HISTORY
Koh-I-Noor Hardmuth is a Czech brand established in 1790 by Josef Hardmuth. It is well known in countries like Poland or Sweden, but not so well known in West Europe, due to other brands such as Faber-Castell or Staedtler, for example. Koh-I-Noor produces all sorts of art material, and it is my favourite brand in terms of quality and price.
SPECIFICATIONS
From all the pencils in the catalogue, Polycolor series is Koh-I-Noor’s most popular one. It includes 95 different colours divided into several sets, from Polycolor standard one (the biggest set has 72 colours) to lines like Portrait, Landscape or Grey or Brown lines. Unfortunately, there is no set that includes all the pencils.
The grey line comprises 12 pencils made of cedar wood. Being part of the Polycolor series, these nice-scented pencils are hexagonal (which prevents them from rolling on the table and fall), light and ergonomic. The barrel of each pencil is painted in a colour that matches a 3.8 mm lead. Each barrel includes the name of the brand, the number of the series (3800) and the number of the colour. The tips are painted in a golden colour ended in a closed casket that prevents the lead from being exposed. These pencils are wax-based with an oil bathe to give them a harder touch.
The lightfast rate is the same described in the other Polycolor entries of this blog. The 2018-2019 official catalogue indicates that, in the scale of * to *****, 27 of the 72 colours reach the maximum grade, 22 reach the 4 stars and 11 reach the 3 stars. That leaves only 12 of the colours with grades 2 and 1, which is fair enough in my opinion.
PERFORMANCE
These pencils enjoy a creamy texture with a somewhat hard point. The colour can be generously spread on the paper and the blending is better with darker colours. Polycolor pencils don’t smudge but can spread crumbs if the point is too fine and is pressed against the paper. All in all, it can be sharprened without problems with any sharpener.
In this image I used 2 different grey tones to check the blendability. The first sample shows the two colors alone, the second one has been blended with Derwent pencil blender and the third one with Derwent blender marker:
COLOUR CHART AND DEMO
Here is the colour chart for the grey set (I chose to show a hand-made chart because the one I made with the computer wans’t clear enough):
403 Cold grey / 401 Cold grey / 405 Cold grey / 406 Cold grey / 408 Cold grey / 409 Cold grey / 451 Warm grey / 452 Warm grey / 453 Warm grey / 455 Warm grey 5 / 456 Warm grey 6 / 458 Warm grey 8
The tones vary from white to yellowish, grey and almost black.
The pencils don’t include the name of the colours, only the number. However, the official catalogue arrange them by names, not by number. Despite this confusion, this time I have managed to offer you both the numbers and the names of each pencil, since there are only 12 grey tones in the set.
Here is an illustration coloured with some of the tones of the grey set:
SETS AND PACKAGING
The pencils come in a tin without hinges (much better when it comes to save space on the table) than can however be easily dented. Inside, the 12 pencils are displayed on a plastic tray, arranged by colours and pre-sharpened. The grey set is also available in watercolour version.
WHERE TO BUY
The Polycolor grey set can be purchased in the official site and in Amazon, which is more convenient. Throughout the year, prices tend to vary from 9 to 13 pounds.
Grey set Amazon UK | Grey set (watercolour version) Amazon UK
CONCLUSION
This is a nice and comprehensive set that can be used for backgrounds, winter landscapes, winter clothes, animal fur and some other details in any illustration. Personally, I think I like the brown set even more, but the reason why I didn’t buy it is because I counted how many Polycolor pencils I own and, together with the Portrait set and the standard Polycolor 48 set I have at least 7 of the brown tones out of the 12 ones featured in the brown set.
PROS, CONS AND RATING
The best: the presentation and the price.
The worst: the arrangement of tones and the listing is confusing if you have other sets. Also, some of the grey tones are similar.
Rating: 8/10
MORE INFORMATION
Learning to draw 