Distress Crayons vs. Gelatos with Celia

Hey everyone! I got to play around with Faber Castell Gelatos and Ranger Distress Crayons so thought I would do a review of them and comparison between the two. 

First up: Distress Crayons. They come in packs of five in lots of different color palettes (I’m using set one). They’re really smooth and creamy and so fun to use! I made a rainbow that could be used as a background to test all the colors. 

Coloring with them is almost like using colored pencils because they don’t really blend together, but layer over each other to make new colors. They don’t smudge after you put them down on paper, which is great if you don’t want them to smudge around (but not great if you want to smudge them to blend them).

If you do want to blend them a bit more, they are water soluble. The water picks up some of the pigment but leaves your original marks behind, they’re like watercolor pencils. 

Of course I had to try to draw some faces with them. Here’s a quick one. I don’t think they’re that good for drawing on their own because they’re so soft that it’s hard to be very accurate with them. But still an interesting look. 

Now, Gelatos! Gelatos come in packs of twelve and include a brush and two blending sponges. They come in metallics, pastels, or brights. I used brights because it was the most comparable to the Distress Crayons I used and also the colors are just so pretty! Here’s my gelato rainbow. 

I think these colors are brighter - I don’t even doubt that a few of them would glow under a blacklight. They blend together and almost create new colors as you use them. If Distress Crayons were like colored pencils in how you have to layer them, these are a lot more like paint or oil pastels. You can use the blending sponges to smudge them together for a really pretty smooth look. Or you can use your finger - I put that in for a comparison to the distress crayons. 

Gelatos are also water soluble. They’re similar to the distress crayons in how they act under water. I tested out some water on the right side here. 

I made a face with Gelatos too. I kind of liked using these better, I like how the colors blend. They’re definitely even harder to draw accurately with because they’re really wide though.

I took some more side by side pictures to show the differences more clearly. Here are a few squares in yellow and pink to show what I meant by how they blended differently:

Here’s both of them with water. I think they’re pretty similar in that aspect.

They both look fantastic on tinted paper too!

I have to say I like the Gelatos better because some of my favorite things to use in my art are bright colors and lots of smooth blending. I think Distress Crayons are also fun to use, and both of them have so many possibilities with how they can be used!

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