Holbein Artists Colored Pencils are among the most sought-after art supplies in the colored pencil world. With 150 colors, a uniquely smooth core, and a reputation built on decades of Japanese craftsmanship, they’ve earned loyal followings among illustrators, fine artists, and adult colorists. This guide covers everything you need to decide whether they belong in your collection.
- Quick Answer: Are Holbein Artists Colored Pencils Worth It?
- About Holbein Artists Colored Pencils
- Key Features of Holbein Colored Pencils
- Holbein Artists Colored Pencil Sets and Packaging
- Performance: Blending, Layering, and the Famous Soft White
- Lightfast Testing and Archival Considerations
- Product Comparison: Holbein vs. Other Premium Artists Colored Pencils
- Using Holbein Colored Pencils with MELTZ and Other Media
- Buying Holbein Artists Colored Pencils from Discovery Japan Mall
Quick Answer: Are Holbein Artists Colored Pencils Worth It?
Holbein artists colored pencils are professional-grade tools designed for artists requiring superior performance. Their soft, creamy core delivers strong color saturation from the first stroke, making them ideal for illustration, mixed media, and detailed coloring work. Holbein claims high-quality pigmentation for vibrant color application, and independent reviewers consistently back that up.
The key pros include a buttery laydown, an exceptionally opaque soft white pencil, beautiful pastel tones, and a wide range of sets from 12 to 150 colors. The cons worth noting: some luminous colors are less lightfast, the price is significantly higher than student brands, and older English-language reviews flagged unclear lightfast information. Later sections in this blog post cover detailed lightfast testing data, hands-on performance notes, and a comparison table against other brands like caran d’ache luminance and derwent lightfast.
About Holbein Artists Colored Pencils
Holbein Works Ltd. is a heritage Japanese brand operating since the early 1900s, known for professional paints, inks, and pastels. Their artists colored pencils, introduced in 1993, were engineered to meet the same exceptional quality standard the company applies across all holbein products.
These pencils are not hobby-grade. They are artists colored tools built for illustrators, designers, and fine artists with high demands for pigment intensity and handling characteristics. Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils are manufactured in Japan using 100% PEFC Certified wood. Each pencil has a 7.8 mm barrel diameter and a 3.8 mm diameter core, housed in a round barrel fully lacquered to match the lead color.
Barrel markings are printed in gold: “Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencil,” the color name, color number (OP series), a lightfast rating via star system, and “JAPAN.” Older English reviews from 2017–2019 complained about limited US availability and unclear lightfastness listings, but Holbein has since published standardized ratings for export markets.
Key Features of Holbein Colored Pencils
What sets holbein pencils apart from other premium lines is their core composition. The core of Holbein pencils is a mixture of wax, fat, and oil-a unique hybrid that artists worldwide describe as creamy and soft without the drawbacks of pure wax formulas. Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils include a unique hybrid of oil and wax, and they are known for their non-prone “waxy bloom” issue that plagues many wax-heavy competitors.
The smooth, low-resistance laydown covers paper tooth quickly, making holbein colored pencils ideal for burnishing, glazing, and soft gradients without heavy pressure. These oil based colored pencils provide a wide variety of tones and shades for artists, including 150 color options that favor bright, clean hues, strong pastels, and useful neutrals. Special shades like metallic silver, metallic gold, Opera (a vivid pink), and luminous lemon react under black light, adding creative possibilities for illustration and display work.
The signature soft white deserves its own mention. This white pencil is highly opaque-almost functioning like a mini gouache stick for pulling highlights, softening edges, and correcting transitions over mid-tone or dark backgrounds. The thicker barrels give a solid, comfortable grip for long drawing sessions, and the pencils generate low dust and remain relatively smudge-resistant, which portrait artists present in the community especially appreciate.
Holbein Artists Colored Pencil Sets and Packaging
Holbein offers a largest set of 150 colored pencils alongside sets of 12, 24, 36, 50, and 100 pencils. Some colors duplicate across different Holbein sets, and the 150 set includes many colors from the 50 set, so checking color lists before purchasing is important.
| Set Size | Packaging | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| 12 (Themed: Basic, Pastel, Design Tone) | Metal tin | Trying a specific palette or gifting |
| 24 | Metal tin | Beginners, adult colorists |
| 36 | Metal tin | Colorists wanting broader range |
| 50 | Metal tin / box | Serious hobbyists, mixed media |
| 100 | Metal tin | Advanced artists, broad palette needs |
| 150 | Metal tin or wooden presentation box | Professionals wanting the complete collection |
The 12-color pastel set is a popular pastel set entry point. The 36-color set suits colorists who want variety without heavy investment. For the full experience, the 150-color tin set delivers every shade in the Holbein line.
Open stock individual pencil replacements are available for heavily used shades like soft white and skin tones, so you can buy open stock refills without rebuying a full box. On Discovery Japan Mall, product pages show complete color lists for each set, helping you avoid unexpected duplicates when expanding from a smaller to a larger collection.
Performance: Blending, Layering, and the Famous Soft White
On smooth Bristol and medium-tooth drawing paper, holbein artists colored pencils lay down saturated pigment from the very first layer with minimal visible grain. Holbein pencils have a 3.8mm thick lead that supports easy build-up of 5–8 light layers before any waxiness becomes noticeable. Holbein pencils feature exceptional blending capabilities that make them stand out among premium lines.
The medium-soft core allows both soft shading and relatively sharp points for moderate detail work, though sharpening is needed more frequently than with harder pencils. For hyper-fine line work or technical rendering, harder options like Faber-Castell Polychromos may hold a sharper point longer. Holbein excels where expressive strokes, painterly gradients, and smooth blending are the priority.
