Review: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer vs Derwent Watercolour Pencils

During my undergraduate years, I bought a whole bunch of art supplies and one of them was a 24-set of Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils. 

I used them for quite a few art pieces over the years but honestly, never thought they were that great. Hence, it came as a complete shock to me when this year, as I returned to art, I found out that these were considered THE ultimate watercolour pencils among professional artists.

What? I had a treasure in my hands? How come I don't find them a dream to use, unlike most other reviewers? Was it just me? A quick search revealed that a 24-set today costs at least S$70. How the heck could I afford these as an undergraduate?? So many questions.

Since my re-entry into art, I have been a regular at Art Friend, and in terms of coloured pencils, they mostly only stock the Derwent brand. Early on, I bought a few loose Derwent watercolour pencils to supplement the Faber-Castell set and discovered that I really love the consistency of these pencils. 

And then, a friend discovered that I was into coloured pencils and gifted me a 24-set of the Derwent Watercolour Pencils that she barely touched. WAH! I'm so blessed in the friend department. Here's a side by side comparison of the two sets:

Notice that the Derwent tin is much larger. I notice the packaging these days is much bigger, as if to signify value. I'm sure the current Faber-Castell tin is larger than the 30-year-old version. By the way, the two purples and the light grey in the Faber-Castell set don't belong there. They're actually a student-grade Caran D'ache Prismalo watercolour pencils that I picked up (they suck). Not sure where the three original pencils are.

Watercolour Pencils Are Not Good Multi-Taskers

Before I go into the difference between the two sets, I feel I need to explain the concept behind watercolour pencils. Watercolour pencils aim to give a watercolour effect in pencil form. Meaning you can colour in your drawing, wet it with water and you get that blended, watery look you get with watercolour paints. However, you get the added benefit of being able to use the watercolour pencils dry, like any other coloured pencil.

Well, that's in theory and that's what I think tripped me up. The reason I bought watercolour pencils all those years back was because I liked the idea of them being dual purpose - can use wet or dry. Since I only wanted to buy one set, it was the most versatile, or so I thought. What I didn't know is that the texture of watercolour pencils is VERY DIFFERENT from non-soluble coloured pencils. Watercolour pencils are primarily meant to be used wet, and that's why all the reviews of the Albrecht Durer tend to be great - because when wet, the pigment spreads easily and is vibrant. 

Used dry, the Albrecht Durer pencil is challenging, to put it mildly. I think that's where most of my frustrations with the pencils come in. It has a very gummy, almost sticky texture and while the colours are vibrant, it's almost impossible to get clean lines or colour light layers without the pigment coming off in uneven chunks. They feel almost like crayons. Blending is difficult, so I end up needing to do heavy layers instead which quickly saturates the paper and doesn't allow much layering.

In the end, what usually happens is that blending is so uneven that I use water to blend it out, not that I meant to do so in the first place. In a way, I guess the pencil forces you to use it the way it was intended to!

A horse I drew with the Albrecht Durer pencils back in 2002

 

Differences Between Albrecht Durer and Derwent

First, the similarities: it's hard to get crisp lines with watercolour pencils - they're just too soft because they're water-soluble. They're not great with details and will give you a fuzzy effect. If I want a thin crisp line, I'll use my oil-based coloured pencils. Both can break easily if you press too hard.

But that's where the similarities end. Where the Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer is gummy, the Derwent watercolour pencil is chalky. The former reminds me of an oil pastel and the latter, a soft pastel, if that makes sense. I prefer the Derwent because it glides on more smoothly and colours like a dream. It really does work something like pastel pencil. It's a little crumbly and if you press too hard, flakes can come off. The pencil is so soft that you can go through them pretty quickly. But the best part about the Derwent is that I can actually use them dry if I want! Sure, it gives a fuzzier effect than oil-based coloured pencils, but it can be a very nice look if that's what you're going for. It simply is a pleasure to use, unlike the Albrecht Durer.

A recent drawing I did using primarily Derwent watercolour pencils. I used them wet for the underlayer and dry on top.

 

Another difference between the two brands is the pigment intensity when wet. Here's a section of a colour chart I did, comparing the Albrecht Durer with the Derwent - the first half of each colour block is the pencil used dry and the right half is used wet.

As you can see, the vibrancy of the Albrecht Durer when wet is insane, which I think is why many people wax lyrical about these pencils. The Derwent watercolour shades are a lot more muted when wet. They look more like your typical watercolour shades. I wouldn't say the Derwent is inferior in this respect though, it really depends what you're going for. If I use a colour wet, it usually means I want a washed out look (eg. for the sky) in which case the bright hues of the Albrecht Durer don't work for me anyway. And if I want vibrant shades wet, there's another series of Derwent water-soluble pencils that I current use, the Inktense. I've reviewed that here.

In terms of layering, I find that watercolour pencils are just not as good compared to their regular coloured pencil counterparts because of how thickly the pigment lays down. Trying to add light colours on top of dark is almost impossible, especially after you've wet the pigment. But here, the Derwent again fares better for me. One colour in particular - Flesh Pink - is to me, the MVP pencil.

This shade is the perfect highlighter shade, it works better than most white coloured pencils I have, including the iconic Derwent Chinese White Drawing Pencil. When I'm despairing over how to get more white highlights on top of a dark patch, this sometimes works when all else fails. Something about its pastel-ly texture that can somehow can squeeze out one more desperate layer. I love this pencil so much I bought an extra, which says a lot considering I have never completely used up a coloured pencil!

So there you go - my take on the Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer v. the Derwent Watercolour pencil. As you can clearly tell, I prefer the Derwent. I now only use the Albrecht Durer selectively, where I might be missing a shade, for example.

Finally, price-wise, the Derwent also comes up tops. You can buy the 24-pencil set at Art Friend for about S$34 whereas the cheapest I could find for the Faber-Castell Abrecht Durer 24-pencil set is around S$75 on Jackson Art, excluding shipping. That's more than double! 

Tip: Derwent is a UK brand but for some strange reason, it's cheaper to buy Derwent from Art Friend than from the UK. Derwent's professional coloured pencil line is top notch - I've yet to be disappointed by their products. I've written a comprehensive overview of Derwent coloured pencils, if you're interested in the brand.