Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

These pens are outstanding for craft applications. (For painting, I still use my Sennelier French water colors.) They react beautifully with water or can be used straight from the pen. The colors in the set of 80 range from the lightest of lights to the richest darks and jewel tones. The lights are particularly nice when you want an actual lighter color, instead of a diluted wash of a deeper hue. The set also includes a great selection of greys and grey tones. In terms of paper, these pens work beautifully on watercolor paper. On card stock or other smoother, less "thirsty" papers, if you use a light touch and don't scrub, you will see minimal pilling and little (if any) buckling. For coloring books, a very light hand and very little water works well, but with wetter applications, you will see buckling and some bleed through, especially with darker tones. Remember, most adult coloring books are not designed for wet applications - give them a break! They do work wonderfully in my coloring books that are specifically made for watercolor. The price from Amazon for the full set of 80 is still significantly less than the per-marker price anywhere, and it is also less than the cost of buying one of the the smaller sets and adding the few additional colors that one would want to round out his/her palette. I'm attaching photos of my swatch cards, and my markers in their storage cube (also available on Amazon). For each color, you'll see the color straight from the pen on the left, and water added to the swatch on the right. While monitors vary, you should be able to see the brilliance and variety of colors. Note, I have customized the pen caps with tiny swatches (they don't come this way). The manufacturer indicates that these pens may be stored horizontally or upright, and I store them horizontally in their cube except when in use. I'm finding the brushes to be especially durable, returning to a point after each use. They are not refillable, but storing them horizontally will help get the most use out of each marker. I'm writing this review in June 2016, but I've used these pens for months and they show no signs of running out yet. When they do, I will likely replace them on an as-needed basis from a merchant that offers them in open stock.