Castle Arts Gold vs Soft Touch - Which is Better? [Free Swatch Charts]
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- After unboxing the Castle Arts Gold colored pencils last week, and after swatching the Gold, Pasteltint and Metallic pencils, Steve and I decided that our Castle Arts Journey would not be complete without testing the original Castle Arts Soft Touch colored pencils as well. So we went all in! Not only did we purchase a set of the Soft Touch pencils for ourselves, we also decided to purchase a second set to add to our already big Castle Arts Giveaway!
Watch me test the Castle Art Gold pencils against the Castle Art Soft Touch to see which one I would recommend (if you could only buy just one.)
While creating free Castle Arts swatch charts for you, we also decided to put the Gold and Soft Touch 120 sets into our very own color order. The order that the company recommends is decent, but we felt that it didn’t quite meet our needs. So we spent days swatching, comparing and re-swatching to get the Castle Arts 120 Pencil Sets into our favorite color order! See below for links to download these swatch charts.
Enter our Giant Castle Arts Colored Pencil giveaway where one lucky person will win a Full 120 Set of the Castle Art Gold Pencils, plus a case and other goodies; a 120 Set of Soft Touch pencils; a 48 set of the Pasteltint Pencils; a 48 set of the Metallic Pencils; and a copy of our Castle Arts Pencils Tri-Tone Workbook printed on our favorite colored pencil paper! Follow the link below to enter.
GIANT CASTLE ARTS PENCIL GIVEAWAY!
www.coloringbliss.com/win-a-b...
RECOMMENDED COLORING BLISS PRODUCTS:
Coloring Bliss Swatch Books…
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AFFILIATE LINKS TO PRODUCTS SHOWN IN VIDEO:
Castle Arts Gold Colored Pencils - amzn.to/3zvZiRr
Castle Art Soft Touch Colored Pencils - amzn.to/3GomGTv
Castle Arts Pasteltint Pencils - amzn.to/3t2z342
Castle Art Metallic Pencils - amzn.to/3zsuhha
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This is a video I maybe shouldn't comment, ...but, YT put it across my bow and I have a tip that I think may be useful for many:
Disclaimer: I don't use any of these sets or any "value" pencils at all. I only use high end with good lightfastness.
Organizing color pencils according to their linear, spectral hue (as you showed, "color wheel") is IMO not the best way to work with pencils (or pastels, or markers either for that matter). I did it myself, that way, out of habit, because that is how I have always organized my oils and watercolors on their palettes. But I didn't get much art work done with pencils, because it was so cumbersome and ineffective to handle the colors. Not only was it strenuous to find the right color, but I also found my pencil organization quickly broke down and became jumbled, making it even more strenuous. It simply was impossible to work quickly and rationally. After years, I finally devised a solution.
Here's what I suggest:
Organize your pencils in groups instead. How big groups is up to you. I sometimes consider dividing up the pens into more and smaller groups, but that would make it harder as well as easier, at the same time, and I'm satisfied with my system so far. What works for me currently is 13 groups: 2 Yellow groups, 3 red, 3 blue, 3 green, 2 grey. Each color is divided into its groups by value (= lightness/darkness), not hue or saturation. Pale/light and strong groups for yellows and greys, pale, medium/strong and dark groups for reds, blues and greens. I don't care about the position in the color wheel. The value is more important.
You can mark the pencils group identity by a piece of tape/sticker, or a dab of acrylic paint, if you want. However, you may want to leave that for a while, until you've worked with it for some time and finalized what groups you want. And when you work, you can store the pencils that you pick up and start to use, point up, in jars or mugs, one for each group (which is not necessarily all 13 at the same time). That way, you keep the pencils organized. But you organizer is of course even better.
When I put away the pencils in their box, I only organize them by group, not individually, and interleave the colors: Pale yellows, pale reds, strong yellows, pale blues, mid-value reds, pale greens, mid-value blues, dark reds, dark blues, mid-value greens, light greys, dark greens, dark greys. That way, one can't mistake the pencil's group identity.
