Master's Touch Charcoal Pencils

Hello everyone!

Today, I am reviewing the Master's Touch Charcoal Pencils. These can be purchased from Hobby Lobby. 

First off, I would like to say that this is going to be a very mixed opinion review, due to my experience with these.

These come in a pack of six. Two of each soft, medium, and hard woodless pencils. They are quite a bit shorter than a standard pencil. 

The first thing I noticed is that the packaging is a semi hard plastic and very difficult to get into. I had to cut along the side and even then, be careful to not cut myself on the very sharp edges of the plastic package.

At first, I thought I could simply store them in my pencil case with the other colored pencils and pencil media I have. However, three of them broke this way. I taped them back together and they are still useable, however these are quite fragile. I have since put them in a harder case seen here.

As for the way they work, they have a different feel to them along the different gradients. However, unlike graphite pencils and even colored pencils, there isn't much ability to shade with the charcoal itself. You therefore have to use a lot of various shading tools to get the effect you want.

The soft charcoal could lay down quite a lot and quite quickly. It was also, quite smooth as well. The hard was quite hard feeling and the strokes were maybe slightly lighter than the soft pencil. It was also a little scratchy on the paper. The medium, I guess you could say, is the best of both worlds.

As for sharpening, that is where the real adventure comes in. Rather, should I say, conundrum? Take your pick. I used my Bostitch Twist n' Sharp ratchet sharpener. It is very nice and gentle on colored pencils and so I thought it would work well for these. Well, it did not and nothing against the sharpener.

However, as I was sharpening the soft pencil to finish a drawing, this happens. It broke inside the sharpener. That was not the worst of it. I was able to get that chunk out rather easily, it was the fact that what appears to be a lacquer coating, like what other wooden cased pencils have, was instead some kind of plastic coating.

This got stuck in my sharpener, thereby decommissioning it for the moment. I had to use a number of things including paper clips and a craft knife to get it out. The poor pencil sharpener went through a lot for this. It is useable now, but I have had to remove the blade and resharpen it to remove rough edges from the damage.

I will be either using a cheap sharpener from now on or a craft knife to sharpen these.

Overall, the charcoal seems to be pretty good quality, but if you choose to purchase these, do not use your best sharpener on them.

Pros:

• Reasonably priced $5.99
• Woodless - you can use more of the charcoal, but it's slightly cleaner than the sticks.
• Three different kinds - two of each in soft, medium, and hard

Cons:

• Not much difference in shade between the gradients, just the feel on the paper.
• While sharpening, one broke off in the sharpener and slightly damaged the blade.
• Break easily if not well protected
• Packaging difficult to open

Final rating: 2/5 stars

Bonus: here is a picture I drew with these and graphite. It is of Faith Connors from Mirror's Edge Catalyst. I decided to do a face study with a picture from her in the art book. 

Charcoal Pencils: Apparently the woodless charcoal pencils are no longer available on the website, but they are still in the physical store. Here is a similar product, however. 

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Art-Supplies/Drawing-Illustration/Pencils/6-Count-Compressed-Charcoal-Sticks/p/11596

Mirror's Edge Catalyst art book:

https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/29-418/The-Art-of-Mirrors-Edge-Catalyst-Limited-Edition-HC

I hope you enjoyed this review. Please look forward to more!

Thank you for reading!

Gift ideas for Artists

Hello everyone!

I watched a few YouTube videos of some of my favorite artists and a few others the last few days about gift ideas for artists.

Thank you to Zoe Hong, for allowing me to share this video with you all. 

They were very helpful and informative, so I thought I would share a couple of those as well as share a few gift ideas myself.

I have linked a public gift guide on Amazon, should you be interested in possibly getting me something I would like to try and I will review it on the blog as well. If you have other ideas, I am open to those as well.

Below are some of my personal suggestions for artists.

For Beginner Artists

Often, people suggest you get these art sets for these people. While some of them can be really good, a lot of these, unfortunately, have poor quality art supplies. While beginners do not need professional grade things, nor am I suggesting that, they should at least have something decent to play around with.

A few brands I suggest looking for in  sets might be Crayola, General's, Daler Rowney Simply series, and Royal & Langnickel. Some of the art sets at Micheal's and Hobby Lobby might be okay, but I've read very mixed reviews. Therefore, these are a hit or miss. I personally haven't tried them, however.

For Intermediate Artists

These are people who are still discovering different mediums they like, they are likely in middle School to high school, perhaps college age, but they consider art a hobby. I suggest you find out what they like to use, whether they like drawing, painting, or whatever and go from there.

For these people, if it's a high quality set, it might be worth getting. Otherwise, I would pick up something specific.

A few sets I could recommend are General's, Prismacolor, Marco Raffine, and possibly Derwent.

Unless you know exactly what they like, especially if they're picky, I would stay away from sketchbooks and paints as these vary greatly in quality and price. If you really want to do that, get them a set of paints from well known brands like Holbien, Ulbrecht, etc... Sketchbooks I would recommend Canson Mixed media paper. Strathmore is also a good company.

For Advanced and Professional Artists

These artists are going to be very particular. Unless you're an artist yourself, it will be very difficult to get them something.

A gift card or certificate to their favorite art store, might be a good idea. Make sure it's for a decent amount. Art supplies can get very expensive, especially for the advanced and professional artist.

Professional grade brands include; Faber Castell, Derwent, Caran D'arche, Tombow, and the like.

If you wish to get them something specific, I would get to know them and what they like and use. You cannot go wrong with something you know they use a lot of. With all this being said, many artists including myself, love to be surprised with something unique, which we can try out. It's the thought that counts, ultimately. I just hope this helps you in not wasting money and resources on something that the artist in your life will maybe use once, if at all.

Link to my personal gift guide (if you would like to support the blog and other things I would like to do in the future). 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3FYMYRHERBHI9

I hope that this adds to all the helpful guides out there and I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and safe holiday season!