I was asked about oil paints the other day. Unfortunately for oil paints, I have only a few products to mention, and not a vast variety.
In 2022, Faber Castell’s Creative Studio oil paints set and Faber Castell’s tempera oil paints were free of animal derivatives.
In September 2023, I received the information that Caran d’Aches’ entire Neopastel line was free of animal derivatives.
Faber Castell Compendium entry
I was asked for advice about the differences of Luminance and Polychromos coloured pencils. First of all, I would like to say, if you have the chance to try both out, do it and see what fits your needs best.
They have both great lightfastness, the Polychromos range is bigger with 120 pencils. The Polychromos are a harder coloured pencil and they are oil based. The Luminance coloured pencils are wax based, of a creamy consistancy. You also have to check for exceptions with the Luminance range, not all are free of animal derivatives ( exceptions ).
Generally, what I found was:
for Luminance (Caran d’Ache):
for Polychromos (Faber-Castell):
Luminance and Polychromos apply both well on top of watercolour, with gentle touch on top of gouache (with more pressure the gouache gets grated off) and on top of matte acrylics.
It is truly up to your own preference, what colour shades you need and the purpose you need them for. I use both.
For pencil dust removal, I mostly use a vegan baby kabuki make-up brush , which is great to get the pencil dust off of small areas. For larger areas I use a brush with handle, which is called “Zeichenbesen” in German. It looks like the brush you use with a dustpan (or a short handled toothbrush). If you dust with your hand, you risk smudging.
Another option are the watercolour pencil ranges (Albrecht Dürer and Supracolour Soft are my examples), which apply creamier compared to e.g. the Polychromos.
You find my latest Caran d’Ache blog post here ; and my compendium entry. Remember, not all Luminance coloured pencils are free of animal derivatives, there are exceptions.
My latest blog post about Faber-Castell is over here , and there is also my compendium entry.
Hello everyone,
I was approached by a reader that Faber-Castell was selling a pen to mark meat and cattle/animals for the meat market.
I contacted Faber-Castell and they answered that they no longer produce said meat marking pen.
I do not know for how long they sold this pen and when they discontinued it.
The reader also raised the concern that if a company sells such a pen it can’t be called cruelty-free.
Please see my next blog post about the term “cruelty-free”. It can be interpreted in a variety of ways, which I will explain more.
Here you find my other latest “cruelty-free topic” post. “Cruelty-free” in its mainly used meaning as “free of animal testing” and its different levels.
Source: mail contact
Yesterday, I received an update from Faber-Castell. They sent me two statements to publish here: the English Version and a German Version for you to read. According to those, the vast majority of products is free of animal derivatives.
They are still a cruelty-free company on all levels. They do not test on animals nor commission it by other parties.
I did reach out to them again today, to double check once more that all of the products previously listed in my February 2022 update are still free of animal derivatives and I also asked about the Fude Pens, which I forgot to ask about in December.
my Faber-Castell entry in the Compendium
Faber-Castell Vegan Statement 2022
Faber-Castell Vegan Bescheinigung 2022
Source: Mail contact
Dec 24th, 2022 : Faber-Castell product update enquiry sent out
I sent out a product update enquiry to Faber-Castell, about the new Pitt Artist Dual Marker pens and whether the information of all the other products listed in my compendium is still accurate. My last update was February 2022.
Following new Faber-Castell products are free of animal derivatives – including the manufacturing process:
The material used for all brush hair is nylon.
Faber-Castell is a cruelty-free company on all levels; they do not test on animals, neither commission other parties to do so; the raw material chain is free of animal testing
They would like you to know, that animal testing for art-, writing- and drawing materials/ supplies is banned in Europe.
No animal based raw materials are ever used as auxiliary supplies/ additives in Faber-Castell’s entire production.
source: mail contact
Hello everyone,
in the last two days I looked into four companies concerning paper products;
I wrote to:
You will find the 2017 information in this post or in the compendium.
Unfortunately, I have nothing new to report from my Mid-November enquiries, I have yet to receive replies from Faber-Castell (concerning new products), Etchr, Léonard and da Vinci/ Defet.
Hello there,
I have sent out more enquiries to companies, concerning updating their profile on here;because they brought out new products . There are also companies I have written to for the first time.
Here is the lot of them:
You find a list of Faber-Castell’s products here.
I think those are all at the moment that I’ve written.
Although I am working my way through updating all my entries (please bear in mind that if I didn’t attach any date to an entry in the compendium, the information could reach back as far as 2017), I am open to hearing from you any companies you want me to write to. I’ll put them first. I know what time of year it is and if you are looking present-wise for your wishlist or someone else, or just because you need to let out your creativity, tell me about the company (maybe mention what product range as well, if they offer many); of course we need also to factor in the time it can take a company to reply. So the sooner, the better.
You reach me here mail@veganartstuff.info
Uni Mitsubishi (Signo gel pens) and Pilot did choose not to disclose information about their products and companies (information on Uni : 2017; newest information on Pilot: 2021)
Faber-Castell is a distributor for Uni Ball and informed me (April 2021) that all the Uni Ball products they distribute, are free of animal derivatives; however, this concerns only the materials not Uni’s status (concerning the cruelty-free topic);
Speaking of Faber-Castell, these might work for you:
Those are just examples (information from 2021); of course you can use any gouache or acylic paint (or pens, pastels, …) free of animal ingredients; my other brand informations on e.g. Culture Hustle (Stuart Semple), Liquitex , Golden Paints, Qor Watercolors and others are older (2017, 2018) , but you might want to look into them.
It depends also on what surface and other medium you are working with. I for example used gelatos in the past on canvas and like Pitt pastel pencils over watercolour and alcohol marker.
The broadpen,Faber-Castell ink and their synthetic brush range are products newly added to my Faber-Castell list of vegan-friendly products.
Here is the list of vegan-friendly products by Faber-Castell:
All Faber-Castell coloured pencil ranges are vegan-friendly.
Find Faber-Castell in the compendium.
Source: Mail contact