Soo, what about "browns"? My system is that very low saturation browns goes into the 'grey' group (as warm greys I suppose). All the others are sorted into the 'red', 'green' and 'yellow' groups. This is practical, because when you work on some red, green or yellow texture, you will typically also need a less saturated color. And when you work on a "brown" texture, it's also easy to think "here should be a more red color", etc.
Likewise, I have sorted some "greys" into the blue groups, depending upon their saturation. Black is in the 'dark greys', white is in the 'pale yellows'.
I have not bothered to try to make the groups the same size. The 'light grey' group is for instance very small, only 4 pencils. It's more important what color concept the group represents, which meant that some cold 'light greys' were put into the 'pale blue' group instead. The idea is that you obviously know what kind of color you want. You can immediately go to the right group, and that group is so small and diverse that you can pick out the right pencil at once. And you also know that that color, for example a pale, dull yellow, leaning slightly towards red, is not anywhere else. The best candidate really is that particular, quickly found, pencil.
Colorist…..Thank you for all the hours of work you, Steve and Rose put into swatch charts and videos.
I am overwhelmed by how much work you have done. This is by far the best comparison I've ever seen.
This is such a great video so far! (I haven’t watched it all). You’re so generous for giving that many pencils away. Thank you for your kindness 💕☺️
I have the CA soft touch pencils on the way and am so excited to have this wonderful color chart to use with my new pencils. I am so impressed with you and Steve with the work you do on your channel. You are so giving with your knowledge and you do it in a very kind yet professional way. Bless you both!
Thank you for this delightful and enlightening video! You are so fun to watch. Thank you for the charts. I am leaning towards the Soft Touch, but we'll see!!!
That is soooo amazing! Thank you both for your hard work and for the amazing giveaway! Wonderful and honest review as well. Very helpful. Thank you!
This is super helpful, especially the comparison of the color ranges, thanks!
Great comprehensive review! Thanks Steve and Jennifer for your hard work!
I already have the (second generation) soft touch 120 set, which I really like, so watching this has removed my temptation to buy the Gold set.
Awesome battle!! Hahaha !! It will be my DREAM to win this set !!! Thanks to you and Steve for the huge amount of work you put in the swatch chart, you’re the King and Queen of making colouring easy,organized and fun !! Long live your channel 👍🏻💖
Thank you for the work you put in in explaining colour pencil buying options , it can be a bit of a minefield on what is the best options when on a limited budget and I am really grateful for the colour swatch charts these will help me to understand how to use my pencils correctly.
You both should design your own line of bliss colored pencils, I would put my order in immediately!!!!
Jennifer should do her own line of gel pens!! That would be exciting! I’d order them for sure. I have too many colored pencils lol.
I need that for my Portraits, and also Derwent Lightfast
Thank you for an amazing video. It is really helpful as it helps in choosing which pencil colours will be good to use.
Very exciting and too fun! Thanks for what you do and your hard work!
Thank you so much for creating the swatch charts. They are so helpful!
Thank you so much for all your hard work. Your thorough reviews are very helpful and highly appreciated. I had never heard of the Soft Touch set. 🌹🌹🌹
Cool giveaway! So generous. Thanks for being awesome.
Can't wait to see the gold pencils
Your attention to organization and detail makes me so comfy. Thank you.
This is so exciting and very generous! Thank you!!!💚
This was sooooo helpful. Thank you for what you all do. I became a Monthly member. I put me pencils by your way and wow it changed the Lay out better then the company suggested.
I love watching your videos. You are a delight. I’ve learned so much in a short time.
What a great video! I downloaded the combined swatch chart of Soft Touch and Pastel tint pencils, thank you!
It would be such a surprise. Good luck to everyone! And thank you for comparing them.