Dry blending performance is where these pencils truly shine. Colors merge cleanly through simple layering, and burnishing with a light color or colorless blender creates a paint-like surface of exceptional performance. The “soft white revelation” is real: this single pencil makes it easy to pull out highlights on mid-tone paper, soften transitions, and adjust mistakes in ways that outperform most standard white colored pencils.
Holbein’s MELTZ water based blending thinner can dissolve most Holbein pigments into watercolor-like washes, though metallic and some luminous shades resist it, preserving their texture. Test a simple cactus or flower illustration to feel how quickly these finest color pencils cover the page compared to harder, drier brands.
Lightfast Testing and Archival Considerations
Holbein’s lightfastness testing conforms to ASTM D6901 standards. Holbein uses scientific instruments-specifically xenon arc lamps in Weather-o-Meters and spectrophotometers measuring ΔE*ab-to assign each color a rating. Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils offer excellent lightfastness ratings across most of the range, with Holbein’s lightfast ratings ranging from ASTM I to V.
| Star Rating | ASTM Category | Durability | Use Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| *** | LF I – LF II | Permanent | Sale, exhibition, framing |
| ** | LF III | Moderately durable | Display with UV protection |
| * | LF IV | Fugitive | Sketchbooks, scans only |
| No star | LF V | Very fugitive | Non-archival work only |
A rating of *** corresponds to ASTM LF I and II. Colors with no star are rated ASTM V for lightfastness. Independent lightfast testing by colored pencil societies found that roughly half to two-thirds of the 150 lightfast colors perform well, while certain bright pinks, violets, and luminous shades like luminous lemon and Opera can fade faster under strong light. Holbein Colored Pencils are not fully tested for sale in the US market in the same way European competitors document their ranges, but the updated export markings have improved transparency significantly.
For original artworks intended for sale or framing, use *** and ** colors. Reserve fugitive or luminous pencils for sketchbooks, illustration scans, and non-display work. Store finished art away from direct sunlight and use UV-protective glass when framing, regardless of brand.
Product Comparison: Holbein vs. Other Premium Artists Colored Pencils
At Discovery Japan Mall, we focus on holbein artists as our primary recommendation for Japanese premium colored pencils, but many artists want to know how they stack up against other brands and supplies they already own. The great pride holbein takes in their formulation becomes clear when you compare handling side by side-an incomparable example of Japanese precision meeting artistic expression.
| Attribute | Holbein Artists | Faber-Castell Polychromos | Caran d’Ache Luminance | Derwent Lightfast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Type | Oil/wax/fat blend | Oil-based | Wax/oil hybrid | Oil-based |
| Feel | Soft, creamy | Medium-hard | Soft, buttery | Medium |
| Color Count | 150 | ~120 | ~100 | ~100 |
| Lightfast Focus | Strong (some exceptions) | Very strong | Excellent | Very strong |
| Signature Strength | Soft white, pastels, neons | Precision, point retention | Archival permanence | Maximum lightfastness |
| Price Tier | High | High | Very high | High |
| Best For | Illustration, coloring, mixed media | Realism, fine detail, portraiture | Gallery/museum work | Archival fine art |
Holbein sits in the soft, buttery camp with more refined handling characteristics and a pastel-focused palette than wax-only competitors. The price per individual pencil when purchased as open stock outside Japan can range from $14 to $34 depending on the retailer and color. Buying large sets like the 50-color set or 100-color set from Discovery Japan Mall reduces that per-pencil cost considerably.
Choose holbein for buttery layering and intense blue, green, orange, yellow, and lemon tones. Choose more strongly lightfast brands for museum-level archival needs.
Using Holbein Colored Pencils with MELTZ and Other Media
Holbein MELTZ is a water based blending thinner designed specifically for oil based colored pencils, creating watercolor-like effects without the toxicity of turpentine or the paper damage of mineral spirits.
The technique is straightforward: draw a base layer, apply MELTZ with a synthetic brush or the MELTZ brush pen to blur strokes and fill paper grain, let dry, then continue layering pencil on top. Most standard colors dissolve well, while metallic and luminous shades remain more resistant, preserving their shine. Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils blend beautifully and can be used with various media-try combining them with Holbein transparent watercolors or gouache for mixed-media work. Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils can be layered over other media such as watercolor, making them versatile for multi-technique illustration. Always test MELTZ on scrap pieces of the same paper before committing to a large piece.
Buying Holbein Artists Colored Pencils from Discovery Japan Mall
Discovery Japan Mall offers authentic holbein artists colored pencils shipped directly from Japan. Holbein Colored Pencils are difficult to find outside Japan through traditional retail-while they are available on Amazon and eBay, stock levels and pricing vary wildly. Shipping costs apply when ordering holbein pencils internationally, but our direct-from-Japan sourcing typically delivers better value than scattered third-party listings.
When you decide to purchase, compare cost per pencil across set sizes, factor in shipping for your region, and check whether open stock is available for top-up colors. Read product descriptions for details on packaging (metal tin vs. wood tray) and included color lists, especially for limited-edition sets.
If you’re trying Holbein for the first time, start with a 24–50 color set or a themed pastel set. Once you know which tones you reach for most, expand via larger sets or buy open stock to build your perfect collection.
Whether you’re upgrading your supplies or building a professional toolkit, the world of Holbein colored pencils rewards artists who value creamy application, rich pigment, and a cover-everything palette. Browse our full Holbein collection to find the set that fits your workflow.
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