LyraColor-Giants Skin Tone Colored Pencils - Set of 12 count colored pencils With A 6.25mm Core - Highly Pigmented Pencils for All Artists - Durable Color Pencils Set for Drawing Coloring and More

These Lyra colored pencils are probably some of the best quality pencils around! The "lead" cores are just perfect--silky smooth feeling as they slide across the paper. My kids don't have to press super hard to get a nice rich color on their papers. That's something that always bugged me about the "cheaper" brands. My hands grow tired when I am doing even an average amount of writing or drawing with colored pencils because I have to press so hard to get any color. If they make my hands tire, imagine my young kiddos!! Not so with these! I love them and now my kids are more interested in coloring than they used to be. I bought these based on reviews and I'm not sorry I spent the extra money for the better brand.I bought the Skin Tone ones because usually a basic set of colors is lacking in the choices for this "area" of colors. Since kids draw people a lot, it makes sense to have good choices for that. I remember as a kid I was stuck using brown or yellow or tan for drawing faces and hands, and NONE of them really fit for ANYONE regardless of their skin color. Although I can't really give an educated review of the actual colors provided I will say that now we have more choices for coloring people now! Yay! I can also attest to the wonderful quality of all the LYRA colored pencils!! I'm a fan!

I ordered both Lyra and Giotto versions and being a pigment specialist I Found them to be identical colors. It’s just that the Lyra is a very thick lead and the Giotto Stilnovos are a standard lead. How can this be that they are identical? Well usually there’s some variance if it’s two different companies but both companies are owned by the parent company FILA. So I figured that the pigments source For both types of pencils are the same. They may even be made out of the same factory. It’s OK because one is a thin lead what you can sharpen to a fairly firm point and the other is a thick lead that you can cover larger areas. See attached photo. So if the big kid size pencils are too much for you to handle then by all means buy the Giotto Stilnovo. As an artist and illustrator I plan to use them both In the manner I mentioned above. Great pencils!

If there's one thing even many experienced artists agree on- it's the idea that getting the flesh tone to look just right for any given drawing is no easy task sometimes, and can make or break your work. That is where this set of thick pencils comes in. Instead of having to pick a base of your own and blend countless layers for a realistic look-these pencils already include many different skin colors. They can be used in any number of ways, as is and just filled in, mixed with one another and blended in....or used as a base with other colors and lightened darkened or highlighted to get just the look you need. They can also be used for landscape work- different shades for outdoor settings- even though they are termed a 'skin tone' set. So since they have multiple uses and ease the stress of doing portraits too, at the price they are well worth adding to your palate of colored pencils. They mix smoothly and easily and also layer quite well. You wont be disappointed.

The darker skin tones of these pencils are great, no complaints. However the two light skin tones are awful. They came out orange on the paper and are no good for light skin tones. I would only use this light ones for contour maybe.

I am a calligrapher and a VERY proud woman of color. For years I have been searching for colored pencils that would give me a selection of skin tones to match mine. I have done many, many projects with orginial art and some have included people of color and needless to say I was disappointed with the out come - up until now(especialy with the skin tone). You have no idea - for years this has been a triple MAJOR, MAJOR, MAJOR problem for artists and creative people when darker skinned tones were desired.I orderd my first set and when they arrived I felt like a child on Christmas morning - they were perfect!!!! The range of the colors are really nice and true to color.I was quite pleased!!! Today, I have orderd yet another set to keep in my calligraphy "go with me bag" so I will always be prepared. Thank you so much Amazon for providing any artist expecialy people of color the Dixion Ticonderoga Dix-3931124 Dixon Lyra Color Giants Skin Tone Colored Pencils. And last but not least - the opportunity of capturing the true likness of our models. I love it. I love it. I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!P.S. This product would also be nice in water color. ;

They have a very good color selection with some yellowish brows and some reddish browns and a few dark neutrals. The amount of pressure I had to apply to color was much more than I'm used to with Prismacolors, but also with the cheapie Koh-I-Noors and Crayola. I'm trying to figure out where they will fit in the fold since the colors are good, but the blendability looks nil. The coverage on smooth paper isn't good. I haven't tried it on coloring book paper - okay I just found some coloring books with that kind of paper and guess what? I still hate them. It's so disappointing because they did everything right with the colors. The Giotto Stilnovo are the same pencil, just thinner, but somehow I think they'd be more controllable than these. I can tell I won't be using them at all - I have to find a kid to give it to.