Hoben Artist Watercolor Pencils Review: Studio-Quality Watercolor in Pencil Form

Introduction

Hoben is a big name in watercolor, yet until now the brand had never offered a watercolor pencil. That gap has finally been filled with a new line available in two set sizes, 24 and 50, and the larger 50 set is what makes the strongest first impression. The palette shares its colors with Hoben’s artist watercolors, and that shared palette turns out to be the defining feature of the whole product.

Anyone who already owns the Hoben colored pencils will feel at home here. The brand clearly understands color, and the new watercolor line carries over that same sense of a well-balanced, thoughtfully curated range.

First Impressions and Build Quality

The box mirrors the design of the Hoben colored pencil sets: minimalistic, with thin color lines on the lid giving an overview of the palette inside. It is a sturdy, well-made box that should hold up well to regular studio use. Inside, you get a fillable swatch card with color names and numbers, plus a short leaflet explaining that the pencils are produced with attention to pigment balance, that they deliver a smooth drawing feel and blend easily in water, and that they can be used in combination with Hoben watercolors.

The pencils themselves feel genuinely premium. They have a hexagonal barrel with a natural wood grain finish and a varnish coat, which you notice when sharpening as a small clear fleck of varnish in the shavings. In the hand, there is a nice weight to them that reinforces the quality impression.

Markings are clear and practical: the model code and full product name along the barrel, a paintbrush icon indicating water solubility, and a roughly inch-long colored pigment identifier on the end with the color number in silver print. The plain wood barrel makes that identifier stand out particularly well. On the opposite side, you get the pigment name and a star-based lightfast rating. Hoben lists a 3.8 mm core in a 7.2 mm barrel on its website; careful measurement suggested values closer to 4.2 mm and 7.4 mm, a negligible difference either way.

Color Palette and Swatching

The 50 colors are arranged logically, running from dark reds through pinks and yellows, into greens, blues and lavenders, and finishing with earth tones. Standouts include crimson lake, quinacridone red, a gorgeous leaf green, olive green, a beautiful shadow green, mineral violet, and a dependable set of earth tones from burnt sienna through sepia. For anyone who loves botanical work, the green section alone is worth a close look.

In dry form, most colors are quite translucent over a black marker line, with a few more opaque exceptions. Once activated with water, the pigmentation is strong, bright and vibrant. One reassuring point: because these are watercolors, any perceived lack of dark reds, greens or blues is easy to work around, since you can deepen or lighten any color simply by controlling the amount of water and mixing.

Lightfastness: A System Worth Understanding

Hoben uses an LF1 to LF5 lightfast rating system, familiar from other premium ranges, but the star mapping on the barrel is counterintuitive. LF1 is represented by four stars, LF4 gets a single star, and LF5 gets no marks at all. In this 50 set, that works out to four pencils at four stars (LF1), sixteen at three stars (LF2), twenty at LF3, and ten at one star (LF4). There are no unmarked pencils in the set.

For artists who sell originals and restrict themselves to LF1 and LF2, that means only 20 of the 50 pencils qualify. The star system itself is also simply confusing, and Hoben is not alone among manufacturers in doing this. That said, many artists today sell archival giclee prints on archival paper and ink, which makes lightfastness less critical, and the color quality more than compensates for this quirk for anyone who does not need maximum ratings across the board.

Pencils Versus Tubes: The Color Match Test

This is where the product genuinely distinguishes itself. Hoben specifically wanted the pencils compared against their own watercolor tubes, and the result is remarkable. Swatching twelve tube colors against their pencil counterparts on high-quality 100% cotton cold press paper showed very little to no visual difference. The only variation was the white, most likely just because more pigment loaded onto the brush from the tube.

This matters more than it might seem. Other manufacturers that make both watercolor pans or tubes and water-soluble pencils often fail this test, with pencil and tube colors clearly not matching. Here, the match is so close that using the pencils feels like using Hoben watercolor tubes in pencil form. Of the twelve tubes tested, only one, permanent yellow light, had no pencil counterpart in the set.

Real-Time Performance and Paper Tests

Testing across three paper grades tells a consistent story. On a lower-grade cold press watercolor paper, the pencils perform nicely for general work. On a mid-to-high-end student paper such as Bockingford St Cuthberts Mill, activation is smooth and reliable. On 100% cotton cold press paper from a premium watercolor block, the pigment performs brilliantly, blooming and moving exactly as tube watercolor would.

A little pigment goes a long way. Covering an area with several layers barely dented the core of a sharpened pencil, so the longevity per pencil is strong. Once a wet brush touches the laid-down color, it lifts off beautifully and moves around the paper with ease.

Two practical tips emerged from real-time use. Crumbs that fall on the paper should be worked into the painting with a damp brush rather than blown away, since they are pure pigment. And reds such as crimson lake are staining colors, which moves quickly and rewards a decisive hand.

A quick festive painting demonstrated what these pencils can do: bright, vibrant color with phenomenal pigment strength, on paper that would not immediately suggest the piece was made with pencils alone.

Buying Advice

If you are a watercolor artist who already uses Hoben tubes or pans, these pencils are close to an automatic buy, because the palettes match so precisely that mixing pencil work into painted pieces is seamless. If you are deciding between the 24 and 50 sets, the 50 set offers the fuller palette including the earth tones and the fuller green range that make this line special.

Artists who sell original work and insist on LF1 or LF2 only should check the star ratings before committing, since roughly half the set falls outside those grades. Everyone else, including painters who work in prints or simply enjoy the medium, can buy with confidence. These pencils stand comfortably among the strongest watercolor pencil ranges available, and they compare favorably with other premium water-soluble pencils on the market.

Conclusion

The Hoben Artist Watercolor Pencils are a superb debut: premium build, a beautiful and well-judged palette, strong pigmentation, and a color match with the brand’s own tubes that is genuinely rare in this category. The star-based lightfast labeling is the one real quirk, but it does little to diminish a product that delivers essentially tube watercolor in pencil form. For watercolor painters especially, this is an easy recommendation.