The Humble Coloured Pencil

The Importance of Making the Right Choices

It is often said that good tool choices make a great craftsperson. As with all other media, that axiom is as true when learning how to draw with coloured pencils.  The selection of the right tools, in this case, your pencils of choice or the paper you will use can have a tremendous impact on the results of your efforts.

Coloured Pencils are probably the medium I struggled with a great deal when I started out, as information were few and the Internet hadn't a lot of information at that time. And yet, it became the medium I used predominantly within the 15 years I worked as a commercial illustrator before I turned to teaching.  That is why I emphasise in instructing my students on the tools available for this trade and provide information they need to make sound decisions when choosing the right pencils for their masterpieces.

Please note that my posts aren't sponsored by any companies and that all my reviews are fully independent. I buy my own materials for testing.

Differences Between Coloured Pencil Brands

As alluded to earlier, there are a vast array of popular manufacturers that produce colouring pencils today. So, how does one distinguish which one is best? Well, simplistically speaking, which brand you choose should depend on the purpose of your art project.

For instance, if you are just starting out with art classes, perhaps you should choose a students-grade pencil as opposed to an artists-grade one. The former usually contain lower quality concentrations of pigments compared to the latter; hence they are less costly on student budgets, but they will fade easier. Regardless of what your final choice is, here are some of the characteristics of the most popular brands of coloured pencils that you should be aware of.

Caran D'Ache Luminance

Colour Variety: 76
Type: soft wax
Techniques: layering (good), burnishing (perfect), coloured paper (perfect)
  1. These are one of my personal favourite and are wax-based colouring pencils. As such they provide a smooth feel while using them.
  2. Best for highest lightfastness (LF) rating: Lightfast ratings determine how quickly your masterpiece will deteriorate when exposed to light.  These pencils rank higher on the lightfast scale, which means you and others will enjoy your creative work for a long time to come!
  3. These pencils are excellent for both the layering and burnishing techniques.
  4. They are pencils that layer very smoothly yet produce strong colours. 

Holbein Artist's Coloured Pencils

Colour Variety: 150
Type: Mixture of oil, wax, fat and oils
Techniques: layering (great), burnishing (perfect), coloured paper (brilliant)
  1. It is only recently that I've tried these high grade pigmented artist quality Japanese Holbein brand, and it is already almost my favourite brand. 
  2. Made from a blend of wax, fats and oils, these pencils are classed as a soft oil coloured pencil. 
  3. Brilliant for coloured paper, with the whitest pencil I ever had in my hands. Even brighter than the Faber Castell Albrecht Durer white. Covers perfectly, yet allows applying thin layers as well.
  4. Highly waxy, these pencils are extremely suitable for the burnishing technique, but unlike most other brands are great for smooth layering at the same time. It is an utter joy to work with them. ​
  5. Single pencils are available but pricey. 

Faber Castell Albrecht Duerer Watercolour Pencils 

Colour Variety: 120
Type: water-soluble
Techniques: burnishing (perfect), layering (ordinary), coloured paper (perfect)
  1. These are produced from a wax-based formula, and when used correctly leave no traces of smudges, with markings dissolving with not much effort.
  2. Best for blending and shading: With the highest lightfastness ratings, this is a great choice for ​coloured pencil art classes focused on shading and blending.
  3. Vibrant colours: Considered as one of the highest quality in watercolour-based pencils, they come in vibrant colours that can be easily matched across their colour index.
  4. These pencils are brilliant for the burnishing technique but also satisfactory for layering.

Derwent Studio & Artist Coloured Pencils 

DERWENT STUDIO
Colour Variety: 72
Type: hard wax
Techniques: layering (brilliant), burnishing (not suitable), coloured paper (not suitable)

DERWENT ARTIST
Colour Variety: 120
Type: hard wax
Techniques: layering (brilliant), burnishing (not suitable), coloured paper (not suitable)
  1. Harder, hence much clearer detail: Since they are firmer in composition, they can be sharpened to a finer point, allowing you better control over fine detail. The hardness means you can apply more pressure without fear of the pencil crumbling on your drawings.
  2. Due to their solidity it is the perfect pencil for the finest and smoothest layering techniques but not befitting the burnishing technique.
  3. Not as bright as other brands: With most of the coloured pencils in this series carrying an LF rating of between 3 to 4 (earth colours are rated much higher), these are somewhat less bright than most other brands.   
  4. Many students are confused about the quality of the studio and artist pencils. Usually, student quality, means a lower grade than the artist brand, but in this case we are talking about "studio" quality. The studio pencils were initially created for graphic designers working on a slanted drawing table, but are not different in standard from the artist quality option.

Prismacolour Premier

Colour Variety: 150
Type: soft wax
Techniques: layering (not suitable), burnishing (perfect), coloured paper (perfect)
  1. Questionable lightfastness: While most of the colours in this series are lightfast and producing very bright, vibrant outputs; some of them aren’t too high on the LF-scale, making them a questionable choice.  If you are primarily fixated on LF-ratings, you should look at other Prismacolor products with higher LF numbers.
  2. Suitable for beginners & intermediates: These pencils are super soft, delivering a waxy finish like that produced by B-grade graphite pencils. If you are just a beginner, learning how to draw with colour pencils, then this might be the pencil of choice for you!
  3. These pencils are best for burnishing techniques and less suitable for extremely fine detail layering.

