Faber-Castell Polychromos 120 in a Wooden Case: Worth the Upgrade?

Introduction

The Faber-Castell Polychromos 120 set is one of those purchases that artists dream about, and the wooden case version turns that dream into something genuinely special. This is a set built for celebration: a massive box, a beautifully organized interior, and 120 colors that professional artists have trusted for years. After spending real time with these pencils, swatching, layering, and blending, here is what you should know before deciding whether the wooden case version is right for you.

First Impressions of the Wooden Case

The first thing to understand is scale. The wooden case is significantly larger than a typical premium pencil box, closer in spirit to a small chest than a pencil tin. It presents the full color range on the inner lid and arranges every pencil so you can see and reach the whole palette at a glance.

It is worth being honest about the price difference. The wooden case adds roughly an extra $100 over the standard set, and it is easy to assume it is an expensive gimmick. In practice, the build quality justifies it. The case makes the pencils more accessible, presents them beautifully, and does a real job of getting creative ideas flowing. If you treat your art supplies as long-term tools and enjoy having them on display, the case earns its price. If you just want the pencils, the standard tin saves you money.

Color Range and Swatching

Polychromos pencils are widely praised for their well thought out color range, and the 120-color set shows why. There is a great mix of hues, including some genuinely vibrant options, arranged so that the palette feels complete without redundant filler.

Swatching 120 pencils sounds tedious, but with pencils this pleasant it is almost fun. A useful technique is to color each swatch with heavier pressure on the left and lighter pressure on the right, so you can see the different layers of color each pencil can create. Cutting the swatches into strips also makes them far more practical for matching colors later.

One detail that separates quality pencils from cheaper sets: most of these colors are an almost perfect match between the barrel and the actual pigment. That means you can skip the swatching entirely and simply grab the color you need, which speeds up real drawing work considerably.

Blending With Oil-Based Pencils

The Polychromos are oil-based, and that changes how they behave compared to wax-based pencils like Prismacolor. Oil pencils are less forgiving when blending and layering, but they reward good technique with excellent results.

The fundamentals apply to any pencil brand: keep your pencils sharp, keep your layers light, and aim for at least three to four layers of color, adding more if needed. Overlap each color with its neighbor and gradually ease off the pressure so the colors fade into each other. The more the colors overlap, the smoother the final gradient.

With oil-based pencils, the key is giving real attention to your lower layers rather than relying on a top layer to fix everything. Wax-based pencils can absorb some sloppiness in the final pass; Polychromos will not. Blender pencils are a simple option for removing white paper grain and smoothing colors a little further, and it is also possible to achieve smooth results with pencils alone if you put in the layer work.

There is also a long-term benefit to the oil-based formula. Wax-based pencils can develop wax bloom, a cloudy film that appears over finished work over time. It wipes off with a tissue, but it never happens with oil-based pencils, which matters if your finished pieces are meant to last.

Core Strengths for Artists

These are among the highest quality colored pencils you can buy, and they are a go-to choice for many professional artists for good reasons:

• High lightfast rating. Colors hold up over many years, which makes them a safe choice for work you intend to sell or archive.
• Very strong core. The leads resist breakage and hold a point well.
• Easy to keep sharp. Combined with the strong core, this makes them excellent for fine details, an area where many pencils marketed as blendable fall short.

The trade-off is blending. Oil-based pencils take more skill and practice to blend and layer than wax-based ones. That is why many artists, including experienced ones, use Polychromos alongside another brand such as Prismacolor or Caran d’Ache Luminance, getting the best of both worlds: wax-based blending ease plus oil-based fine detail. This pairing approach is arguably the smartest way to use the set.

Paper Pairing and Final Advice

Paper choice matters, and it comes down largely to preference. For Polychromos specifically, smooth papers underperform, even high-quality smooth Bristol. These pencils do their best work on something with a bit of texture that supports heavier layering.

Favorites for this set include hot press watercolor paper and Bristol Vellum, especially 100% cotton paper, though the cotton option is genuinely expensive. The pencils also work on black paper, though a full drawing on black paper is the kind of test that pushes any brand to its limits.

One caution worth repeating: if you experiment with blending solvents, test carefully first. In side-by-side tests, some solvent products left permanent yellow stains that ruined finished artwork, while baby oil, often recommended online, actually left stains over time. Alcohol markers and most solvents performed well. Always test on swatches before touching real work.

Conclusion

The Faber-Castell Polychromos 120 set in a wooden case is a serious investment in a serious tool. The pencils themselves are professional grade: strong cores, excellent lightfastness, superb fine detail, and a barrel-to-lead color accuracy that makes the palette a joy to use. The oil-based formula demands more blending technique and pairs best with textured paper, so absolute beginners who mainly want soft, effortless blending may prefer a wax-based alternative. But for dedicated artists and anyone marking a milestone of their own, the wooden case version is a purchase that feels as good as it performs.