Pentel Color Pen, Set of 36, Assorted (S360-36)...

Absolutely Fabulous! Pentel has pleased a picky artist...looking for markers! After an extensive search on ZeeBooth for "THE perfect markers," I finally purchased this set. Two in fact. One for myself and one for my niece. I am an artist with a Bachelors in Media Arts & Animation. Mainly a painter, but I love experimenting with other medias. So, markers are a first for me since childhood. In terms of artist snobbery (years of classical training tends to do that...lol), Pentel is not my first choice in art supplies. However, they did an excellent job with this marker set. So much so, I'm surprised. :) I have been seeing these adult coloring books around and decided on buying a coloring book from a best seller. The next logical step was, what do I color this book with? Adult coloring books, for me, I decided are not for ballpoint pens, gel pens, or anything that would be streaky. I mean I spent good money on that book, right? Yeah I did! :) I read the reviews on these markers, even the #1 recommended review which was only a 4-star. I saw the complaints, and I saw the compliments. What made me buy these were the customer photos. The results of these markers compared to other products on ZeeBooth were phenomenal. I took some photos of my own. From an artist's perspective, markers bleed, and after trying these markers out, even though they are of high quality, it is all the same. The pressure applied determines the color saturation. If you color in strokes, overlapping marker strokes will show. If you color in tiny circular motions, the color will be more saturated as well. Markers (considering high end brands to low end brands), to me, are HARD to work with. These are no different. My first experience was of coloring a small simple owl to see how the markers work. They do blend wonderfully! I only wish this set came with a clear blender, but they blend well on their own. The color output does not match the plastic marker casing. True. But this is true for almost all media I know of. I always make color charts, even with paints I paint the pigment onto paper and tape the paper onto the paint tubes...take some paper, color in the order the markers are in, tape it to the plastic and boom - a color chart. Why someone would knock a star off for that, I don't know. Always make a color chart. :) The casing is actually pretty sturdy. I've bought colored pencils or watercolor pencils that cost way more tan these markers and the casing was meh. I love the case these makers came in. The markers stay in place and don't roll all over each other when closed or open. There's a button snap to close the case flush. The plastic flap that covers the markers has velcro to keep your markers from flying out. It keeps these markers in check. So whether you're traveling, storing them in your studio, or storing them anywhere, really, I really appreciate the thought Pentel put into the casing for these markers. The brush tip is very firm, with very little give. From experience with ink micro pens, The more pressure applied over time, the less firm the brush gets, and over time the brush with start flexing. I do recommend patience in using these markers and to continue using them lightly. You can angle the markers for a broader coverage area or hold them vertically to get super fine detail coverage. I feel like i'm gushing over these markers, I find that I am! :)) None of my markers were dry. If anything they are loaded with pigment. When coloring in the owl and even making my color chart, as I made a simple line without lifting the marker off the paper, the excess pigment would make a teeny little blot where I left the excess ink. In my pictures, you can see a few lines, above where I tested the markers for dryness, where I had stroked the marker tip in a downward stroke and the excess ink looks like I stopped and held the marker there. I'll just have to remember to lift my hand if I want to prevent that in the future. Overall, these aren't "THE perfect markers," but no art medium truly is. It's all on how you use the markers to make use of their full potential. These markers produce beautiful results and my inner-snobby-artist fell in love with Pentel for it. If I had the time, I'd post a video later to show what I have learned on how to use these markers, but I found that if you do a video search you'll find similar tutorials that I myself watched before buying these. My niece is a budding artist. So for me, Pentel has my utmost gratitude in delivering her (and myself) a product I am confident we can both use in various ways - which will currently be coloring in adult coloring books. :) Reference colors for the owl, I used the following markers: #122 Yellow (eyes), #123 Gold Ochre, #123 Beige, #118 Dhark Brown, #127 Raw Umber On the back of the casing, there is a numbered color name guide for each marker. Each marker has it's own number on it in gold. Happy coloring!

I purchased this set of 36 colors for an elementary-school-age child after she almost emptied my own set of 24. These are great markers for the price; in my opinion they are substantially better than any marker product Crayola makes. The colors are vibrant and lay down smoothly; you can even blend by overlaying colors (a technique which takes practice but can be very rewarding). There is a good range of colors in this set, with several different shades/tints/hues in each color family (i.e. you get four or five shades in the red-pink family, five or six in the blue-gray family, and so on). If I had to come up with a complaint about this set, it would be that the barrel colors do not always (or even often) come close to matching the actual ink color, and sometimes the barrel color is VERY misleading. For example, the beige marker that you see fourth from the right in the product picture may look as though it could be used for a lightly tanned skin-tone, actually contains a much darker brown ink - it could still be used for a skin-tone, obviously, as people come in many colors, but for a MUCH darker-skinned person. Many of the colors are like this, so you have to experiment and get to know the set, and once you are familiar with what the INK actually looks like, it's not really a problem. The markers do not bleed through most paper, although with thinner drawing paper and ruled notebook paper, you will be able to see the lines of the drawing through the paper anyway, because the color is quite rich. So if you want to use these on the front of something that you plan to do something on the back of, use heavier paper. The nibs (or tips) are fairly firm, and if you keep a light touch with the markers, they may stay that way, however, my child presses pretty hard. This does blunt the tips or make them a little "softer", resulting in a thicker line. Obviously these are not ultra-thin point markers to start with; they are not going to replace your Sharpie ultra-fine or whatever, but I will say that other than on one occassion (used by a small child who did not understand "light touch") we haven't had any problems with the nibs breaking, bending, shredding, or giving off little clumps of inky fuzz. The one exception (my poor green marker!) was due to the tip basically being mashed, so that now we get a fuzzy little hairy circle of ink on the page instead of a nice clean dot. However, with normal, responsible use, I don't see this kind of thing being a problem. They are absolutely WONDERFUL for coloring those nifty highly detailed Dover coloring books, like the geometric designs and the others - they have a million of them, anything you could possibly want to color, and if I could insert a product link, I would, because they are delightful. In fact, other than drawing her own pictures, this is the primary way my kid uses these markers. All-in-all, these are excellent markers and I have no hesitation in recommending them.