Faber Castell Polychromos

Colour Variety: 120
Type: Oil-based
Techniques: layering (perfect), burnishing (perfect), coloured paper (perfect)
  1. Suited for almost all colour pencil techniques: Part of the company’s artist-grade offering, these are oil-based and feature rounded coloured pencils made from high-quality cedar casings.
  2. Break - water - smudge proof: As oil-based pencils go, these produce an intense colour that offers great blending properties, even without the use of blenders. You also have excellent grey-scale choices and provide heavier warm tones like yellows and reds. They are durable, and less likely to break, either when sharpening or during transportation.

Born Artist Watercolour Pencils

Colour Variety: 12, 24, 36
Type: Likely to be wax based
Techniques: Layering (great), burnishing (great), coloured paper (good)
  1. You can use them as normal coloured pencils, despite that they are also for watercolour. 
  2. This is one of the cheaper alternative pencils for beginners and are suitable as a substitute for the more expensive Prismacolor pencils.
  3. The application is great for pencils of this price, bold colours but also suitable for layering. 
  4. They are not lightfast but are from an application point of view the best for its money.
  5. You have to work softly when blending, but with any of the many blending option tools they are working great. 

When being introduced to coloured pencil art classes, you’ll learn that there are two primary techniques for using these tools, layering and burnishing.

You first use your pencils to produce layers of primary colours so that you create your future masterpiece in various tones. Then, you either continue layering or start burnishing with further layers using lighter-coloured pencils or finish off with colour-less blenders. Your choice of pencils will, therefore, depend on what you intend to accomplish.

Great App for Coloured Pencils

The "Color Pencil Picker" is the newest and most beneficial app for any coloured pencil artists.  

No matter your subject, once you taken a photo of what you want to draw or use an existing image that you already have on your phone, the app can pick the exact colours you should use from the brand and amount of colour set you own.

At present you have the option of choosing from the following coloured pencil brands (The numbers represent the size of each pencil set):
  • Caran D'Ache Luminance 40, 48, 76  
  • Caran D'Ache Pablo 40, 80, 120
  • Caran D'Ache Supracolor 40, 80, 120 
  • Prismacolor 36, 48, 72, 132, 150
  • Faber Castel Classic 36, 48
  • Faber Castell Polychromos 36, 60, 72
  • Derwent Artist 36, 48, 72
  • Derwent Lightfast 36, 48, 72
  • Arteza Expert 48, 72, 120

Not only that, you also have the option to choose the number of pencils you have in your set. For example, for the brand Derwent Artist your choices are between the 36, 48, 72 or 120 pencil sets. 

There is a free and a pro version.  

Difference Between Oil & Wax Based Colour Pencils

Every coloured pencil is manufactured by mixing pigments and binding them, the better the quality the more pigment and less binder. To bind the pigments either was or oil is used and both have their pros and cons. ​

Let's have a look at the two main coloured pencil types:

Oil Based Pencils

Pros

  • More suitable for layering techniques than wax based pencils. 
  • More break resistant than wax based pencils. 
  • Great for layering techniques
  • Run down slower due to hardness of pencils

Cons

  • Colours are quite less intense than those with wax. 
  • They are harder to blend than wax based pencils. 
  • Oil-based pencils are less prevalent and may be harder to find at local art stores.
  • They are generally only produced as a premium line of pencil.
  • Oil-based pencils are a bit pricier than their waxy counterparts.

Wax Based Pencils

Pros

  • They are in often easier to blend. 
  • Richer in colour
  • Great for burnishing techniques

Cons

  • Prone to wax bloom, as whitish film that is produced by too much wax that rises to the surface. 
  • Break easier than oil based pencils.
  • Run down much faster than oil based pencils.  

Making the Right Choices

Choose Caran D'ache coloured pencils if you value the ability to blend and also burnish your work in brilliant hues. Faber-Castell Polychromos is a fabulous choice if you are looking to create works of art with vibrant pigments; or if your end results requires richness of saturated tones.

If you are a complete beginner, then drawing with pencils from Derwent or Prismacolour Premier might be your choice. And for those of you that are just wanting to try them out or use them for relaxation playing with colouring books may want to give the Prismacolor Premier a try, as they are also light on the budget. But the cheapest choice is from Born Watercolour Pencils available at Officeworks. 

Art Classes are brilliant for learning how to draw with coloured pencils because you will learn so many shortcuts which have a tremendous impact on coloured pencils drawings and because a good curriculum provides students with a very firm grounding of the basics. As a result, and I am thrilled seeing my students flourish and overcome the most common mistakes and addressing colour pencil projects more professionally as sufficiently.

History of the Humble Coloured Pencil

While the traditional black graphite-based lead pencil was produced in 1564 with the discovery of graphite in England, historians believe that it was not until the 19th century that pencils with colouring properties were available. However, archaeological evidence shows that waxed-based colouring was popular even before then, amongst the ancient Greek and Roman civilisations. ​

It was in 1834 that German entrepreneur and inventor Johann Sebastian Staedtler came up with his first oil pastel-based coloured pencils. Seeing how well liked these unique drawing tools were, others soon jumped into the business of producing colouring pencils, including the (now famous) Faber-Castell family, who rolled out the very first set of colouring pencils specifically for artists in 1924. Today, brands like Caran d”Ache, Progresso, Derwent and Lyra Rembrandt are popular amongst teachers and students at pencil-based art classes and studios across the world. 

Today we have three types of coloured pencils available to us, wax-based, oil-based and water-soluble. Both wax and oil based coloured pencils are almost identical in their application, except for the wax bloom that is caused by wax rising to the surface when laden layers of pencil have been administered. Those layers can be easily removed with some fine tissue.