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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BRANDS
I can’t tell you which is the BEST PENCIL.
That depends on what types of subject you prefer, what colours you are looking for, what paper you are going to use,
and what at the end of the day, is your own personal preference.
I can pinpoint how they differ, though, and guide you on how to approach the problem.
If you are a total beginner, I would suggest that you beg borrow or acquire from artist friends as many different coloured pencils as you can and test them out, side by side, on a suitably heavy but smooth cartridge paper. I will go into paper surfaces on another page, but the aim is to have a smooth surface to be able to get detail, but also a ‘tooth’ for the pencil to get a grip on the surface. Too smooth a paper ( Bristol Board ) gives detail, but you will get very little colour to adhere. Too rough a paper ( cold pressed watercolour paper) and you will get plenty of colour down but find it hard to achieve any detail.
Test the trial pencils side by side and note the name of the brand against each example on the paper.
Test them for handling -
How fine a line can they achieve and keep ?
How do they handle over a layer of another colour ?
How easily do they sharpen ?
Watercolour pencils -
Does the colour lift off the paper with a clean brush and pad of absorbent paper ?
Looking at the different types of pencil ...............
DRY POINT ( Non Soluble ) Pencils
The softest pencils are PRISMACOLOR, COLOURSOFT, and LUMINANCE
All three are wax based. Prismacolor has the largest colour range
Coloursoft is the most readily available, and Luminance is the most expensive ( and sometimes described as the ‘Rolls Royce of CP’)
The Prismacolor range has a number of unique colours and whilst most have a good stability in strong light
(see the notes on Lightfastness) the paler colours do have several which have a high liability to fading. Prismacolor did bring out a lightfast range in the USA which I have not seen, but I hear that they may well have been reduced in availability and there is a risk (as with any product that does not sell profitably) that the accountants may decide to withdraw them.
Coloursoft from Derwent have 72 colours with a fair spread which should accommodate most artists. As with most Derwent pencils, there is a good coverage of the natural shades. With plenty of reds, browns and greens but only a few blues
Luminance from Caran d’Ache have the benefit of softness from the wax carrier, and also lightfastness, so the risk of fading in strong light is greatly reduced. The colours have a good range of natural shades and several colours come in doublets and triplets with two or three shades of the same colour. The downside is the fact that although there are 76 colours in the full set, the actual unique range is much less. The white is excellent as it is both soft and opaque and will add those finishing touches very well, whatever the original pencil brand
Middle of the road in hardness but still top grade Artists quality pencils
POLYCHROMOS, PABLO, POLYCOLOR and VAN GOGH.
Polychromos are readily available in the UK from a wide variety of outlets and replacement of single pencils for those in sets is easy,
There are 120 colours with a strong field in reds yellows and oranges. Polychromos features 12 greys in the range.
They are a very satisfactory choice as not only is the colour range a tried and tested one, the individual pencils are readily available in the UK as single replacements to replace those in your set that are most used.
Pablo is similar in feel, still 120 colours, a greater variety of greens and browns and fewer reds etc.
Possibly slightly softer than Polychromos, they are an equally good choice for the buyer of a full set and although they can be dearer than the Faber Castell pencils, they are still competitive.
Polycolor and Van Gogh are good but not easily found and will therefore be more difficult to replace. The colour range in these last two is smaller. I see that Polycolor are now listed by Great Art on their website and are available as singles as well as in boxes.
That improvement in their availability makes them attractive as an option.
Many of the Polycolor colours are similar to the Faber Castell range, but the pencils are thinner, slightly softer and are less expensive
Van Gogh wax type pencils are hard to find, but very good and also lightfast to the USA standard ASTMS 96901
Bruynzeel are made by the same Dutch subsidiary of the Sakura Group as Van Gogh and are a good pencil.
Cretacolor also now market a wax type pencil in a small range that are good value
The hardest pencils come from Derwent in the STUDIO and ARTIST ranges.
Good colours, not all lightfast. A lot of botanical artists are fans.
Availability is patchy but if you have a local supplier, you may find the option acceptable
WATERCOLOUR ( Aquarelle ) Pencils
A bigger selection of manufacturers in this field but still only a short list of those who produce good quality pencils and have them readily available in stores and Mail Order Outlets.
Top of the tree come Derwent with INKTENSE and WATERCOLOUR, Caran d’Ache with SUPRACOLOR SOFT,
and Faber Castell with ALBRECHT DURER.