Ty both for all you do. These videos are a big help, especially to a new colorist like me. 💜
This is such an amazing video! You’re so generous for giving that many pencils away. Thanks for doing such a nice giveaway!
Life is funny. I just purchased the Castle Soft Touch 120 pencil set from Amazon that arrived Saturday! So when I started looking for a CZcams channel for tips on colored pencils and saw that you were comparing the 2 Castle sets, I just HAD to join your channel and printed out the 1 page swatch sheet that you guys worked so hard on. I can now easily rearrange the pencils in their soft case so that the colors make sense!!! Thanks so much for all your hard work. 🏅
You have a beautiful and very proper English!! I absolutely understood every word you said!! Thanks for this complete comparation!! Definitely I made a good choice buying the gold ones!!
Thank you so much for the charts for these sets I just bought the soft touch and the watercolor pencils. I’m sure I will be buying gold and the pastel tints in the near future. It would be nice to have the chart for the watercolor set also. I love my Prismacolor and my Fabre Castell but for a budget friendly set that I can use with my grandkids and not be concerned about the cost the Castle Arts are great! Thank you for these reviews!
Thanks for everything you do for us. Love your channel.
A very comprehensive review! well done and thanks You for the giveaway too!
Whoa, even better! So exciting, and I’ve entered. What a great birthday this would be to win this month 🥰🙏🏼 Your chart is the icing on the cake!
Hi, can’t believe uve added to the prize giveaway. Now I’ve learnt from u about swatch sheets I love using them. Is great if looking for particular tones for something. Thank u 💕
Great video! I already have all of these sets, so I won’t enter the contest, but wanted to say thank you for the hard work of putting them in color family order. I am not good at that, so I really appreciate it!
I have just got the 120 gold , 120 soft and 120 watercolor , $100 all 3 great black friday deal
Wow this is the most informative review I has the pleasure to watch, thanks so much xx just subscribed
by the gods wish i would have found you when this was new to i could try the giveaway :P
Thank You so much for all this exhaustive info, I really appreciated as I was in dubt to by the Gold Set. Thanks sooo much 💖
very helpful video and amazing as always. Thank you so much Jennifer
This channel is fantastic. You learn a lot about all the different colored pencils plus more. I have been wanting to get the Castle Art pasteltints for such a long time , I hope I win them, they are so pretty. Thank you for all you do for us all.
Thank you for all the work you did on this video.
Maybe Castle Arts knew what they were doing, that people would need to buy the Pasteltint to really balance them out.
Thanks for the comparison…it was really an enjoyable video!
Thank you for the awesome opportunity, your channel is so full of information. I'm thankful I found you. Thank you for all your time.
Great to know. Birthday coming up and was wondering which one to choose. Thank you.
This is such an in depth video! I already own the soft touch and the pastel set. I’ve been on the fence about the Gold set but now I think I might give it a try. I am such a pencil/coloring addict lol. Thanks for all your hard work! Who knows maybe I’ll win! ❤️ Hadassah
Thanks for this review. I am new to pencils and love how you have done your comparisons. Super excited about this giveaway. It will be announced just a few days before my birthday. What a wonderful birthday presents it would be.
Thank you for doing such a nice, in-depth review on these pencils. I already have the Pastel Tint set and many other sets of colored pencils, but wanted to get something that would work well with my Pastel Tint set.
Castle Art is having such an amazing sale right now, I think I may get both sets. 😊
What a wonderfully generous and caring couple you are Jennifer and Steve. 🙏 so much for all your hard work. I just wish I had a Steve in my husband who knows so much about art supplies and loves them.😃 But I can’t complain as I’m a pencil addict and I’m allowed to buy anything I want. Have a great week guys.🤗🌹
Whaaat! All of this is going to one winner? My mind is boggled by this! 🤪🤪🤪 I have got to sit down and wrap my brain around this! Quite the giveaway! Good luck to all!
Amazing work! Thank you so much!
I would LOVE to wi this wonderful giveaway you're doing. Was very excited to see the comparisons between the twos.
