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My kids got this as a gift from their favorite aunt a couple years ago and they still use it all the time. They love the variety of supplies and I love that it all goes back neatly into a nice wooden box that doesn't look out of place in the living room.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program For those who might not know, Faber-Castell is a German company that's been around for a few hundred years (1761). The company has a solid rep in the art business for quality products ranging from pencils and pastels to charcoals and markers. Although the products are typically expensive in price, they have never--in my experience--been cheap in quality. And this young artist set is no different.
My nine-year-old daughter's eyes nearly popped out of her head when I presented this to her. She immediately pulled out some of the set's paper and started drawing in colored pencil. While she was tempted to use the markers and pastels, she held off the first night because she didn't want to "wreck" them. And, truth be told, I couldn't disagree with her because all the new supplies looked so perfect in the opened box. Why ruin such a beautiful thing?
The hinged wooden box is filled with: colored pencils (64); watercolor pencils (8); oil pastels (18) (these are the sort of like grease pencils); graphite pencils (2) and washable markers (12) (but each end is a different color, so you get 24 colors in all). There's also a pencil sharpener, small sheets of fine-milled paper and a paint brush.
As long as you've got extra paper on hand, your child/children should enjoy what this art set has to offer for quite some time. Just make sure they're careful with the pastels if they happen to be around any nice furniture.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program My son loves to draw, so I thought this would be an exciting set for him to experiences different mediums. It comes in a nice sturdy box to keep everything organized. The kids were very excited to use this set. The different colored pencils are nice and have a nice feel to them.
The oil pastels are great and the watercolor pencils are wonderful.
The markers that came in our set were a disappointment. Literally, five or six ends (they are double-ended markers) didn't work well as if they had dried up, but the caps were all still on tightly. We aren't a big "marker" family, but since you are paying for markers, it would be nice if they all worked.
This set also comes with some artist paper and a nice color booklet demonstrating the different mediums.
Overall this is a nice set. My only negative is the poor quality of the markers. They would be better off left out of the set and replaced with something of greater quality.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This kit for my budding artist. It has double ended markers, good sketch pencils and color pencils, some great paper (kind of wish they hadn't included that, I would have liked a little watercolor kit instead, it would have been more practical) and oil pastels. My budding artist (six) loves it. I tell him it's his "big boy artist kit" and that he needs to take very good care of it, which he does. Having it in the wooden box makes it seem more substantial and I think makes him feel more legitimate as an artist. Whatever, it makes him feel good and is a great kit.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This Faber-Castell Young Artist Essentials Gift Set is sure to make you popular with any older child you give it to (it's got some small elements like a pencil sharpener plus assorted breakable pastels, so it's definitely for kids around eight and up, who will be old enough to appreciate and care for the components). And if you're getting it for yourself, it's a lovely and thoughtfully designed introduction to art and creativity for yourself, as well!
The set makes an immediate impression thanks to a beautiful polished wooden case that encloses the set, and each element fits snugly into a velvety yet secure interior. The kit was designed with care and attention to detail. (The brass latch on the gift box worked fine, and clicked into place, yet I do have concerns that it isn't quite as durable as the box itself.)
Inside its lovely wooden gift box, each Essentials Set includes most of the major elements for learning to sketch and color at an intermediate level, including:
24 Colored EcoPencils
8 Watercolor EcoPencils
2 GRIP Graphite EcoPencils
18 Oil pastels
12 Washable Duo-tip markers
Small Pencil sharpener
Paint brush (sized for watercolors and delicate painting)
A Mini-artpad of paper including 25 (small) Sheets of artist paper
A small 4-Color illustration booklet
My complaints would be very minor -it's a bit pricey, and you could probably get all of these elements for half the price if the case wasn't the major selling point. However, for me, the case provides something to store pencils and other art supplies in far after the original set, so it's worth it.
If I were going to be picky, I also don't really think including a very small drawing pad was actually worth the storage space here -it seems to me that it would have been better to have provided a few additional drawing/painting elements such as erasers, charcoals, or even a small watercolor mixing tray or palette. As it is, the paper is nice, but once your child has used it all, you probably won't refill the small pad, and will opt for a nice big drawing pad instead. So your kit will quickly have an empty space that just seems impractical in a keepsake set like this -again, that's kind of odd, and I wish they'd actually just stuck to brushes, pencils, and other renewable, refillable elements.
I also wasn't a huge fan of the markers -they're nice enough, but not as universally practical as the rest of the kit, and I would have rather seen the set include a wider range of pastels or watercolor pencils, instead.
Regardless, it's still a really beautiful set, and one that will make a wonderful gift for any artistically inclined child you want to inspire to dream and create! Faber-Castell is a respected name in art supplies (I've used their pastels, chalks and charcoals for years), and this set is a keepsake that's a worthy addition to their product line -and I also give them major kudos for doing so using environmentally-friendly and renewable materials in many of their pencils and kit elements.
