Review: iBayam Colored Pencils

iBayam colored pencil set of 72

A funny thing happened at Gage Academy’s Drawing Jam a few weeks ago. In previous years, Blick has always been a primary sponsor, donating all the free art supplies that participants receive with their Drawing Jam admission. The offered colored pencils were usually Blick’s student grade, which are of typical quality for their ultra-low price (a polite way of saying “not great”).

At the supplies table, I spotted the jars of colored pencils, of course, and assumed they would be Blick. To my surprise, they were of the iBayam brand – one I’d never heard of. I was curious, but in the interest of my commitment to downsizing, I helped myself to only one (not one of each color – only one red).

The only pencil I sampled at Drawing Jam... and looked
what happened!

Expecting the typical low-priced pencil, imagine my surprise when a few scribbles felt pleasantly soft and decently pigmented. This iBayam brand deserved further research!

The Gage staff member who coordinated this purchase must know their colored pencils: Available on Amazon, iBayam colored pencils are a better price than Blick’s – and much better quality, at least on first scribble. A set of 72 colors was the only one I could find. My commitment to downsizing forgotten disregarded, I added to cart. (In my defense, it was my first large colored pencil set purchase in a long, long time . . . well, OK, maybe two years, but colored pencil years are like dog years.)

An Amazon reviewer had mentioned the extremely flimsy packaging, which was no exaggeration. Every time I open the paper box and slide out the thin plastic trays, I fear that they will give way, and all the pencils will be on the floor. They definitely need to be put into a different container for ongoing use and storage (the bird on the box sure is pretty, though). As expected, iBayam pencils are made in China (as nearly all ultra-inexpensive colored pencils are).

Extremely flimsy trays and box

Silver printing on glossy round barrel

The set comes with a “72 Colors DIY Color Chart” for making swatches. I usually ignore such charts when they come with pencil sets because the paper is often not ideal for colored pencils. I prefer to swatch in a sketchbook. What made me look twice at the enclosed chart was the baffling numbering: Neither in numerical order nor in the order of the pencil arrangement in the trays (which was a typical rainbow order), it made no sense!

Out of masochistic curiosity, I decided to fill in the chart, wondering if perhaps the colors would spell out a secret message or reveal a hidden image when I was done. The task took longer than it should have because I had to hunt for the corresponding number on the chart’s randomness each time I picked up a pencil. No message or image was revealed. What kind of madness is this?! (A comical employee at iBayam is currently laughing their ass off.)

If you can make sense of this color chart, do let me know in the comments.

Though a few colors are too similar to be practical (especially all those blues and likely-fugitive pinks), the color range is decent for a set of 72. My pet peeve is when a large set has lots of greens, none of which are natural, but this set’s selection isn’t bad.

I tested White for opacity when I made a recent nocturne, but it needed an assist from a Prismacolor in the brightest spots.

I also swatched the colors in my own sketchbook just as I always do, if only to see the colors in some kind of sensical order. Annoying as the color chart is, swatching twice on two types of paper confirmed that the pencils are pleasantly soft and contain good pigment. They also produce very little dust, even as soft as they are. Most cores are well-centered, and they sharpen beautifully.

Colors swatched in Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook

Appearance-wise, the only problem pencil was 047, which I had to deduce when it was the last slot left after coloring all the others in the chart. I don’t know the name of it because both the number and name are completely obliterated on the barrel.

This pencil had a bad day when color names and numbers were being printed.

As a test sketch, I chose a Zorn palette of Ochre (062), Ruby Red (023) and Black (072) to make a portrait from an Earthsworld reference photo. I found iBayam pencils to be ideal for the messy-hatching method I learned from France Van Stone a couple of years ago. I can scribble fast and hard (not recommended for most colored pencil applications) to get lots of color down quickly. To cover large areas, I can put pressure on the side of the point without breaking it. Not quite as soft as Prismacolor, which would be my favorite for this method, it’s close. While this sketch wasn’t the best example for testing blending, I piled on enough layers to be able to feel that they weren’t sliding off each other (which is common when cheap pencils contain too little pigment relative to binder).

12/20/24 iBayam colored pencils in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook (Earthsworld reference photo)

Perhaps most impressive is that this set is a great value: 72 colors for $14.99. That’s less than half the price of Schpirerr Farben (although I paid quite a bit less a few years ago, the set of 72 is currently selling for $40), which was my previous favorite in the ultra-low-price category. iBayam pencils also produce less dust than Schpirerr Farben, which are quite crumbly.

Although I fell off the wagon buying this set, it was for a good cause: iBayam is now my recommended budget-priced colored pencil.