
you sort it colors and practice different techniques.
So keep an eye on the blog or subscribe to my email newsletter to be the first
to find out when it becomes available.
With our swatching done,
I think it's time to go head to head.
I've chosen this coloring page from "Confessions of a Coloring Addict",
which you can buy on Amazon or as a printable PDF from my website.
This page is actually the inspiration from the cover,
so let's see how different it looks after today. For our pencil battle today,
I've split my page into and we're using the square pencils on the top
and the round pencils on the bottom. To make this more fun,
I'm also choosing a different color palette for each set.
For the top of the page, I'm choosing a pallete from the Color
Catalog Volume One and for the bottom I'm using the Color Catalog Volume Two.
Let's start with the top.
So for each color in my palette, I'm choosing the main color.
But I'm also choosing a darker and lighter version of the colors
if I can find one in my set, to help me
with highlights and with shadows as I color later.
As you can see, this is where creating those swatch cards with the colors right
against the edge of the page is so handy because I can match this color exactly up
against the Color Catalog without having to swatch over my page with my pencils.
When I was swatching these pencils,
I thought they were okay, but I wasn't wowed by them,
but now that I'm actually using them to color, I'm really impressed.
These blend really well.
They are nice to hold and smooth on the paper.
I am incredibly curious now to compare these to some of my other brands
of pencils shortly, because they are performing really well,
the leads are firm enough that they aren't breaking and they are easy to use.
So they would be great for beginners.
But they also don't have the learning
curve that I would expect from an oil-based pencil.
In fact, at this point,
I'm a little suspicious about this oil-based claim altogether.
Ultimately, most pencils include a mix of both wax and oil.
So this terminology has definitely caused some confusion over the past few years.
The reason we talk about wax and oil pencils is because most pencils use one
type of binding predominantly more than the other, even if they include both.
Alright, this is going to bug me now, I have to investigate this and find out if
there is any information about what is in these pencils other than just oil.
But before I get completely sidetracked,
let me just say these pencils are pretty amazing.
I would say they are possibly the best
affordable pencils I've come across so far.
I'll compare them shortly to some other pencils that I've reviewed previously.
But first, let's see how the round pencils compare.
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The round pencils weren't as nice after using the square pencils.
I didn't notice much difference during
this swatching, but after coloring a large area, the difference is more obvious.
These just feel cheaper.
These don't lay down as smoothly,
they're a little bit scratchier and it feels
like it takes a bit more effort to get the color down, as if they don't have as
much pigment in them compared to some of the other binders in the pencil.
They just feel like that bit more
of a cheaper pencil as opposed to what the square set felt like.
It actually felt more like some of those higher range quality pencils.
So if I had to choose a set between
the two, I would definitely lean towards the square set rather than the round set.
In fact, the black has a lot of wax build up for an oil-based pencil.
OK, I couldn't help myself,
I decided to see what some of the Amazon reviewers thought and I was
not surprised to see these budget pencils described again and again as
"smooth and buttery to blend" or "similar to Prismacolor."
This does not sound like an oil pencil,
but I can't find anyone else who is questioning this.
"Well, they are not oil-based pencils, that's for sure.
They are definitely wax-based pencils."
Thank you,
anonymous Amazon customer!
OK, I know it doesn't really matter, but I feel like acknowledged. Back to our coloring.
These pencils are still very good for the price, but if I had to choose
between these and the square pencils, I would buy the square pencils.
In fact, after noticing how similar these
were to Castle Arts, I did a little extra digging
and discovered that while they are not the same as the Castle Arts pencils,
the Brutfuner colored pencils are sold under a few different names.
So you might have already purchased them
or seen them under the names Shuttle Art, Soucolor, Kalour, Southsun and WoMoxe.
So is this some kind of scam? Or a marketing trick?
We'll talk more about that shortly.
I wanted to see quickly how these compare to get some of the other brands of pencils
I've reviewed in the past and I was pleasantly surprised.
Obviously, these are just small swatches and not a full comparison,
but it's enough to see that they stand up to any of the cheaper brands
and are comparable to even some of the better brands.
Personally, I found them to be comparable to Castle Arts.
I like them slightly less than the Black Widow,
Arteza and Faber-Castell Black Edition on the Neenah Bristol Vellum paper.
I like them more than the Crayola
Signature and much more than Marco Raffine.
Both sets were much more like
the Prismacolors than the Polychromos, but neither were as good as these two
premium brands, which is to be expected for the price difference.
But this is just my opinion.
In comparing them to the Prismacolor
pencils, the Prismacolor lays down a lot more color.
They Brutfuner might actually be a better
option if you're a beginner, because the Prismacolors can be quite soft
work with and the Brutfuners are a little bit more like a pencil
that you might have grown up with being that slightly harder core.
The Prismacolors will allow more layers,
you will get brighter results and I do
believe that they are just slightly high quality pencil.