Inktense are the easiest to find, have vibrant colours that are permanent after wetting, but a smaller colour range than the other two.
I find the colours very strong and they need careful management and understanding.
Supracolor have 120 colours (the same colours as Pablo) and the majority have no colour shift when they are wet. They have a soft feel and work well as a dry point pencil too. The Supracolor box tends to be the one I reach for as the range is good and the pencils offer no surprises in use. For landscapes they offer the best colour range.
Albrecht Durer have 120 colours, have the nearest similarity to artists watercolours in the way they behave as wet colour and have a fairly dry touch to the paper. They are not to my own choice as I find them dry, but they do have some advantages for watercolourists who like to use colours that granulate or lift from the paper.
Derwent Watercolour pencils (the turquoise barrelled ones) have been reformulated. The old design had some very low lightfast colours had a medium hard core but had excellent handling qualities.
The new design ( Blue barrels ) was introduced in the Summer of 2009 and will start
to appear progressively in retailers and mail order outlets. They are softer in
feel than the old ones and include more lightfast pigments, but there have been complaints
about the cores being too soft for use in very hot conditions. If you are going
to use these in hot climates, a cold box is suggested -
I tested the new Derwent Watercolour range for a demonstration at last year’s ( 2009) NEC show and found them very workable.
They have much stronger colours than the older formula but the colour core is a little softer than I like and I found that whilst I got good colour down on the paper, the pencils were needing sharpening more often to keep a good point.
Other brands to consider .......
Lyra make an aquarelle and whilst these have not been easy to find, I see (2010)
that they are listed on the Great Art on-
Staedtler KARAT are excellent quality for the low price, have a hard feel, but take
a fine durable point and dissolve well. One or two of the darker colours have a substantial
colour shift when wet. Karat make a good pencil choice for beginners as -
I have a box of 60 Staedtler Karat Aquarelles that I use regularly for making up washes for underpainting, and if I am going away, the smaller box of 60 karat is the all purpose box I take rather than the 120 of another brand. They are capable of fine work, and they are not as permanent on the paper as Inktense, so corrections can be made by lifting off excess colour. The 60 colour range is good, and I use the 30 box for teaching courses and workshops.
Cretacolor Marino have appeared on the UK scene in the last year. They are sold as a boxed set and the range goes up to a set of 36 colours, which is adequate for those starting out. The pigments are reliable and there is little colour shift between dry and wet on the paper. They are lightfast to ASTMS 4303 ( the testing standard for material content ) so offer an excellent choice at a reasonable price. The Pigments are not excessively strong so what you put down on the paper is generally what you get when you have used a brush on the dry pigment ( a long way from the strength of pigment in the Derwent Inktense ). If you are looking to buy a starting out set and can find a Marino stockist with an acceptable price, then this is a good option.
NEOCOLOR 2 from Caran d’Ache and CRETACOLOR Monolith are very good for covering large surfaces as they are crayon style pencils with no wood. Of these, Neocolor 2 has by far the greater colour range
Of the other brands, I have not tested Daler Rowney watercolour pencils and have only seen sealed boxes in some shops.
I have not covered other Prismacolor brands or Bruynzeel pencils in detail here as they are not easily available in the UK.
I know that the Dutch Bruynzeel Fullcolor pencils are highly regarded and lightfast and that they are available in the USA and also in Europe, but I have not tried them myself. The Bruynzeel ‘Design’ range are easier to find in the UK on the Internet & are also a good pencil.
I have handled a brand imported from the Far East and marketed as ‘Fantasia’. I do not know the country of origin, but the pencils are of good student quality and sold at low prices. I think sales are mainly through stationers.
Own Branded coloured pencil products may seem a good buy, but outside those listed above, I wouldn’t recommend spending money on them
In addition, one more general factor needs to be taken into account.
If you are keen on art and looking for a brand that will support your requirements over a long period, it can pay to buy a good set to get the benefit of the full range and have the benefit of a box or tin for ease of access and storage. Check before you buy, though, on the availability and prices for single replacement pencils.
The most economical way to buy, if you are a specialist in one type of subject, is to get just the colours you need as single pencils.
I have a box of 120 Polychromos in three layers where the bottom layer of reds and yellows is hardly touched after five years.
The top layers of greens, blues and greys are now in their third or fourth life.
Latest revision January 2011
The big question ...
‘Which one should I buy’ is impossible to answer.
Like many questions, the reply is ... ‘It all depends.......’