Rose Art Colored Pencils

Pros:

Good Color Selection

Very Affordable

Cons:

Not Very Diverse Range 

Very Light in Application

Break Very Easily

Cheap Packaging

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Rose Art Colored Pencils Review

Last updated by Brandon F. on July 13, 2020

Rose Art is another budget line that is primarily aimed at students and beginners.  Their big selling points are their low prices and surprisingly good color selection.  A lot of the performance you would expect from more expensive companies is lacking here, but overall it is a decent set for beginners.  The round, wax-based pencils come in various shapes and “special color” offerings, but here we will be focusing on the 100-piece set.

Visual Appeal – 3/5

With 100 different colors, you have a lot of options to work with.  That being said, there are issues with the various choices not being diverse enough.  Finding a simple purple, for example, is quite hard.  There are a lot of similar colors and then there will be a huge gap in what is available. 

Also, the options that there are aren’t very vivid.  Blending is sub-par with these so attempting to get that perfect tone that isn’t readily available in a pencil initially might prove to be daunting.  The combination of overlap of colors and difficulty blending to get other colors might be annoying to some.

Usability and Durability – 2/5

Unfortunately, these are pretty weak pencils.  There are many complaints about the tip simply breaking off during use, requiring it to be re-sharpened.  Furthermore, sharpening can prove to be an issue as well as it can be quite difficult to get a good, sharp tip without breaking off the ends even more.  This requires being gentle with your application which is hard to do considering the output is so light to begin with and you will be tempted to try to blend colors to get the desired effect.

Packaging and Presentation – 3/5

The pencils come in a thin cardboard box that has what Rose Art calls a “Pull ‘n’ Pop” design.  It makes pulling out and re-inserting the pencils somewhat easier.  However, it still doesn’t take away from the fact that the box is quite cheap and won’t do an overly good job of protecting the pencils. 

The pencils themselves are standard round with a medium core thickness and color-coordinated external face.  There are not aesthetically pleasing markings on these.  All in all, it is a very straightforward, somewhat boring pencil design.  This isn’t a huge issue to most people but you may not find yourself “showing off” these pencil as you may with a more attractive higher-end set.

Cost – 3/5

These are some of the most affordable pencils you can buy, being easily in the budget range.  With prices like that, it is a lot easier to overlook a lot of the issues these pencils have.  The problem is if the issues just entailed light color or poor blending ability that is one thing, but the fact that these pencils simply do not hold up to wear and tear and break down very quickly means that you will potentially be going through these pencils a lot quicker than other brands.

Overall Review – 3/5

Rose Art Colored Pencils are simply “alright” for a beginner, and not recommended for anybody above that.  They have a rather good color selection (although it does have gaps) and the price is on-point, but with that, you are getting pencils that don’t put out a lot of colors and that will break if you apply much pressure or even try to sharpen them.  If you are willing to spend a bit more, however, you should seriously consider upgrading to a more durable pencil as in the long run it might end up being cheaper.