I've used colored pencils and watercolor paints, but not used watercolor pencils except for an occasional drawing here and there until recently. Before these I had some Mongols from my grandma. I like them, but their color range is limited. The red I had wasn't really red and I had only a tiny stump left of green that wouldn't fit into a sharpener.So I went to the local art store to buy about four pencils to fill in some missing colors for some adult coloring books. I fell in love with them, so had to get the full 120 set.-------So far I've only begun to tap the potential of these pencils. There's a lot more practicing and experimenting to go yet. What I like so far:- These color smooth. They are not scratchy (most of them. I'll get to that later). They are a bit firmer than the Prismacolors, but still able to layer.- They are less messy than the Prismacolors. (I tend to press down a bit hard when layering and get flakes and smudges all over the place with the softer pencils.- they wet easy and spread nice. Wet effect looks just like watercolor paint.- even when used dry, they work really well. They glide on quietly with a nice amount of pigment. They don't seem to clog up the paper as much. (I've only tested on smooth paper so far, but I expect good results on rougher paper too.)- there isn't an extreme shift between dry and wet. The red stays red, rather than shifting towards magenta. (The mongols had that color shift.)- the tin is nice. A great way to store them, though I'd likely need to rubber band it if I were to carry it around for a long time. The tin so far stays intact as long as I can carry it upright. The pencils fit in their spots. The trays are easy to remove.There are a few things I don't like. Some of it might be how I am using them. Some might be problems with the pigments.- I'm struggling to get really super dark rich vibrant shades in areas I want intense contrast. It could be just my method. I've since then added a few Derwent intense pencils to fulfill this desire.- the metallics. I'm not impressed. I feel they are the weakest. Used dry they hold up okay. The gold and the copper seem to be scratchy in my set. The copper especially so. You have to press hard to get any more than a light streak. Silver is okay if applied dry. It looks more like semi loose mica flakes than a solid silver. When wet, silver turns into a faint gray with some iridescence. This could be because I am spoiled by the Prismacolor old metallic line for dry use and the pearl ex pigments used wet and later sprayed with a finish. Perhaps used on dark paper these metallics would look better. I've only tested them on white so far.- No CD. Not a big thing to me. I don't feel like I am missing anything that I can't find on youtube or related. To be honest, the CD would most likely sit somewhere in my computer room collecting dust as an item "I'll watch later but not today." My real excitement was digging into the colored pencils.That all said, I'm happy with this set. I'm mostly just practicing on coloring books with them, but easily see me doing serious art with them. I'll get a lot of use from this set. Also great about Amazon is the bargain offered on these sets. My local art stores either don't carry this set or would charge twice the amount, or the price for a lesser set.Included with this review, is a coloring book page done with these pencils. The caterpillar is my addition to the milkweed illustration. I also plan to update this review as I do more stuff with these pencils.Included is the colors with and without water in the order I found them in the set. The metallics photograph pretty well even if they look not as impressive on the paper.