I’d love to try the Castle Arts colored pencils. They look beautiful. What a giveaway!
Thank you for this video! I purchased a 12pc set of Faber Castells and loved them but cannot justify the price for a larger set. I decided to go with the castle arts Gold 120pc set and then replacing any colors with a similar FC color open stock if I use them that much. I am primarily looking for colored pencils that will work over top of oil pastel (and watercolor and gouache) as well as any random drawing or coloring I may do.
Thank you very much for your work! I’m going to buy the Soft Touch ones and the Pastel! 😊
I felt that the yellow and brown were a bit off on the color tones too. Thank you so much for all the time you put into the Castle Arts brand. Thank you for your generosity and a wonderful give-away.
Thank you for being so generous!!! What an amazing give away!
would love to see a swatch chart with the pasteltints and the soft touch together.
Thanks for watching and YES there is a FREE swatch chart with both sets integrated. Link in the video.
I really enjoy using color pencils and thank you for the chance to win the newest offerings from the castle arts line.😀
You put a lot of work into all that you do thank you for giving colorists another alternative for our needs
I loved how the gold edition felt when coloring. They are a wonderful set of oils, but I too am not crazy about the balance of colors; but they can easily be used with other oil sets. I would definitely recommend them, especially if you have another set of oil based pencils. I have never cared for the small sized cores in the soft touch pencils. My favorite between the two sets is definitely the gold set (I guess you get what you pay for)
As far as the two new sets in the soft touch go; I loved the pastel tints . The metallic set left me out in the cold. Compared to other brands metallic pencils......the Castle Art set isn't metallic at all. They seem more like earth tones; not metallic. Just don't care for them.
Just my opinion, doesn't matter if you agree or not. I too would reccomend rhe Gold set.
Have a blessed day!
I can totally agree with everything you said in your post. I prefer the feel of the gold pencil over the soft touch line. They feels that all mores solid pencil. Assuming forum the pasteltints, I chose to find a different brands(s) due to the fact that I wasn't a huge fan of the soft touch line. I didn't even consider purchasing the metalic line. I am not a fan of the way metalic pencils preform.
I just discovered your videos! This is so great.
Thank you for all the Swatches of these Sets and Greetings to Rose. She is so sweet.
Thanks for all the hard work on our behalf.
All I needed to know from France thank you so much !! 😁
I have the pastell set, love it! I am thinking about ordering another set, probably will be the soft ones.
I enjoyed the colored pencils with the coloring book. It's fun. I learned it. I watched it on a youtube video. I love the different types of colored pencils. You are so talented about the colors.
I agree with cheryl you and Steve need to make a color bliss colored pencils set. Wow!! That would be cool. Thanks for all you do for us your followers we love you guys. God BLESS.
I love castle art pencils. I use Prismacolor mostly and still love them the best!! I so love your u tub pages and have learned so much!!! I thank upu too!!!
Thank you for this video it is very informative. To be quite honest people should do their swatches to their desired choice. The way they feel comfortable with their choices they make.
WOW!! I have wanted to try these pencils but just haven’t been able to make the splurge…yet. Thanks for the opportunity to win 😁
This was such a helpful video. I recently bought BW Dragons, and was surprised at the lack of new blues, and the general lack of green blues. I don’t want another unbalanced set. have decided to add to my pencils stash with some more artist grade pencils. I am building a Derwent collection. I might revisit the Castle Arts Gold pencils later. Thank you for the good information and insight you provide. By the way, I have the Pastel Tints and I like them.
Thank you for this awesome give-a-way. Good luck to everyone
Awesome colors.. beautiful
I just ordered 5 sets of their products on a half off sale. Talk about a leap of faith! I’ve never used them, but I have 440 pencils/gel pens/watercolors all in cases coming for less than the 150 prima’s I ordered on sale! I did not get the gold. I hope I don’t regret that. I’m a newbie trying to learn and find time for this hobby! I did not see this video until after I went on a shopping spree!
