My daughter uses these for her art class or just doodles. They work great! Smooth when sketching.

complete and pencils sharpened, good quality material!

This was a gift for a young Artist. She was very pleased by the product selection and quality

Lo compré para regalo para una persona que entiende (se dedica al dibujo) y la verdad que le encantó. Después de probarlo me dijo que le encantó, y los dibujos que ha hecho son excelentes.Para regalar es un producto de diez!!!

Très grande trousse noir en mousse avec une bonne fermeture éclair qui protège les 40 pièces qu'il y a dans la trousse. Beaucoup de crayons noires de différentes références, du plus sec au plus gras, des fusains, des estompeurs, taille crayon et bien d'autres choses indispensables pour faire des dessins aux graphites, croquis ou esquisses.C'est une très bonne trousse pour débuter les dessins aux graphites ou autres.Je recommande vivement au vu du prix et du nombre de pièces dans cette belle trousse.Vraiment très bon rapport qualité prix.Livré rapidement et bien protégé. Je la conseille vraiment !Peut être également offert en cadeau.

Purchased this over a year ago, everything is well made, holds up for the money. Perfect for the doodler or sketch artist in your family or householdGreat Gift As Well

I haven’t had a chance to use it but it’s a very nice set

It fits well in the draw. Doesn’t look cheap and keep draw with my big kitchen utensils very neat.

Zeer snel en in goede order ontvangen en was zoals beschreven op de siteAls kado besteld, degene voor wie het was is er heel blij en tevreden over.

The pencils are a well distributed set of hardness (4h, 2h,b, etc.) There is also a nice set of charcoal, blender tools, erasers. All the items one needs to draw with. The case is the correct size with a pocket, strap our pouch for storage. Each time the pouch is opened everything is in its place. No hunting through a jumbled set of pencil and supplemental supplies to before drawing when the pouch is opened. It was a good purchase.

My niece has recently gotten into drawing so I decided to get her this as a Christmas present. She hasn’t gotten it yet, but I opened it up to check it out and it looks like a great starter set for someone just starting their drawing journey.

I gave 4 stars for beginners because it’s great for amateurs who want to expand their horizons. Like me, I have never added pastel pencils into my graphite and charcoal mix, nor used graphite and charcoal sticks. Those specific items I will review their quality after I’ve used them a bit more. The one missing star is for beginners with little to no experience. For someone like this I would suggest the smaller pencil set that castle sells just to get used to the basics first before broadening your horizons.I am perfectly pleased with the quality of the pencils. The vinyl eraser is like any other eraser of its kind and it does what it’s supposed to. The smudging pencils are sturdy and can withstand the necessary amount of pressure to blend graphite and charcoal. The graphite sticks seem promising for shading in large areas, though I’ve only used them twice. Same with the charcoal sticks. One small criticism is the size of the kneading eraser, I do wish it was about 2-3 times larger so you can cover larger areas with it. I personally don’t like plastic sharpeners so I won’t be using it, but I tested it and it does it’s job, no bending or cracking of the plastic. The steel sharpener is a nice weight and size with 2 different sizes use. The sandpaper is where I think the big kicker is. Sandpaper isn’t a secret in art but usually we find ourselves buying a whole roll from the hardware store cause on its own in an art supplies shop they’re just over priced, let’s be honest. I’ve never seen a pencil set with a sandpaper pad included. The sandpaper holds so many uses, cleaning/sharpening your smudging pencils, sanding a dull pencil down to a fine point without needless sharpening, quick & easy way to clean your vinyl eraser, and I could go on. I’m sure there’s more that other people have done with it that I’ve never thought of myself.Overall opinion: I love it. I’ve had only one small complaint amongst the entire kit. Notably I can’t presently comment on the willow sticks and pastel pencils as I have not used them yet. I will update my review in the future to include how I feel about them as well!

First, if you are using to learn to draw, this has a lot of what you will need in a convenient case. Going through the book, I rarely have to reach to anything that didn't come in this kit shy of my sketch book. That was what turned me on to it, and that's why I love it. Incidentally, if you are learned to draw, I'd highly recommend that book, this kit, and or a similar size sketchbook (or any sketchbook if you're not fussy) to get started. The three together will see you a good way into your journey. Throw in a drawing board if you're feeling fancy.Indeed, for most instruction programs, this and some paper is all you'll need. it is a very well provided kit.Going through all of it, piece by piece. The case itself is quite sturdy (my cat has taken a try at destroying it, and I've taken a try at over-stuffing it, and it's survived both of us.) It holds everything securely and presents them well with the built in stand.Pencils include 8B, 6B, 5B, 4B, 3B, 2B, B, HB (HB is your standard #2 pencil by the way), 2H, 3H, 4H, and 5H. For those familiar with drawing pencils, you already know that's quite a huge range. For those unfamiliar, H measures hardness and B measure boldness. 5H is so hard it barely makes a line and 8B is so dark it's practically charcoal.Speaking of charcoal, this kit contains a box of 4 sticks of willow charcoal (made it though a lot of rough treatment because the case does a good job of protecting it until I finally broke them intentionally), three sticks of charcoal (soft, medium, and hard) and three charcoal pencils (soft, medium, and hard). The charcoal sticks are the darker matte ones. The shiny one are graphite.On the graphite side there are three sticks (soft, medium, and hard) and a 6B soft graphite pencil.On the pastel side, there are four pencils: Black, Grey, Red Brown, and Sepia.It comes with two pencil sharpeners, and here I took one out to make room for something else (I've been tweaking the kit a bit -- more on that in a bit) and replaced one as it wasn't a terribly sharp sharpener. That was the only bit I was disappointed in, and it happens sometimes.It also comes with sandpaper and an Xacto knife for additional sharpening options. I've used the knife to cut cardboard with no issues.On the eraser front it has a kneeding and a vinyl eraser. That's all you need.It has three blending stumps (very generous -- most kits have just one) and a double sized pencil extender.Now, since I'm weird, I extended the kit a bit. To wit, I've added:an eraser shield (that it would have been nice if it came with it, but it would have been hard to present it well -- I just stuck it behind the pencils), (the only thing that isn't secured in the kit)An eraser for said markers (that's what replaced the extra sharpener)Three Conte crayon pencilsOne white pencilThe point of that simply is, with moving stuff around the kit is quite versatile and suited for individual customization. There is room to make this kit uniquely yours.Castle Art is extremely responsive to customer concerns (I emailed them with a question about the kit and they got back to me promptly and with very helpful information).They do not, at the time of this writing, offer refills, but I have found each of the components either here at Amazon or at various online and brick and mortar art supply stores, so it won't be hard to refill the case at need.