On the 26th Feb 2021, I posted a video announcing my goal to reach 100k subscribers on my YouTube channel by the end of the year.

This week, we finally passed the huge goal of 100,000 subscribers on this YouTube channel! I want to extend a HUGE thank you to every single one of you who has supported my channel and helped me get here!

Note: This content is NOT sponsored or endorsed by any of the brands mentioned in this post or video. This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a commission if you click them (at no cost to you).

Are Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils good?

The Faber-Castell Polychromos are the go-to pencils for many professional artists and they are one of the highest quality pencils money can buy.  They have a high lightfast rating, meaning the colors last over many years, making them a great choice for professional artists.

Oil based pencils do take a bit more skill and practice to blend and layer than wax-based pencils.  But they have a very strong core and are easy to keep sharp, so they are perfect for fine details, which is something that most pencils advertised as blendable, lack.

Many artists choose to use Polychromos pencils alongside another brand like Prismacolor or Caran d’Ache Luminance to get the best of both blending and fine details. In fact, this is how I will probably be using them!

Faber Castell Polychromos Pencils

Get the Color Catalog - 250 color palettes in an interactive PDF format!

My First Impressions of the 120 Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils

When I first saw the option to buy these pencils WITH the extra wooden box – I didn’t realize just how nice it was! The box adds about $100 extra to the price, so I thought it was an expensive gimmick, and was only treating myself because this was a celebration of such an amazing milestone. But now that it’s here, I can see that this box is definitely high quality and the extra price is justified.  It makes the pencils so accessible and presents them beautifully, which is definitely a great way to get your creative ideas flowing!

Let’s check out these colors.

One of the things I hear people rave about these pencils the most is their well thought-out color range. There are 120 colors total, with a great mix of colors and some really vibrant hues.

Faber Castell Polychromos Pencil Range

Swatching the 120 Faber-Castell Polychromos Colors

I know some people find the process of swatching to be tiring but the benefits of swatching your colors before you start a project are huge. It does take a little time but knowing exactly how your chosen colors will look can have a huge impact on your finished page. Also, when the pencils are as nice as these, it’s kind of fun! I always use it as a chance to practice my shading and even coloring, and to catch up on some of my favorite YouTubers on my phone or iPad while I’m swatching.

I like to color my swatches with more pressure on the left and less on the right so I can see the different layers of color each pencil can create. I often cut these into strips to make them even more useful for matching colors.

Faber Castell Polychromos Color Swatches

You can find both of these templates in my Swatch Kit, along with a range of other gradient practice sheets, blending charts and other helpful templates. Get it here.

With the swatching done, you’ll notice that most of these pencil colors are almost a perfect match for the colors of the barrels.

matching barrels polychromos

This is a feature that you only get with quality pencils, and is SO helpful if you’re wanting to skip the swatching and just grab a color as you go.

I have a few videos on my channel where I talk through how to blend colored pencils to create beautiful gradients.. And each time, I’ve used Prismacolor pencils, which have a wax-base, so I’ve  been asked over and over, to show how this process works with oil-based pencils  – just like the Faber-Castell Polychromos.

Recommended Videos About Blending Colored Pencils

How to Blend Polychromos Colored Pencils

I’ve chosen the same paper that I used on these Prismacolor gradients, and I want to use similar colors to either this first or last gradient so we can get a closer comparison with the end result. Watch the original Prismacolor gradient video here.

The actual blending process is the same. And it does take practice to get a really smooth result, but you can do it with ANY pencils.

Keep your pencils sharp, and your layers light. Aim for at least 3-4 layers of color, but add more layers if you need. There’s no perfect amount of layers here.

As you use each color, make sure it overlaps with the color next to it, slowly using less pressure on each side. The more it overlaps and fades into the next color, the smoother it will look in the end result.

I’ve done a short video on my channel showing the difference between blending with overlapping colors and without overlapping colors, and it’s even more important with oil-pencils, because they are not as forgiving as wax-based pencils.  You can check the video out HERE

The key to doing this well with oil-based pencils is to give more attention to your lower layers and not rely as heavily on your top layer to magically fix everything. This might be possible with a more blendable pencil like Prismacolor but not with the less forgiving oil-based pencils.

There are other blending tools you can use to help with this process but it is possible to blend well with pencils alone!

I’ve also tested the Faber-Castell Polychromos previously, as a part of my paper recommendations video and article, which you can check out HERE.

Your paper choice comes a lot down to preference, and I go through this in far more detail in my paper video, but for these Polychromos pencils specifically, I didn’t really like any of the smooth papers, even the high quality smooth Bristol. Instead, I prefer something with a bit of texture to allow for more layering, since that’s where these pencils perform the best.

My favorites are probably the hot-pressed watercolor paper and the bristol vellum, especially the 100% cotton paper, but that’s also very expensive.

Check out my other favorite papers here.

Final Thoughts

I really want to create something special with these pencils to celebrate reaching 100k subscribers, so I created an art piece with 100 different items that represent the videos and the journey of the first 100k subscribers of this channel.

You can check out the final result in my video below!