Jennifer, you do great work showing us products. Your team is fabulous too. My husband's name is Steve. God Bless you.
thank you, that you tested the two sets. I have the old set and I thought about buing the gold set. (sorry my english is terrible, Iam from germany, so I hope you understand what I write). Colored pencils a re a new medium for me and I thought this two sets are interesting for me. your test helps me. now I decided to buy both sets. thank you very utch
Wow, I'd love to try these pencils!
I am addicted to your channel now…!!
I just started using the soft touch and I love them! So I guess i just have to add the pastel and I'm ready to go
Wow....how fantastic!!!!
Fab review, love this Chanel , Jennifer you are so good love all your reviews and extensive knowledge, just wish I could order you colouring books and swatch book but am in the uk so postage and taxes are too high.
Thank you for everything!
Great review to make a good decision. Thanks
I'd love to see you review the castle floral set as well I have seen a lot of interesting sets I'd like to try but having the dance to see them first help
I entered the competition last week, but was excited to hear the prize update in your email today! I'd love to win those beautiful pencils, they look amazing!! 😍 Thank you both for your informative videos x
I just joined!!! My Birthday is next week it would be over the top if I won this. Last year I was in the hospital with covid19. This year looking forward to family and a celebration of new memories! Thank you for your great classes they are so user friendly and the content is wonderful.
I have the Pastel tint and the metallic sets. Really want the 120 set in the original and in the gold. Fingers crossed 🤞
This is such an amazing giveaway, someone is going to be so lucky! Ive never tried the CastleArts pencils but it was going to be my next set to try 😊
The red and brown seem the most different
Well I already bought the soft touch. I do like them. Pastel would be nice to add to my collection. Thanks for all your hard work.
You are one of the hardest places to get into. I'm not successful at it. So there you go. Thanks for sharing free items. Except I'm not able to get in and get them. Lol
I was looking at getting these but really need to go through my current sets (arteza and black widow, I can't afford to fulfill my FSS).
Q: would you consider testing the touchnew brush markers at some point? I was trying to use your ohuhu swatch chart to help me sort them by color, I noticed there is a massive overlap in color names but I can't compare real life swatches cause ohuhu won't deliver to me (which was why I ordered Touchnew brush 168)
Hi Jennifer, I am currently in the market for a new printer and I was wondering if you had any recommendations for a budget-friendly printer that can handle the thicker papers (such as watercolor paper)?
Thank you! Helpful!
Great comparison! I prefer the Golds myself.
Wow what a surprise. I can't wait for the 27th to learn who has won! Good Luck to everyone who has entered!!
It’s impossible for a 120 pencil set not to have all the colors you need. Heck, you can pretty much do everything with a 72 set (that’s why Carand’ache doesn’t even go over 100).
And I really like the way it’s organized, warm x cool yellows, warm x cool reds and so on…
Amazing for a professional artist.
Using a color wheel as a reference in a 120 color set is pretty pointless imh.
You are really good working together in harmony
I love Pastel colors of castle 🏰, Thank you for this video ❤👑🌎🕊
🤯💖🙌that’s awesome and COLOSSAL. Ohhh tough choices between the two sets, the greens💚👌 in one… all the beautiful grays in the other!! I wonder if the GOLD set tried to resemble the Faber-Castell 120 set as the gray selection is super similar!!?
I just lovr your channel, your explanations are so clear, it seems we are right there with you. Thanks for all the hard work you do. I also love how well-behaved your dog is. What is her name and age? I have a maltese too, he's almost ten years old.
I don't have the gold or pastel or metallic that is so generous of you guys to give these away!! I would love to win any of them!!!
Looking forward to the drawing.
That's an amazing giveaway! Definitely entering
Good job you guys! Lots of work and I appreciate your comprehensive reviews. ❤️🇨🇦
Thank you! So glad you find our content useful.