HISTORY
Koh-I-Noor Hardmuth is a Czech brand founded in 1790 by Josef Hardmuth. It is popular in countries like Poland or Czech Republic, but perhaps less known in West Europe because of brands such as Faber-Castell. Koh-I-Noor is one of the biggest producers of art supplies in the world, and my favourite brand in terms of quality and price.
I have tried many colour pencils from Koh-I-Noor, but never wax crayons. Crayons are the last art material that I would buy, and I think they have bad fame because we commonly associate them with childhood. I have always taken for granted that they if they are too waxy they won’t work properly, and that they will smudge and will break easily because of they are made of plastic. Summing up: as an artistic product, they weren’t too interesting for me. But one day I saw Trio Wax crayons by Koh-I-Knoor as an “add on” item for less than 2 euros in Amazon and I read good reviews on them, so I thought I should try. I then ordered them in the next purchase and, to be honest, they surprised me greatly.
SPECIFICATIONS
Trio Wax crayons are both available dry and in watercolour version. They are featured in two different thickness: 8,2 mm and 10 mm, but both of them are 90 mm length. The package I bought includes 12 dry crayons of 8 mm. These are light and rounded, very fine and short in size, because they are thought for the hands of a child. In spite of that, they can still be handled decently.
These crayons don’t provide any colour chart, classification or lightfast degree, because they are school material created for children. On the red paper covering each crayon appears the name of the product, “Trio Wax”, and that’s it. After realizing that crayons are actually a good alternative to combine with pencils, I wonder why they never launched a professional line.
PERFORMANCE
Trio Wax don’t smudge, although they come with a red paper wrapping each crayon to avoid the contact with the wax.
Crayons are of course wax-based, but I ignore whether they have other elements apart from the wax and the pigments. Trio wax barely leave clots on the paper, and they can be blended. But the most interesting thing is that they don’t leave a waxy effect: rather, they have a matte touch similar to the pencils. On the paper, they leave a somewhat velvety texture that you can feel with your fingerprints.
I have not sharpened these crayons yet (let’s say I am not brave enough), so I cannot offer any information on the sharpening department. Since they don’t appear to be too soft, I guess it won’t be particularly problematic.
In this image, I have mixed the orange and rose tones to check the blendability. Some clots can be appreciated:
SETS AND PACKAGING
These crayons come in sets of 6, 12 and 24 units, and they come in a carton package that is obviously not the most suitable option for their storage, so the most sensible thing is to transfer them to a pencil case. Just like all crayons, they are easy to break if they fall on the floor (in fact, I broke the white crayon the very same day they arrived home).
COLOUR CHART
Here is the colour chart for the 12 crayons set (I decided to use a handmade chart because the one I created with the computer was too pale):
Red / Rose / Yellow / Dark blue / Violet / Orange / Light green / Dark green / Brown / Blue / White
There are no official names for these colours, so the ones proposed here are just a suggestion.
WHERE TO BUY
Trio Wax crayons can be purchased both in the official site and in Amazon. Even though they are cheaper in the official site, the final price including the shipping costs makes them more expensive than the Amazon alternative.
CONCLUSION
As I said earlier, these crayons are an excellent alternative to combine with pencils when it comes to colour illustrations. Of course, they are not suitable to work on a commission, but they can be enjoyed for general colouring. Not everything in life is work, right?
PROS, CONS AND RATING
The best: the price, the matte touch. They don’t smudge and behave almost like a pencil.
The worst: they sometimes create clots and they are rather small for the hand.
Rating: 8/10
MORE INFORMATION
Learning to draw 