For professional artists/illustrators, these are fantastic colouring pencils. The price reflects the quality - no wax blooms, they easily sharpen to a fine point, they do not snap easily, and produce gorgeous colour. The pencils need a few layers to get to get vibrancy and intensity of colour - I mention this as those who use Prismacolor will find that Faber Castell pencils do not produce the intensity of colour right away. Prismacolor are bright, but they are also extremely waxy and layering colour is difficult. For beginners who have less of a budget, I recommend purchasing a smaller set to see how you go, or purchasing a beginners set of pencils first.