Prismacolor portrait set (eBay)

I purchased these 22 portrait set pencils of eBay for $20 AUD.

Some colours give off a chalky look so I suggest you purchase a colourless blending pencil to soften the colours.

The top half has not been blended with the colourless pencil, but the bottom half has it's not noticeable in the lighter colours but makes a big difference in the darker shades.

My most used colour in portraits, "light peach" varies with pressure more than the other colours seem to.

Unlike Derwent/Polychromos pencils these leads are easily broken and require a lot of sharpening, the blacks seem to need to most sharpening even with the same usage as the other colours.

Overall a good set for the price and for people starting out drawing but not a wide enough range for professional artists.

Derwent Inktense pencils.

Applying two medium pressure layers with the Inktense pencils produces a dramatic, abstract and bold effect.

 Colour swatches from the 6 pack of pencils, using Pentel water brush produce such vibrant colours. 

The thick strong cores are resistant to breaking and need less sharpening than a student grade pencil.

Colours displayed on the end of pencils allow for versatile storage as you can easily see which colour is which.

Pentel water brush in action, slightly stained brushed tip but still has a great output. 

Such a small brush but it feels like the water lasts forever! The one i was using here was the fine tip, sizes range from extra fine brush tip to a large tip.

Super flexible brush bounces straight back into shape.

Pan pastel mixed media set.

Mid last year (2013) I purchased a Pan Pastel mixed media set, this set was not the original colour combination I wanted but I was only buying it off eBay not an art shop, this set was $61(AUD) with $11(AUD) postage. I'm extremely happy with the pigment and quality all round for these pastels but due to the odd colour palette I haven't made an art piece with them, sometime this year I will purchase the 20 colour portrait set from an Australian art website http://www.seniorart.com.au/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=14_480_483_486 I've been looking around for a long time for his set and this site seems to be the cheapest and most reliable. If you have never used Pan Pastel before or even pastel at all I would definitely recommend buying a 5,7 or 10 pack first.

I wouldn't recommend this to someone who hasn't tried painted, used charcoal or pastel before, but definitely good for people like me that like the appearance of a painting but hate waiting between layers and people that like pastel but hate the dust getting everywhere.

All the Sofft tools this set comes with.

Slide the cover off for cleaning, all cleaning instructions come with each pack.

The cover on for more precise lines.

I could imagine this set would last an artist half a year and the hobbyist anywhere from half a year to two years. 

I hoped this could help out someone not sure whether to splurge on these products.

Derwent Colorsoft 6 pack skintones.

My first encounter with Derwent Colorsoft pencils, they are almost like pastel pencils so buy the Derwent Artist pencils for details. For larger pieces these are great.

They produce a lot of dust, but are highly pigmented.

Prismacolor Verithin review.

I was wanting to buy a large set of Prismacolor Verithins so i purchased a single black pencil to test the product first, I was amazed definitely worth the hype, I've recently been using Derwent Colorsoft which are great but not practical for details in eyes or flowers as they act like pastel pencils giving off dust and a wide spread of colour. Definitely recommend to anyone wanting to buy a large pack of artist (expensive) pencils to buy a single or small (6-12pack) first of colours you know you would use, which for me is black and primary colours. I'm waiting on some Faber Castell Polychromos hopefully they live up to the hype as well.