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- Verified Buyer
Got this for my BF who wanted to start sketching. He loves and has created great art with this set. He went ahead and bought an eraser - wish was the only downfall of this set. Otherwise this is a great & affordable gift for someone looking to get in touch with their ~artsy side~Super high quality charcoal especially for the priceThis is perfect to gift or to use personally.It's compact size makes it convenient to take anywhere you go.The box is thin but sturdy enough to protect the inside components.Would recommend highly.I needed them for an assignment and they were okay. I wish the soft square stick was a bit softer but I will definitely be using them until they're dust.I am using more and more art supplies and am rally enjoying trying different brands and medias. This set By Royal and Langnickel was purchased as an add on item to keep the price low. Currently being offered at $4.61 with free prime shipping as an add on. Now, what you get for your money. The set Includes, 3 charcoal pencils, 1 woodless graphite pencil, 4 charcoal sticks, 4 vine charcoal and 1 storage tin. The charcoal pencils do not come pre-sharpened so you will need a sharpener. Tin measures 7-1/2-inch by 4-1/2-inch by 1/2-inch so you can keep everything together and it is compact enough to throw in a backpack to carry along.This is most certainly something I will want to take with me on trips to sketch with. I Can't find anything about this product that I am not happy with. This is something that would be good for all ages. a beginner would not be intimidated and a more advanced user should be pleased as well. either way it is a great deal and good quality and should help you produce the results you want to achieve.The contents all work well and give you great results. I tried out all contents before reviewing so I could be sure. I am personally impressed. I will order again when needed.I've now tried nearly all of the pieces in this set & I'm pleased to say I found it wast to use and the items of good quality. I think my favorite piece is the woodless charcoal pencil, though & that's simply because it gives me the option to use charcoal without soiling my hands & potentially my outfit. I sketch when and wherever I find time so having that less mess option is wonderful. The other pieces are ok. I'm a beginner & still found all items sturdy.This was a gift for my aspiring artist (my daughter) who has a gift for drawing and has not realized it yet.To date the only complaint and it’s not hers it’s mine is how dirty her fingers get from using this set.She loves the fact that this set gives her tons of opportunities to create and it has given her enough confidence to try to draw harder things.This was and has been a great gift for my daughter.I would buy this gift again if she asked and I would recommend this item to my friends and family.I am so pleased with this purchase! Royal is far superior in quality than Generals brand (or even Prismacolor when it comes to charcoal pencils-prisma lead falls out on their charcoal pencils but not their colored ones!) This was one sale for cheaper than 4 sticks of Generals compressed charcoal, but would be worth every penny at full price.I am a disabled veteran and a fulltime student (video game art student but traditional artist as well) at local community college using my GI Bill. I am on a budget and good quality art supplies are not cheap. Brand makes ALL the difference. I didn't realize when I purchased this that it was the full kit with compressed sticks and pencils. I was happily surprised especially at the price. The pencil wood is far superior. It shaves down with exacto (scalpel kind is my fave) perfectly to get the long lead so you can use the side as well as point of pencil WITHOUT the lead breaking or the wood splintering.The seller was amazingly fast at shipping this to my house. I was worried I would have to pay triple at Michaels to finish my midterm project in time but it arrived within 2 days.I will be purchasing here instead from now on.I suppose I am behind the times, but to me another reviewer's comment that 'charcoal is charcoal' hasn't proved true at all. I am used to what I see is now called 'vine charcoal', which can be nicely smudged into a mist with a finger or a cotton bud, or erased altogether with a soft cloth. These pencils and sticks are not at all like that. They make a very nice line drawing, with the ability to vary the thickness of the line etc, but they can't be seamlessly blended and can't be successfully rubbed out at all (not even with an eraser). OK, old-fashioned charcoal makes a bit of a mess, you need to take care, you need to clean your hands a lot, but that's the price you pay for what I think of as real charcoal drawing. I'm just saying all this in case anyone else is unenlightened like me. It's a lovely box and all that, but I can see that only the 'real' charcoal in it is going to get used much by me.Great set at a good price. Much better than other brands I've tried.Un difetto hanno i set di carboncini: la breve durata.Quindi stavo cercando qualcosa avente un prezzo accettabile che però fosse di qualità dignitosa.Da tempo girando i vari blog e negozi di belle arti, Amazon compresa, notavo questa marca, Royal & Langnickel che sembrava essere molto economica ma di cui non conoscevo di fatto la qualità: le ho dato fiducia con questo piccolo set di carboncini, con il risultato che a breve ordinerò anche la versione più completa.Il set contiene: 4 carboncini naturali di due diversi diametri, 3 matite a carboncino delle tre gradazioni di durezza, 4 blocchetti di carbone compresso (uno hard, due medium, e uno soft); questo materiale è tutto molto valido, i vari elementi coprono l'intera gamma di neri fino ad arrivare senza sforzo a quello più profondo, risultano ottimamente sfumabili e sono totalmente assenti le impurità che rischiano di grattare fastidiosamente il foglio.Ottime anche le gradazioni "hard", che di solito sono quelle problematiche: sono scriventi e scorrono agilmente, determinando un tratto continuo e dinamico.Volevo però focalizzare l'attenzione su un carboncino molto particolare inserito nel set, di gradazione media, che non avevo mai provato e di cui non conoscevo l'esistenza: si presenta con il rivestimento in plastica, tipo le grafiti woodless.Oltre ad avere l'alto merito di rendere molto più pulito un medium artistico come il carboncino che notoriamente sporca molto le mani e la scrivania, è anche particolarissima la sua resa su carta: apparentemente sembra un carbone semi-compresso, ma mantiene nel contempo la porosità del carboncino naturale: questo determina la possibilità di avere neri corposissimi con una pressione molto leggera, unita a quella di poter scendere nel dettaglio grafico.Lo trovo ottimo davvero, rispondente alle mie necessità di illustratore.Nel set più completo sono presenti anche tutte le tre gradazioni di questo carboncino speciale: lo voglio !!!!P.s.:Non mi stancherò mai di ripetere che, sopratutto per le matite a carboncino e le matite delicate in genere, l'uso dei normali temperini è altamente sconsigliato, anche se spesso si trovano compresi nei vari set: c'è un'alta possibilità che rompano le punte, determinando quindi una minore durata del prodotto.Meglio quindi temperare con una lametta o con un tagliabalsa: un minimo di tempo e di impegno in più per ottenere molti vantaggi.I'd give it 3 1/2 if I could. The charcoal sticks are very nice, soft and easy to blend and smudge. The heavy black pencil is also nice, for doing fine, dark lines that you can't get with pencils. The charcoal pencils however are just average. The 'soft' one refuses to sharpen; it snaps every time, the bit of lead getting caught in my sharpener. The charcoal stumps are OK; the soft one doesn't feel too different from the hard one (both are stiff and hard, and kind of scratchy on paper.It's fine if you just really need charcoal to draw with, or as an under-sketch for a painting. Decent, just not the best quality.i purchased this item as it was about time I renewed my charcoal drawing supplies after adding bits and pieces as they were exhausted. Unlike paints and pencils, there is realy only one quality level when using basic charcoal for drawing, and this set fills my requirement perfectly. Unfortunately it is part of Amazon "add on" programme and as suck had to wait until I wanted another product of sufficient value, and supplied by Amazon, before I could order. That being said, I would recommend this to any artist interested in charcoal work be they novice or experianced.
