These charcoals are awesome! The colors are fantastic and work well on their own or combined with Derwent's XL charcoal (which has violet!) forming a more complete set of chunkies. They also flow well with soft pastels.
They're highly blendable and it's easy to get a range of lights and darks. I really enjoy how they feel on pastel paper and they're much easier to work with than the harder pastels, like Rembrandt.
As one reviewer said, these come packaged in individual plastic rectangles that are a pain to open and close. However, the easy workaround to that is simply not to store them in their original packaging. I store them like my pastels, in a box with soft padding under and between the sticks to prevent damage and color contamination. I'm sure there're lots of other options to suit different artists' needs. But don't let the original packaging turn you off of a product this good and this fun.
The only con I ran into is:
Packaging from Amazon SUCKS. This is NOT the fault of Cretacolor, so I didn't knock a star off. However, both times I ordered these there was no, that's right, no, as in zero, packaging material in the box to protect the charcoals.
The first order I had to send back and request a replacement because the charcoals were cracked to itsy pieces that I couldn't use.
The replacement order is also cracked, but thankfully in larger chunks that, although not ideal, still function for me.
I wish Amazon would pack better as charcoals are fragile and need actual packing material to prevent damage.
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These water soluble chunky chalks are color coordinated and great when intact for gestural figure drawing. I tried twice but received broken/ shattered items both times due to totally inadequate packaging by Amazon. (See photo before I returned them. ) No bubble wrap. Item banging around in bad fitting box which arrived crushed, tape broken and flapping. It is miraculous that any of the chalks arrived whole. I highly recommend these chalks but not from this vendor. Buy from Cheap Joe‘s or Dick Blick or Jerry’s Artarama who will surely package the item correctly. Now I only will buy Amazon art supplies that come from the factory in metal boxes or something. Amazon also failed to properly package an extra large drawing pad which arrived banging in a huge box but no padding so the item was bent and totally damaged on one side. They did replace and refund the items but I feel sad at the waste of precious and expensive art supplies!Buyer beware! Amazon, get it together!
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Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2022
These water soluble chunky chalks are color coordinated and great when intact for gestural figure drawing. I tried twice but received broken/ shattered items both times due to totally inadequate packaging by Amazon. (See photo before I returned them. ) No bubble wrap. Item banging around in bad fitting box which arrived crushed, tape broken and flapping. It is miraculous that any of the chalks arrived whole. I highly recommend these chalks but not from this vendor. Buy from Cheap Joe‘s or Dick Blick or Jerry’s Artarama who will surely package the item correctly. Now I only will buy Amazon art supplies that come from the factory in metal boxes or something. Amazon also failed to properly package an extra large drawing pad which arrived banging in a huge box but no padding so the item was bent and totally damaged on one side. They did replace and refund the items but I feel sad at the waste of precious and expensive art supplies!
Buyer beware! Amazon, get it together!
Buyer beware! Amazon, get it together!
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Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2019
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2019
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2023
I like the chunky charcoals, but the first time received they were packaged with no protection in a box with other items. Just left to bounce around and several of the sticks were broken. I then returned for an exchange and the second time they were shipped in a box that was way too big with no protection and they were broken to almost dust. So I ended up just returning and I will buy from somewhere else.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2019
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