I'm no artist but we homeschool and I like for my children to have access to a wide variety of art supplies. My children are young so I do not buy 'top of the line' supplies but I do try to get good quality supplies. I really wanted to expose them to charcoal but as we often go out into nature to do our nature sketches I wanted pencils to minimize the mess on the go. I liked that this kit contains a nice selection of pencils for on the go.