I am always skeptical when I see the word “dupe” in reviews. The thing is, oil-based coloured pencils are notoriously expensive to come by. What if there is such a dupe for, say, my trusty Derwent Lightfast, at a fraction of the price? Read on for this Art-n-Fly 48 oil-based coloured pencils review to find out how these stack against Derwent Lightfast.
The Packaging
The Art-n-Fly 48 oil-based coloured pencils set comes in a pretty strong cardboard cylinder package. Amazon shipped it to me in a paper envelope with no padding (gasp!), but everything arrived intact except for one pencil with a somewhat chipped tip, though that pencil likely came as is because the tip was nowhere inside the cylinder.
Derwent Lightfast, on the other hand, comes in a lightweight and somewhat flimsy tin box.
For accessibility and to locate a particular colour, I prefer the tin box, especially when you have 48 pencils. But the price is so affordable, I’d be nitpicking to harp on that.
One thing to note is that there were complaints about receiving duplicate pencils and missing others, and I experienced it too. In this 48 set, I received two #21 Lipstick pencils, but I am missing #60, which is kind of an essential shade for me since it is a flesh tone shade for portrait drawing.
Art-n-Fly Oil-based Pencils Review: The Good
Let’s start with the positives first. I hate basing a review on price alone, but because this is such a cheap set, it’s hard not to. I would say that even if this costs more than I paid for, it is still a good quality oil-based pencil set.
Most of the colours go on paper (I find using vellum surface to be best for harder core, oil-based pencils such as Derwent Lightfast and Art-n-Fly) like butter, which, to be honest, surprised me in such a good way. I have never experienced quality like this at this price point.
Since oil-based coloured pencils should be blendable with a solvent, I tested Art-n-Fly out with Gamsol. They blended fairly well.
I tried to use most colours to give the coloured pencils a fair review. I have to say, most of the colours are vivid, smooth and glide on paper very well. There are a few that aren’t as creamy as the rest, but the same can be said about almost every brand, including Derwent.
Like Derwent Lightfast, these Art-n-Fly pencils don’t break either, and can be sharpened to a very fine point.
Colour Selection
As for the colour selection in this 48 set, I do find that there are too many similar reds and yellows. Several of the reds are almost indistinguishable from one another, not having enough difference in undertone and depth to tell them apart. Art-n-Fly also has a 72 set, as well as a portrait set, which include some of the same colours in the 48 set.
I do love that the 48 set included gold and silver metallic pencils. I used the silver pencil on the earrings in the portrait.
The Price
When it comes to dupes, one can’t give a proper review without comparing prices. The Art-n-Fly 48 oil-based coloured pencils set was 30% off when I purchased it on Amazon, which came to CAD$25. For the set of 12 Derwent Lightfast pencils, I paid CAD$28.99.
Derwent Lightfast pencils were made in the U.K., while Art-n-Fly products are all made in China. Still, that is a huge price difference. Now we have to compare the quality!
Quality Showdown: Art-n-Fly v. Derwent Lightfast
Since I only have 12 Derwent Lightfast pencils, I can only pull out a few shades that look similar to what the 48 Art-n-Fly oil-based coloured pencils offer for comparison purposes. While the colour laydown is almost identical with both brands (which is very creamy and smooth), the blending is where the difference is most apparent.
While Art-n-Fly goes on the Strathmore 400 series mixed media paper just as smooth and buttery as Derwent Lightfast, you cannot burnish the colours to blend them together as well as you can with Derwent Lightfast. If you love using the white pencil in Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils to blend different colours and burnish them, you cannot use Art-n-Fly’s white pencil to do the same. The white pencil in this set is disappointing because it does not blend anything. It does show up well on black paper though.
One thing to note is that when you lay the Art-n-Fly colours down, they are almost blending themselves already. I do very realistic portraits and like burnishing the colours until you don’t see streaks, which may be harder to do with the Art-n-Fly oil-based coloured pencils.
Wax Bloom
To be fair, even oil-based pencils can have wax bloom, depending on how much wax their binders are made with. However, I don’t find Derwent Lightfast to have that much wax bloom as much as I do with Art-n-Fly. Take a look:
The black and white pencils in the Art-n-Fly 48 oil-based coloured pencils set have the worst wax bloom. The darker browns have a little bit of that too if I burnish them.
I did not experience any wax bloom using the white pencil from Derwent Lightfast at all. The Derwent white pencil also blends the colours very well without any gunky resistance.
The Takeaway: Are Art-n-Fly Oil-based coloured pencils worth the money?
So, is Art-n-Fly a dupe for Derwent Lightfast? Yes and no. While most of the shades are vibrant, creamy and smooth, and almost self-blend as you lay the colours down, there is also quite a bit of wax bloom compared to Derwent. However, considering a solvent can remove wax bloom and that Art-n-Fly is solvent friendly, the wax bloom isn’t a huge deal breaker.
At this price point (sorry, can’t resist bringing up price! :P), I do think Art-n-Fly is a very good budget alternative to the Derwent Lightfast.
