A Budget-Friendly Lidl Watercolour Pencils Review

Myself and Mr Magpies and Diamonds were doing our usual big shop at Lidl, not something that is usually worth writing about, but like most people we cannot just stick to doing the food shop in Lidl without checking the middle isle sections. Oh the wonderful randomness of those items! We have found a bargain fire pit, hiking boots and cast-iron pans over the years. On our recent food shop I came across a collection of art supplies and of course had to check them out. There were several different items, different types of paints, art paper, inks, pencils and even craft supplies. I spotted a small collection of watercolour pencils and decided to purchase them to give them a try. Having never used watercolour pencils before I thought it would be fun to have a go, and given the lower price point it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t like working with them. I got the Crelando 24 watercolour pencils set which came with a (real hair) paint brush included.

First thought was that the the packaging was nice. A simple flat metal case which is easy for storage, with the pencils and brush being secure inside. The colours range from white, yellows, peaches, reds, greens, blues, browns, greys to black, so there is a good range for a smaller collection. I decided not to swatch them to start with and simply went straight into playing around with them by colouring a feather drawing I had already made in my sketchbook. I know this isn’t the recommended process, and of course it would have been better if I had swatched first to give an idea of the true colours and texture. However, I was just looking forward to trying them, mainly to see if I would enjoy the overall experience of working with watercolour pencils, and if this would be something I would like to use in the future. I applied the colours to the paper dry and blended and layered them first before activating them by applying water. I didn’t use the brush that came with the set as it was a bit too chunky for my preference, however this was purely down to personal taste only as I like to use a thinner brush.

It's fair to say that I did not have high expectations for these pencils, they are not for professional use or high-quality art supplies and do not claim to be, but I was pleasantly surprised. The colours were quite pretty when applied, and most of them were more pigmented than expected. The texture was a little powdery, but they coloured evenly, were easy to use and in honesty, they performed better than I had expected. I would not use these for anything other than playing around in my sketchbook though, and there were some problems. One of the brown pencils snapped a few times even though I wasn’t putting any significant pressure on them. I did try to use the white pencil a few times, but I was quite disappointed because it had very little pigment in it. There was so little in fact, that I did not notice any difference despite layering, and layering…….and layering to try and add the colour. The rest of the colours had a better impact than expected, although I would not describe them as being particularly rich or vibrant.

As for the experience of using watercolour pencils, it did take me a lot longer to colour than if I had used watercolour paints. This could also have been down to me not being used to using them and therefore taking longer. I did really enjoy using them though, especially for working in a sketchbook. I also think that they would be wonderfully easy to travel with and to take out with you to work in different environments (outdoors, days out, cafés) in a way that paints are just not. You could colour and layer, then add the water to activate and blend at a later time. I enjoyed them so much that I plan on purchasing some higher quality ones to use for this purpose. So, in conclusion, I think that if you see these in Lidl and are looking for some basic watercolour pencils to casually play around with, they are worth your money. If you would like to see them in use take a peek at my video below.