Watercolourists should be aware that these paints are opaque, though some rich colours can be made in combination with gouache and so it doesn't matter about being opaque then.

Derwent Graphitint has been designed to combine the colour qualities of a graphite pencil with a hint of soft subtle colour. I attempted to erase some of the blue colour to see how well I could remove it but was never able to fully erase the tinge. I decided to apply clean water to each colour individually to avoid over blending or bleeding and found the colours dried lighter than the application was applied. The Derwent Graphitint pan set would make a fun and interesting gift for an artistic friend or family member.

The muted colours with the shimmer make for some attractive effects, but again, it’s not ideal when you consider that most artists would prefer to only have metallic effects in some areas of a painting rather than the whole thing. Used dry, Graphitint provides just a hint of colour but adding water literally transforms the tint into rich, vibrant colour.

Artists can apply on cold pressed watercolour paper to bring out pools of granulations and passages of tone and colour. For instance, Inktense, a unique water-soluble pencil that’s permanent when dry, or Lightfast the oil-based pencil that ensures vibrancy for over 100 years.Love the quality, they blend beautifully and produce strong, complex colours (the obscure names - "storm", "sage" or "juniper" are not what you'd think - take a bit of working out, but they are good). Finally the end cap is painted with a flash of colour, which corresponds to the pigment in the core. It is extremely important to have a colour chart to hand when using pencils like these as the 'leads' of these pencils are quite dark and it can be difficult to differentiate between colours. In the 24 set of Derwent Graphitint, 19 of them are rated 6 and above, which is an excellent ratio in my opinion. Derwent Graphitint Pencils have the same properties in terms of hardness and solubility in water as Derwent's popular 4B Watersoluble Sketching Pencil, so you can experiment with adding colour but retain all the familiar qualities of your favourite graphite pencil.