Mont Marte Fluoro Oil Pastels 12-Pieces Set

I cannot stress enough how beautiful these oil pastels colours are in real life. I haven't been able to find anything similar in good quality brands, so I decided to buy this set just because it was cheap and Mont Marte is a good brand for student art supplies. 

 

The colours didn't disappoint; actually, they blew me away. Perhaps the red isn't the best fluoro red out there, but is still beautiful. These aren't soft pastels, but they are still creamy. They blend OK with quality soft pastels and well with themselves. Having used low, medium and high end oil pastels, these cannot compare in the amount of pigment they have or the level of coverage. Yet, they are still decent and a pleasure to use as highlights over soft oil pastels, or on their own on the top layers of mixed-media projects. Most fluoro pigments aren't lightfast or aren't super lightfast, so I don't expect this to be in the list of light-resistant list. Yet, this doesn't matter if you just want to use them on art journaling, sketchbooks or in small projects that won't have the artwork displayed on any wall. 

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Mont Marte Tracing Paper Pad A4 60gsm 40 Sheet

I purchased this pad not for drawing  or tracing, but to use it as part of a wet palette system. I had used thinner tracing paper before this and it was not working. This pad is affordable and the tracing paper is good quality, thick enough to resist moving paint with different kind of brushes on it without tearing apart. It lasts several days on the palette, so it is value for money. 

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Mont Marte Watercolour Pad A5 300gsm 12 Sheet

This is an A5 paper pad of good quality 300 gsm paper. You know, there are good and not so good 300 gsm watercolour paper, and this is good paper, and great value for money as well. 

I've tested the paper without pre-gessoing the surface, which leaves the paper more exposed to the media I used. I've used both acrylic paint and acrylic inks, adding quite a bit of dripping and the paper stood everything wonderfully and I was totally surprised at how well it took acrylic paint and acrylic inks, without buckling or deteriorating. I like the paper texture and the fact that the pad is glued just in one of the sides, but I'm not a fan of the paper colour. Yet, it doesn't really matter, because I will be painting over it and I can change that easily.

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Mont Marte Metallic Acrylic Paint 8 Piece

I'm happy I purchased this taster set because, after trying it, I won't be buying the product again. For the same reason, I'm glad that I didn't purchase the larger set.
 
The colours are very pretty, and can be mixed or layered among themselves. I especially like the bronze and the copper colours on their own. I also like how the green and blue, the pink and purple, and the copper and bronze mix together. The golden paint is very light, so it looks very pretty over some of the other colours. 

 

In all honesty, the picture of the packaging back on the info product page is clear and you can see that the colours are semi-transparent (marked by the small circle filled half way). I didn't notice the photo, unfortunately, but I was looking for a matte opaque set and this is not. 

 
I don't mind the colours transparency, as they are perfect for layering and to add final touches. However, I find that the colours are very pretty but don't have enough pigment and the texture is medium-body not heavy-body. Besides, the mica content is on the low level, so sometimes the metallic shine doesn't show much.
 
These acrylics are light-fast and can be easily stored vertically in a low pen holder.

A good intro set of acrylics for craft painting. 

UPDATE 30/1/24
I have been using the golden, bronze and copper colours a lot lately. They can be layered easily to create depth and vibrant results. They work especially good on cardboard colour paper way better than on water surfaces. I have come to use several coats to get a bit of more opacity. These are the colours I use the most and they are really pretty. I add a bit of black to the bronze and gold to create a vintage worn-out sort of effect. I have to come to love these despite their shortcomings. A bit of paint goes a long way.

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Mont Marte Flow Medium

I wanted a thinner to use with those bottles of paint that are getting too thick and dry, so adding a bit of this medium and shaking the bottle well works perfectly. I also use it to thin average acrylics so that they become liquid-ish still maintaining their pigmentation. I've never used this medium for flow acrylic painting, so I can't comment on that. It works well for me. It is a good size mini bottle, a little amount goes a long way, and it is great value for money.

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