Faber Castell Watercolor Crayons Set of 15 Review

The Faber Castell Red Line consists of several art supply products designed for children which oddly do not seem to have widespread distribution at retail in the USA despite their bright saturated colors and fun performance. From the Faber Castell Malaysia website: "Red Line" from Faber-Castell. A continuously growing painting and creative expression programme for children from 3 to 12. While I have spotted them in the stationery aisles of grocery stores across the globe in Beijing and Lima, I was saddened when they were removed from Target stores and the Miami Pearl store no longer seems to carry the line. Thus I was quite pleased to discover this set of 15 Faber Castell Watercolor Crayons in the Children Art Supplies section of a local Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store. In fact they had quite a fairly wide selection of Red Line offerings and Creativity for Kids products. This set contains 15 paper wrap crayons along with a large round brush. The paper wrapping is scored at regular intervals to facilitate its neat removal as the crayon gets shorter with use (a feature that I had only noticed before in the Caran D'Ache Neocolor crayons)
The back of the packaging box displays the color palette range and highlights the main features of these kids' crayons manufactured in Korea: triangular shape for better control, crayon made of watercolor paint, washable, more pigment for richer colors, and no waxy build-up. As part of the Faber Castell Red Line, they are naturally non-toxic and suitable for children ages 3+. While I quickly stained my fingers making the reference chart below, the color stains washed right off with water and soap in no time.
This reference color chart shows the saturated opaque color swatches that can be laid down with the dry crayons. The crayons are on the soft side, so my regular drawing hand pressure ended up breaking the tip of the blue crayon.
Reference color chart after partially dissolving the color swatches with a flat waterbrush.
To reduce the chance of breakage and limit the color transfer to my fingers, I was quite pleased to discover that these triangular crayons fit in my Intus 10 pastel holder which help keep the crayons from melting in my hand. With the consistency of oil pastels, these creamy crayons glide effortlessly on the paper and allow for fairly quick coverage.
Finished colored illustration after blending and smoothing the dry layers of crayon marks with a small round brush. The free brush included in the set is a tad large and tends to deliver too much water at once when working on smaller details, but it is pretty useful for covering larger areas quickly. This set of Faber Castell watercolor crayons bundled with a nice waterbrush would make for a pretty fun and original gift for the young budding artist in your list. Recommended.

Holiday Guide Addendum

As we get down to the wire with the holiday gift season, here is a short list for suitable gift suggestions for budding artists that might enjoy some quality watercolor sets:

1. Faber Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolor Pencils set of 12 would be a good start.
2. Caran D'Ache Supracolor II set of 18 watercolor pencils another nice option.
3. Caran D'Ache Neocolor II set or 10 or 15 watercolor crayons. A personal favorite which I carry everywhere.
4. Holbein Artists' watercolors set of twelve 5 ml tubes.
5. Winsor & Newton Artists' watercolor half pans gift set. A classic choice.
6. Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks - a couple would make a neat stocking stuffer.

Ooops forgot to mention a couple of tools to use with these sets:
Pentel Aquash or Kuretake Niji waterbrushes - make an ideal bundle with the watercolor pencils and watercolor half pan sets.
For traditional round Kolinsky sable brushes, I would suggest researching if the following might suit your needs:
- Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Round Brush, for I really like my #4 for some loose sketching.
- Escoda Kolinsky-Tajmyr Sable Pointed Round Series 1212 & 1214, a responsive brush manufactured in Spain.
- Raphael Kolinsky Red Sable Fine Pointed Round Series 8404, I still have to try one of these, but I have seen it mentioned often as a popular choice for comic book inkers.

