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Summary
Classic
Reviewer's Comments
Derwent Studio is the slender hexagonal sibling of the thick and round Derwent Artists. These pencils come in Derwent's classical 72 colours, including such subdued hues as Pale vermilion 13, Red violet lake 24, Blue violet lake 27, Smalt blue 30, Cobalt blue 31, Juniper green 42 and Sap green 49 as well as lots of brown. A fine range for landscapes, but if you prefer to draw bright flowers, you'd better take a look towards Caran d'Ache Pablo.
The leads are not as smooth as Caran d'Ache Pablo and Faber-Castell Polychromos; some browns particularly are on the sticky side.
Lightfastness of Derwent Studio (mid-1990s set):
*** colours (lightfast): 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 20, 30, 31, 36, 37, 38, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 69, 70, 72.
** colours (slight fading or change of hue in 5~10~20 years): 2, 13, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 35, 39, 40, 42, 49, 50, 51, 65, 68, 71.
* colours (severe fading or change of hue in 5~10~20 years): 4, 22, 24, 26, 44.
Ø colours (fugitive): 18, 34.
According to Derwent's own pamphlets, the lead of Derwent Artists pencils is identical so their lightfastness should be identical too! (Update 29 Jun 2009)
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Summary
*****
Reviewer's Comments
I'm combining a review of Derwent Studio Coloured Pencils with their related line, Derwent Artist Coloured Pencils. The cores are exactly the same, except the Artist pencils have thicker cores. Studio pencils are slightly less expensive individually or by the set, because they were produced to be a less expensive alternative in those colours you use most often. The choice for when you really need to use up three of your favourite green to cover a large area.
Derwent Studio pencils have a good, well chosen range of 72 colours. Derwent Artist pencils have a spectacular range of 120 very well chosen colours and are strong on nature colours and unusual neutrals.
They shade well. Derwent Studio or Artist pencils perform the same and have a "dry" feeling that may not please the layered-painting realist. I rate them as high as I do, because for a "drawing" rather than "painting" approach they are unmatched. They are reasonably soft, a bit like a low B, and they shade wonderfully. They are fantastic in monochrome and for doing line-heavy, shading-heavy work on a toothy ground. They hold a point well.
Like other artist grade coloured pencils, they play well with others. To achieve glazed, layered effects, it helps to combine them with a softer pencil. These are better for precise drawing and for those special textures like feathers or fur where more control is a big plus.
You can't get Verithins in a range of 120 colours, but Derwent Artist or Studio will work well for Verithins applications too, edging is very easy with the fine point they hold.
I like them a lot, they are the extreme of their range of texture and hold a special place in my coloured pencils collection. The unique hues in blues, greys, greens, soft violets and browns fill major gaps in my other sets. Colours like "Mist" are a good shortcut although they will mix well too either optically or by layering. I prefer layering them in smooth tonal layers.
Combine them with a softer set in the extreme softness range if you want to explore more painterly techniques. Recently, Derwent has responded to complaints about the "Dry" texture and relative hardness by creating a second line of reasonably priced coloured pencils -- Derwent Coloursoft, which are a little softer even than Prismacolors, and two hardnesses of colourless pencil -- a Burnisher with the clear binder of a Studio pencil and a Blender with the soft binder of a Coloursoft pencil.
Thus if your core set is Derwent Studio or Artist, you can extend it by using the soft Blender to get more of the effects more waxy pencils give.
I rate this highly anything that in itself is that useful. Each of the brands I really like has its own best techniques, its own palette, its own qualities in relation to your own techniques.
If you are also an accomplished graphite realist and enjoy pencils that will let you use the white ground and give that "drawing" look, then Derwent Studio are the right pencils for you. If you want to try this out inexpensively, I would suggest picking up a dark blue or dark brown Studio pencil and both the Derwent Colourless Burnisher and Blender -- using a dark blue pencil for monochromes and exploring what solvents work best for your techniques is the way to find out which coloured pencils are right for you.
Derwent Studio/Artist aren't for everyone but indispensible if they are right for you.
Studio pencils are hexagonal and of a normal pencil width. Derwent Artist have barrels too wide for many conventional sharpeners and work in the wide hole on two-hole ones, or any sharpener with a large-bore entrance. They come in tins or in a wonderful wood box set that I bought on holiday discount, but I've had Studio pencils in the past and they do handle the same. They became my "living room set" because the box is a warm deep red wood with a beautiful finish, velvety flocked lining and spaces for the pencils that lock them into place.
They are one of the least vulnerable pencils I have when it comes to Internal Breakage, the leads are good and strong and the cores are perfectly straight and centered. All of my Derwent pencils have good straight cores and no rejects in the sets.
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