But to be honest, I think a lot of beginners might not
notice much of a difference between these two pencils.
I think for me, I definitely prefer the Prismacolors.
I think they are a noticeable quality
difference, but I've had plenty of people that actually say that don't even notice.
But these are marketed as an oil-based pencil.
So everyone really wants to know how they compare to the artist's standard
of oil-based pencil, which is the Faber-Castell Polychromos.
And to be honest, they don't compare. The Faber-Castell Polychromos
are a lightfast pencil. They are used
by artists in museum quality art that last for hundreds of years.
You won't find that in any budget pencil.
These take a different blending approach
instead of blending the colors together,
you layer the colors. And they do have a little bit more of a learning curve,
but they also can produce some amazing quality work.
That doesn't mean you can't produce amazing results with cheap pencils.
That just means don't expect to find
yourself a Polychromos pencil at a Brutfuner price.
So I'm just quickly testing these pencils
on some of the other papers that I've done, some of my other pencil tests on,
and I have to say, I think the Neenah Bristol Vellum
definitely gives these pencils their best look.
They feel a bit nicer,
there are a little bit easier to blend
and I feel like the colors just pop that little bit more on that Bristol Vellum.
Whereas when I've tested them on these other pages, I would have said some
of these other pencils just look a lot better.
Especially on the black paper, these Brutfubers are really nothing special here.
I'll tell you what, though, on this paper,
it feels more like an oil pencil and it doesn't blend as well.
And yet on the first paper, it was too waxy to be an oil pencil feeling so confused!
It's time for some investigative research.
I got a little carried away.
There is no difference between oil and Wax-based. Here's the trademark registration.
Brutfuner has no meaning in a foreign language.
Ohh. He's the wholesaler Shane.
I found the actual factory location! So I've got a response
from the manufacturer and they're telling me these are the same as Prismacolors.
But I think maybe they just don't understand,
I'm not just looking for colored pencils.
I actually have some specific questions.
So I'm just going to poke a little bit more and ask a few more questions.
Shuttle Art, Soucolor, Kalour, Southsun, WoMoxe
how are these all the same pencils?
Let me take you on a trip, a trip to Costco, where you would find
the Kirkland Signature brand of products that range from champagne to shampoo.
These are not all made in a Kirkland factory.
Instead, they are made in the factories of other companies.
The coffee beans roasted by Starbucks.
The batteries are made by Duracell.
And the nappies are made by the same manufacturer that makes Huggies.
They are bought and rebranded under
the Kirkland brand, which is a process known as private labeling.
This is similar to what happens with some
of the colored pencils that have been showing up online lately,
although these come under a slightly different system known as white labeling.
In simple terms, one factory makes a set
of pencils and sells them wholesale with a blank label to other companies
who can then rebrand and sell them under they are names.
That's why some Southsun and WoMoxe pencil
boxes come with the Brutfuner pencils inside. Taking it a step further,
as far as I've been able to tell,
the pencils from Shuttle Art, Soucolor and Kalour are also made in the same factory as
Brutfuner and rebranded under these companies.
Each of these companies has created their own packaging, pricing and advertising
but the pencil names, numbers and core ingredients are identical.
So if you already own one of these, you don't to buy the others unless you
want another pretty box or a second set of pencils.
And this review today has doubled as
a review for all of these brands, 6 in 1! And back down the rabbit hole.
The trademark owner of the name Brutfuner,
also owns the trademark of Guang Hui, which is the same company as one Wanshui.
The plot thickens.
After all of my research,
I did hear back from the manufacturer directly who confirmed that these pencils
were mostly vegetable oil with a small amount of wax.
So I'm genuinely surprised and impressed and happy to admit I was totally wrong
in assuming these couldn't be an oil-based pencil. With any budget pencils,
there are certain features of quality brands that you just might get.
You're unlikely to find pencils with a high, if any, lightfastness rating.
The packaging isn't always going to be
the best you might find broken or missing pencils and the colors of the core are
unlikely to be a perfect match for the colors of the barrel of the pencil.
But all of these things are why budget pencils are budget pencils.
If you want lightfastness or artist's quality, then save your money and buy
a set of Faber-Castell, Polychromos or Caran D’Ache Luminance.
If budget is your biggest priority but you still want a good set of pencils,
then the Brutfuner colored pencils are a great purchase for the price.
I've included the Brutfuner pricing
and more details on my blog, along with links to my other pencil
reviews so you can find the perfect set of pencils for you.
Check it out at the link below.
And don't forget to subscribe if you enjoyed this video.
Now that I've found the manufacturer.
We could print our pencils, they
they do all the printing and the packaging we could design our own pencils and get
the logo printed on the pencils and sell pencils in our shop.
We could name them after Mosko! We could put Mosko face on the pencils.
I could do it right here. I can contact them right now.
We only have to order like a minimum order of like.
Forty thousand. That's in the budget, right?