June Gold 36 Assorted Colored 2.0 mm Mechanical Pencils with 36 Unique Color Leads, Color Name is Printed on Each Pencil Barrel, Built in Rear Sharpener

I'm not a fine-artist, but I've tried many premium-grade and decent student-grade colored pencil sets. Yes, the ones that cost 2-3 dollars or more per pencil make a huge difference (hint, get a SMALLER set, plus some earth tones, then add only the ones you need as they come up, individually. Don't pay for a huge set with a dozen or more that you will never use...). But those, such a range of properties- wax, oil and water based, colorfastness, fixer-fastness... And yes, save your important works for those premium wood pencils and your best paper... many 'best of' lists can tell you which high-quality artist brands have which properties.But June Gold Mechanical are THE BEST go-to colored pencils of the many many I've tried. Sure, these are not even high end student-grade, they're 'budget grade' - but the waxy pencils DO have decent color saturation- I was surprised, they are not kiddie-grade, they really will address a full expressive range for decent sketching. But I have to defend such high praise for a budget-grade, so here goes:1- They are mechanical- so ALL your worries about grab-and-go sketch or doodle pencils- broken leads, frequent messy distracting sharpening, disappear.You can ALWAYS just grab any color and it's ready no matter what. You can use them anywhere- a bus, a subway, sketching in front of the tv- you don't break concentration to deal with points that crack and fly off, having to sharpen constantly, when you do, the lead inside is cracked- no worries about being careful, these can ride in your bag and take a beating getting bounce around... Always works, nice and compact.2-They are a more compact set, and more saturated and easier to use than the little sets of mechanical pencils you can put colored lead into. (I've tried a number of those. Heavy pencil, far more wax than pigment, small range, poor blending...)3- lightweight-- easy to hold, and the full set of 36 is light (the full set weighs less than most sets of 6-8 colored mechanical pencils...)4- Each pencil has a sharpener- you never HAVE to sharpen these, but if you want a really crisp tight point, because there's no wood, you can put a needle fine point on the lead in a second. AND, no searching in your kit for the sharpener, no messy wood peels to deal with- great if you're sketching on transportation, in a museum or coffee shop etc. And, just fast, get right back to drawing, no fussing with your sketch or drawing tools.5- Great range of colors- I was impressed at how many super vivid bright 'modern' colors there were, along with how full the earthtones and the skintones (diverse range- thankfully) there are. They are inepensive but the color choices in the set are remarkably well thought out especially for those tricky ombres, blending, etc. Really full range within each color family. Very close match to a really good oil paint set.- whatever your style- cartoon, graffiti, manga, earthtones, classical, florals, portraits, - for your practice, studies, sketches- don't burn out your expensive good set on that. The beauty of these is the range has no limit, so you can bash these around and still use them with no hassle, while you're sketching around composing the work you want to do with your 'good' pencils.6- The case is great. Sounds silly. But the crystal clear package they come in - so you can see EVERY color and just reach for it, but they don't spill out, or get all mashed and mixed up in the box (it actually has a clear plastic divider inside to easily keep them neat) is ALREADY all the 'carrying case' as well as laid out 'grab and go' work setup you'll need.- I carry my stuff around with me, and I like it laid out nice on my desk at home. Usually that means transferring them to a case or roll (large, fussy, you can't see all the colors at once without needing a large area to spread them out, etc.) These fit in any bag I have, and I can leave the case IN my bag, flip the top open, SEE all the colors and slide out the ones I need, no fuss. In a coffee shop, or at my desk the compact case shows all the colors in a small area, no pencils rolling around, no popping open a tin and spraying pencils all over, breaking all the leads.If you want super-high end colored pencils for your artwork or important grown up coloring book or mandala work at home at your desk or easle- and you know you want those- DO make the investment.But if you want a colored pencil set that is SUPER easy to transport, store, lay out for use, sharpen if you want to, with a full range of saturated colors and a really good set of colors- full range of blues, reds, ,,,, as well as range of neutrals, black and white- MINUS the fuss of broken points, broken lead all down the wood case, no heavy metal mechanical pencils, nice full range... great for blending?Then THESE are for you. I was absolutely shocked how VERY much value there was in this super-inexpensive set, AND how incredibly convenient and really smart and perfect even the package, it's perfect portable carrying case-was.95% of the time, my fancy wood colored pencils and even my better student grade, and my limited set of 8 mechancial colored-lead pencils--- ALL sit in their containers on their shelf. Unless I'm doing a nice finished work, for 'art' sake or to give to someone- but all the rest of the time, THESE are the ones I actually use.

I love these! They work great for the kids.

I love the way pencils work. They’re easy to maneuver and the colors are great. I love the fact that I don’t have to shop in them. I am not an artist. I just got these for fun.

Generally speaking these are nice colored pencils. My only complaint is that not all colors blend equally. In the cupcake image you can see how most of the colors blended to create a more dimential image. The wagon wheel, most of the brown is from a different set only the Barrell is this set and the brown did not want to blend. The pumpkins however you can clearly see where the red was not applied in the right order so no blending occurred, though clearly the yellow and light green did a great job on the corn, and the oranges and yellow orange did a marginally well job on the pumpkin.The sharpener on about half of them doesn't seem to work, but not sure that matters much since unlike the other set which came with a single sharpner this set has one on every single pencil so it came with 36 sharpeners.

I love the vibrant selection of colors in this palette selection. A Rainbow of multiple hues. Sharpening is easy to do. The only drawback is lack of instruction on the lead. The quality of writing with a sharp tip is clear and detailed.

I have commitment problems when it comes to using pen on my planners. I'm worried my handwriting will suck or that the plans will change. So I love that I can get all these colors and keep everything color coded but be able to erase. I've used erasable pens in the past and they never fully erased. These erase completely leaving behind virtually no sign of previous errors. I love the sharpener at the end of all of them. I love writing with a sharp tip so the sharpener is perfect for me. I love that there are so many colors so I can write with them but also use them to color a little picture of the beach on the day I go to the beach. Perfect set. Exactly when I was looking for.

I have been wanting colored pencils that don't get shavings everywhere so the kids can color. Mechanical pencils are the answer. These are thick enough leds that they do not break like normal mechanical pencil lead, but not so fat that you might as well be coloring with crayons. Each lid has a lead sharpener, if you really do want a finer point to draw with.The biggest drawbacks... the lids and metal parts seem to come off kind of easily. My two and one year olds like pulling them off and losing them. Uggg. second, if you push and hold the top to let more lead out, it all comes out. As in, it just falls out. Overall though, I have bought 5 or 6 of these sets because I love them so much.

They color fine, exactly what you'd expect from a colored pencil. The sharpener isn't so great, you have to turn really gently other wise you just break the led. Additionally, the push button part that releases the colors led seems to get stuck down on another of them. Think I'll stick to good old fashion wood colored pencils next time lol