Sudee Stile Colored Pencils

Pros:

Enormous Color Selection

Good Color Output

Great Value

Cons:

A lot of Overlap in Colors

Blending isn’t Anything Noteworthy

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Sudee Stile Colored Pencils Review

Last Updated by Brandon F. on July 13, 2020

We are always out for great bargains when it comes to colored pencils.  Not everybody has the skill or money laying around for one of the high-end sets out there.  We have found some affordable colored pencil sets that perform at or near the levels of sets that cost 3x, 4x, and even 5x their asking price.

That is why we were immediately interested when we learned of Sudee Stile Colored Pencils.  This brand may not be a common name in the art world, but it is quickly rising as one of the most popular sets available online from places such as Amazon.

To get to the bottom of what makes them so popular, we decided to test them ourselves.

Sudee Stile Colored Pencils come in a huge 150-pack set, have a hexagonal barrel, are comprised of a wax base, and are in the budget price range.

Visual Appeal – 4/5

The most obvious observation that you will see with Sudee Stile Colored Pencils is the size of the set.  This set comes in with a whopping 150 pencils!  Not only that, but each pencil has its non-duplicated color.

What this means is that “color gaps” in the set are essentially non-existent.  While you will have certain colors that are more heavily emphasized, there is a large enough selection of each color to meet just about everybody’s needs.

In particular, you will find a large selection of reds and browns.  This is great for coloring forests, sunsets, and flowers. 

Conversely, there are few blues and yellows to work with.  But even the “sparser” color options still provide plenty of colors to pick from.

One thought did come to mind when we were analyzing the massive array of colors: are they all necessary? 

Take the selection of reds for instance in the image above.  Many of these reds are essentially non-discernible.  While we do value a nice selection of colors, Sudee Stile could have likely achieved these same goals while shaving off a few dozen of these pencils.

In fact, upon doing some digging, it turns out that Sudee Stile used to sell a 120-count colored pencil set.  Even a 120-count set of non-duplicate colored pencils is a huge selection.  We aren’t sure what the thought process was that made Sudee Stile decide to add another 30 pencils.  But the good news for you is more colored pencils for not much more money!

Another interesting tidbit that we learned about Sudee Stile Colored Pencils:  there is a lot of evidence that these pencils come from the same manufacturer as Marco Raffine Colored Pencils.

Before you get out your pitchforks, it is important to acknowledge that this type of activity is extremely common in the colored pencil world.  Brands have been going to the same factories as their competitors for years.  You would be surprised how much overlap one brand of colored pencils may have with another.

As far as we are concerned, if a brand has figured out how to make great colored pencils, then we do not blame other companies for wanting to copy them!

Sure enough, these pencils do produce color eerily similar to the Marco Raffine Colored Pencils that we tested.  The color output is quite vibrant and intense.  This is particularly noticeable in brighter colors.  Yellows, oranges, pinks, and reds pop quite nicely. 

The darker colors (browns, blues, deep greens, grays, etc.) do not produce the equivalent level of depth, but it still is not bad.  Compared to other colored pencils in this price range, Sudee Stile is towards the top in regards to color intensity across the board.

We could not find any information related to lightfast ratings.  This would require our in-house testing to determine.  This project is something that we are considering doing for a larger, separate article but it will be outside of the scope of this particular article.

Usability and Durability – 3.5/5

Since the Sudee Stile Colored Pencils are wax-based, you will have to deal with some minor wax bloom if you decide to heavily layer them.  However, we found that wax bloom to be average at worst compared to other wax pencils on the market.  This wax bloom starts to set in after the third layer of the application.  Before that, it isn’t a factor.

Blending is nothing eye-catching but it is not terrible, either.  The important thing to remember here is that, with such a large selection of pencils, blending will not be as necessary.  There is a pretty good chance that the exact color you are looking for is already available in one of the 150 pencils in the set!

But if you do decide to blend, we recommend using an eraser and lightly applying it.  These pencils are quite responsive to erasers.  Experimenting with the included white and black colored pencils are other great ways to lighten/darken the color. But be sure to play around with this approach before trying on your actual piece of artwork.