Watercolor Postcard Activity at The von Liebig Art Center

Handmade watercolor palettes were created by doodling with Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons on scraps of rough-surfaced paper. The color swatches dissolve easily with a water-loaded brush yielding brightly colored semi-opaque saturated washes. Without making much of a dent on a custom set of 18 watercolor crayons, 50 compact watercolor palettes were created to extend the expressive range of regular Crayola watercolor pan sets (it only took about 3 hours and 2 people scribbling away with the crayons).
Soaking up inspiration: group of Manatee Middle School students touring Kathy Spalding's 120 foot watercolor Rookery Bay Continuum and bronze sculptures exhibition at The von Liebig Art Center.


Attentively listening to the introduction by the Naples Art Center's Director of Education, Nicole DuPont Strub.
Classroom set up for watercolor postcard image transfer and coloring activity for 25-30 students: each student was provided with a turtle template, blank postcard, paper watercolor palette, pencil, brush, paper towel, and 2 cups of water. 15 Crayola 8-color watercolor pan sets were pre-moistened with a water mister and set on the middle of the tables for the students to share. Staedtler drafting dots were also provided to secure the template/transfer paper to the watercolor postcard.
Students learned how to transfer the outline of a turtle without a lightbox by making their own carbon transfer paper on the back of the coloring outline with a soft pencil and transferring the image to a blank postcard.

Everybody was quite eager to start the watercolor painting phase of the activity. After a quick coloring demonstration some students went with a more realistic coloring approach while others let their imaginations fly and picked more whimsical color choices to paint their postcards.


School group teacher and Art Center docent supporting the students' learning process.
The entire group was very disciplined and focused in their paintings.
Even had a few minutes left to complete a few manga cartoon portraits for a handful of students that finished painting their postcards.

Drawing inspiration from a trip to "Butterfly World"

After a recent family outing to Buttterfly World, these winged critters seem to be popping up more frequently in my random doodles.

Waterproof coloring outline with palette of Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayon swatches for compact art activity on a single sheet of card stock.
All that is needed to activate the colors is a waterbrush or a regular watercolor brush with a separate water source.
Coloring outline drawn on a Handbook journal with a Kuretake No. 13 brush pen loaded with waterproof Platinum black ink cartridge.
Pencil sketch on white card stock.

Watercolor crayon palettes for postcard sketches

Quick art materials list for putting together a watercolor class activity with little equipment and keeping the potential mess to a minimum: watercolor crayon palettes, waterbrush or watercolor brush, and blank postcards. Portable watercolor palettes can be easily made by scribbling watercolor crayons like Faber Castell aquarelle sticks on index cards.
To activate the watercolor palette card, simply swirl a waterbrush or watercolor brush loaded with clean water on the dry watercolor crayon swatches.
Loading up a #3 Trekell Kolisnky round watercolor brush.
Then simply painting on a blank postcard with the fresh color washes.
This watercolor palette card was made with Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons on a sheet of glossy card stock. The colors dissolved readily with the wet brush and went down brightly on a Cotman watercolor postcard. These watercolor crayon palette cards do not take up much space and can be customized with color selections according to different subjects: primary colors, secondary colors, and convenience colors for depicting skin tones and different kinds vegetation.

Creative Tip: Big sketchbook for little artists

A couple of years ago I gave a 11" X 14" ProArt hardbound sketchbook to my young nieces to encourage their artistic development and create a suitable permanent record of this collaborative effort. To start the learning process, I drew waterproof outlines of favorite subjects for them to color from time to time:



As their confidence and proficiency grew in handling assorted coloring materials (wax crayons, colored pencils, watercolor crayons, and watercolors), they also started drawing and creating their own version of common childhood drawing symbols for mermaids, princesses, and castles:





It might have seemed premature to supply little artists with so many tools so early, but in my experience their artistic growth can be maximized by the availability of good quality art tools, steady family support, and a handy sketchbook offering a large blank space for them to freely express their creativity. Kids' art tip: once a year gift a hardbound sketchbook to the fledgling artists in your list and encourage them to date each page or favorite drawings, for they easily become nice additions to the family library as visual records of each kids' individual artistic development as well as tools for them to track their progress and target areas for improvement.