As I wrote a few months ago, I love the idea of using tri-tone pencils to get a blended effect without all the work. So, I was thrilled when I came into a little extra money and had a chance to purchase the Koh-I-Noor tri-tone pencil set from Amazon.
The quality of these pencils is right on par with my Prismacolors, which are my favorites for working with adult coloring books. I also really love that they come in a sturdy tin for easy storage. However, I was a little disappointed that many of the pencils didn’t have as much of a variation in shades as I’d hoped. I was expecting more of a multicolor effect, but the overall result is very subtle for most of the pencils. Only four pencils really have the obvious multi-color effect I was expecting. The rest require you to look closely to see the difference, which is probably more of an asset when you’re coloring realistic looking images as opposed to the mandalas and pretty patterns I tend to gravitate towards.
Another issue that bothers me is that it’s hard to tell the different colors apart when you’re working on a picture. The tri-tone color strips at the bottom aren’t a real accurate reflection of the color. I have to keep scratch paper nearby to test each pencil before using it, although I’m thinking maybe it would be better to create a color chart and tape it inside my storage tin.
I’ve included some sample color swatches to give you an idea of what the different pencils look like. The image at the top of this post was colored using nothing but the red, orange, and yellow toned pencils in the set.
