Koh-i-Noor Mondeluz vs Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils review and comparison

Are cheap art supplies better than expensive ones? What are good watercolor pencils? Today we find out!
Here's a not so little comparison video of the two sets you always see me using on my channel, the Mondeluz by Koh-i-noor and the Albrecht Durer by Faber castell. Which are the best watercolor pencils for professionals ? We'll see.
Note that both are categorized as "artist" grade or "professional" art supplies.

Faber Castell swatches

Koh-i-noor swatches

Scan of the page

Koh-i-noor Mondeluz 24 metal tin set
Koh-i-noor Mondeluz 24 carboard set

Faber Castel Albrecht Durer 24 set watercolor pencils

Brush used in the video - DaVinci Cosmotop spin 6

Reservoir brush - Sakura koi large

Recommended sharpener for Faber Castell pencils:

Sketchbook I used - Hahnemuhle watercolor book

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[resonantwords]

Price and Quality are often correlated but you should never judge something on how much it costs.

[smc]

What a helpful, useful video. I was wondering about this exact question. Thank you!

[purplefluoritemusic]

I literally just spent $30 on a set of 72 budget watercolor pencils and after testing them, I wish I'd put that money towards getting a 24 pack of Faber Castell - thanks for confirming my regret LOL

[alite]

Koh-i Noor Which is Persian Word Means = Mountain of Light

[fangchick]

The reason I'm upgrading from my Derwent Academy watercolour pencils to the Albrecht Durer pencils is for more pigment. I tried to do a watercolour pencil portrait of a panther cub and I just couldn't get the dark tones I wanted. I had to use my graphite water soluble pencils to get it dark enough but it ended up with a grey tone instead of the purples and blues I wanted

[suewilkinson]

Mondeluz in the cardboard box were my first watercolour pencils. They are a good starter. I had fun with them. But I now prefer my Supracolor and Derwent watercolour pencils. I also have 24 set of Albrecht Durer. They are lovely but I don’t need more right now. Good review. Thank you.

[DRAIZWAIAINSMAINZ]

If you like granulationcolors, the koh-i-noor are a good choice ;-)

[easypeasyabcsy]

Great! I was going to buy a Koh-i-Noor watercolor pencils in the local shop, but accidentally bought the Faber Castell 8) I am glad about this mistake...

[dominikak]

thank you for this video; I have actually bought a Mondeluz set few years ago and not sure if it was just my box of pencils or it was a defected batch, but the wood and pigment quality is a disaster; I am not an artist, just got Koh i noor because in Poland they were considered a good brand for many years, but using them in a normal way is impossible; I get the fact that it's a watercolor pencil that you may not need to press too hard when drawing, like you would do with regular pencils, however even the lightest pressure makes them break immediately; the same when sharpening them, both the pigment stick inside and the wood break like hell; the wood looks cheap and is kind of 'rough' which is annoying during the sharpening too; i'm not able to achieve a sharp pointy tip because the pigment sticking out of the wood is then too long and breaks; i actually ended up collecting all those broken pigments into a container and will have to dissolve them in water and use like regulr wotercolors i guess as it's such a waste; also, when you come to the pencil end, you can notice that the pigment stick inside doesn't go to the end, I mean it finishes 4 cm before the actual wood end and you can see an empty space there where you would expect the rest of your pigment to be; even if the were $10 back then, i consider it a wasted $10 and would prefer to spend $20 more and get myself a faber castell or other brand; I'd be curious if anyone else have the same experience with watercolor pencils from Koh i noor

[muskndusk]

Why don't your Mondeluz pencils have a gold end?

[ciannacoleman]

I got the 36 set years ago and like them MUCH better than an ancient (20yr old lol) set of Derwent ones I have that are now “highlighters.” However I 100% splurged when I got my Polychromos set and got the Albrecht Durers too. I am trained as a traditional watercolorist so I debated whether I needed all the colors, but am super excited for when they arrive so I can really stretch my skill set to use “convenance” colors instead of mixing everything from scratch. Sounds weird for that to be stretching but that is what I am considering such an increase in pallett colors.

[graphitesmiles]

Nice 👍
I also bought one but didn't used
I don't get enough time

[zuheyr]

How can you constantly talk without taking a breath?