I personally like General's Pencil Company. The charcoal isn't as smooth as some other charcoal pencils I have, but I like the scratch to it. The blacks they produce are nice and black too. The pastel pencils in this set were also nice. I had no issues with having to press down hard on the paper to make them work, or some of them not working-like I've had with another brand of pastel pencils. The consistency is nice and dry. Nothing in the art was broken. Everything was great!