We did not have much luck trying to blend with solvents or water.  However, these pencils are not water-soluble so that isn’t a surprise.

The wax core is a bit on the hard side.  This plays a big part in why the blending is not up there with the likes of more expensive colored pencils.  But the harder core does come with its benefits.  The tip seems to keep a nice point, even with relatively hard application pressures.  This makes Sudee Stile Colored Pencils are a good choice for highly detailed areas of your work where you need a sharp point and better user control.

Conversely, if you wish to apply the color to a larger area, simply dull the tip down some and you are a much broader stroke.  The core diameter comes in at 3.3mm so it is large enough to sweep color but still small enough to tackle your more intricate areas.

Color seems to be produced nicely with very light application pressure as well.  This is helpful if you only want a subtle amount of color in an area.  Also, for those spots that you want to put down some serious color, the pencils respond nicely and deliver just that.

We didn’t have any major issues with tips breaking or cracking.  And sharpening the pencils with the proper manual sharpeners did not give us too many fits.  We have read reports of people complaining about the cores easily breaking but this seems to be on a case-by-case basis.

Packaging and Presentation – 3.5/5

Sudee Stile Colored Pencils come in a cardboard container with three separate trays for housing the pencils.  While we prefer metal or tin trays to cardboard, the cardboard is thick enough to provide an adequate level of protection. 

The trays that house the pencils are the same thin plastic ones that you are used to seeing nearly every other pencil brand use.  They are extremely flimsy and are more there for organization purposes than to protect them from impact.

Another nice bonus is that this package comes with a couple of manual pencil sharpeners.  These pencil sharpeners are nothing fancy but they seem to do the job.

The pencils themselves come with a semi-gloss silver barrel.  At the base, there is a color-matching dipped base.  We found the color on the base to closely resemble the color of the actual lead in most cases.  However, to be safe, we also encourage people to create a color chart with their set.

On the side of the pencil, you will find the Sudee Stile brand name and the color code that matches that pencil. We do wish that Sudee Stile had included more information on the side of the pencil.  This could include things such as the specific set that the pencil comes from, the actual color of the pencil (not just the code), and a lightfast rating. 

Since we don’t know what the exact color is, we just have to go off of the number.  Instead of calling a color “blood orange” or “radiant red”, you will have to simply refer to it as “Color 107”.

Value – 5/5

There is no denying that a big reason why Sudee Stile Colored Pencils are so popular right now is because of their price.  These pencils fall well into the budget price tier. 

At this price point, you can enjoy an enormous set of colored pencils for not a lot of money.  This makes them great for classroom settings as well since you will likely go through many colored pencils in short order.

Because these are so affordable, it also makes it much easier to overlook any gripes that we had.  And surprisingly, we had little in the way of gripes, to begin with!

Overall Ranking – 4/5

We came away very impressed with the Sudee Stile Colored Pencils.  They performed almost identical to the Marco Raffine Colored Pencils that we tried out.  And seeing how we enjoyed the Marco Raffine Colored Pencils, this is a good company to be around.

These wax-based pencils are at an optimal size to be good for a wide range of applications.  Detailed areas and large areas of color application will be equally suitable for using these pencils. 

The color application, particularly in the brighter colors, is quite good for a pencil in this price range.  The blending is not any spectacular but with so many pencil colors to choose from, this is not much of a concern.

We do question if such a large set was really necessary.  There are many pencils that you will be hard-pressed to differentiate from the color that they output.  We feel that Sudee Stile could have achieved a similar result even after eliminating 30+ pencils from the set.

But I guess if we had to have it one way, we would rather there be too many colors to pick from than not enough.  And at this asking price, the cost per pencil is among the best you will find anywhere.

If you are someone on a tight art budget or someone who simply enjoys a good value, then the Sudee Stile Colored Pencils will be among the best you will find anywhere. 

If you are a seasoned artist who is only after the maximum performance, there are more capable wax-based pencils out there.  But expect multiple factors higher for them.