I read the reviews and decided to take a chance on these because the price was right at the time. My order arrived in tact and none of my sticks was broken. Each stick was wrapped in spongy foam. Each stick is stamped with a number, so I downloaded the color chart from Blick to get the color names. I swatched these dry, then did some wet tests in a coloring book with good paper. I wetted a paint brush, swirled it on the stick to pick up color and painted some flowers. The color was amazing. The pigment was strong and rich. It really popped out and it dried fast. The color rivaled most of the watercolor pencils I own. When I wanted to clean up the color like when I color outside the lines, it lifts easily with an eraser. I used the Faber-Castell pencil eraser with brush. I wish there was some way to carry these around when I travel, but this box of 96 is too large and bulky. Overall, I love these!
I read the reviews and decided to take a chance on these because the price was right at the time. My order arrived in tact and none of my sticks was broken. Each stick was wrapped in spongy foam. Each stick is stamped with a number, so I downloaded the color chart from Blick to get the color names. I swatched these dry, then did some wet tests in a coloring book with good paper. I wetted a paint brush, swirled it on the stick to pick up color and painted some flowers. The color was amazing. The pigment was strong and rich. It really popped out and it dried fast. The color rivaled most of the watercolor pencils I own. When I wanted to clean up the color like when I color outside the lines, it lifts easily with an eraser. I used the Faber-Castell pencil eraser with brush. I wish there was some way to carry these around when I travel, but this box of 96 is too large and bulky. Overall, I love these!