I would like to introduce Stan. He is a beginning drawer who works in coloured pencil and pen and ink. He will be taking us on his journey with him as he learns about materials and improves his technique. Look for a series of posts over the coming months. Thanks for sharing with us Stan!
As something of a novice in the area of coloured pencil drawing, I didn’t want to start out with the most expensive pencils going in case it turned out this is not the medium for me.
I have recently been widening my repertoire of materials to see what else is out there, what different tools and materials are good for and, of course, if they are worth the cost!
Over the course of a few posts I will be looking at pencils, papers, tools and books that are out there but today I will start with the obvious – the pencils themselves.
My starting point was a pack of generic stationery shop coloured pencils – what I believe is commonly called “student grade”. A pack of about 20 colours can be picked up for less than a fiver and pretty much “do the job” in terms of having a scribble and seeing what effects can be achieved.
Having played around with these for long enough and wondering, mostly out of curiousity what the difference is between student grade and something well, in a tin.
I started with Faber Castell Polychromos and then indulged both my hankering for the smell of wood and curiousity with a set of Luminance pencils.
Polychromos and Luminance pencils
For the sake of argument – please assume that I was working entirely on basic white marker paper. I chose marker paper as a starting point because I tend to combine pen and ink with coloured pencil (more on this to follow). Yes I’m sure there are purists out there reading this who will clench at the thought of using Luminance pencils on marker paper, but I think this is a good way to carry out a fair comparison of pencils. (Editor’s note: this paper is very smooth and is not usually used for coloured pencil techniques where the artist often wants a bit of tooth on the paper. Stan has used this paper for his ink drawing before so is using it now when he combines the two mediums. I understand he will be doing a paper comparison/review in the future.)
The most noticeable differences between the pencils is basically the softness of the lead. I assume this is because there is more pigment and less binder. The softness affects every aspect of the drawing process.
Shading
Where the softness factor comes into things most obviously is when trying to shade slightly larger areas. In my experience, shading with student grade coloured pencils creates a less consistent effect. There are more obvious lines in the shaded area and more variations of pressure evident in the shaded area no matter how careful you are. This is slightly less noticeable with the Faber Castell but when I tried it with the Luminance brand it was really very evident. Now this could be down to my technique but if someone as untrained as my good self can clearly see a difference then others may also.
Blending
Blending can be done with other pencils, card sticks (stumps or tortillions), a special blending pencil or (at a push) your finger. I think this is another post but certainly, the further you move up the pencil quality ladder, the easier it becomes to blend. Perhaps it’s because there is more colour on the page, perhaps because it is softer there is more product there to blend. Perhaps (as above) the colour sits on the paper instead of being pushed into it by some of the harder student grade pencils.
Burnishing
When using a burnisher (and again more on this to come), I have found that the colours are a lot brighter with the higher quality pencils. This was particularly obvious to me with the Luminance pencils. Using a burnisher on student-grade pencils seems to have little effect but with the Faber-Castells or the Luminance the colour really becomes richer and more vibrant. Perhaps, as suggested above, this is because of the amount of pigment in the pencils.
Mix and match
The thing about pencils rather than paints is, rather obviously, you can’t mix them. Yes you can layer and combine but colours tend to lay on top of each other rather than truly blending. For this reason, I don’t think that I would choose one brand and stick to it. One box of Luminance, as beautiful as it is, does not contain every colour you could ever need. And the idea of buying all of the colours they make sends off alarms in my bank managers office. Therefore I have found that I like to use a range of colours from both professional and student grades.
Sometimes hard lead is good
This is not just for colours though. In some cases a harder pencil is just what you need. The downside of softer pencils is that sometimes they are harder to control and if you are trying to keep within certain lines then its easier to use a harder pencil with a finer tip than mop up afterwards with putty rubber. (Editor’s note: remember to sharpen your pencils often, even a soft pencil should be able to have a fine point and accurate mark.)
There may also be artist quality pencils out there that are harder than the likes of Luminance so I shall have a hunt around and see what I can find for future posts.
Of course all of these pencils produce different effects depending on the types of paper you are working on. More to come on this in a future post.
-Scribbly Stan
Hello Stan,
Welcome to the world of coloured pencils. I’ve been hooked on them for years and know you have a lot of fun ahead
Like yourself, I do use other brands to give a broader colour range, but having tried all others, I do have a favourite. Most professional and serious CP artists around the world would agree that the American brand Prismacolor best suits their needs and I recommend that you try them too.
The only problem is that it’s not possible to buy them in the UK. I buy all my other art goods via Jacksons, but have to order my Prismacolors from the US and wish I knew why they’re not for sale over here as I really haven’t found that other brands are quite as good.
Looking forward to reading more about your adventures with this wonderful medium. Will we be seeing some of your drawings soon?
Regards,
Tanigeu
Hi Tanigeu
Some of the CP artists I have spoken with have let me know that the Luminance pencils are very similar to the Prismacolor. The European make of Prismacolor that was discontinued was Karisma and I understood that Derwent Coloursoft was supposed to be similar to them. It sounds like you haven’t found this to be true. My personal experience with coloured pencils is limited so although I have used both the Prismacolor and the Polychromos in the past, it is not my medium so I could use more information. May I ask what you mean by “not as good”?
Thanks,
Julie
Hi Tani,
Yes I have been told that Prismacolors are great by some american artists online – I’ll have to find some next time I’m over there!
I would love to compare them to the Luminance which are probably my favourites so far for softer pencils.
Julie – re:sharpening yes I am very guilty of not sharpening enough, particularly with the Luminance I think because they are so expensive I’m afraid to use them up too quickly by over-sharpening! I need to find a way to save the lead shavings and use them in a different project
Hi Stan,
I think your pencils will last you a lot longer that you think. When you do need to replace your most-used colours you will not be buying a whole set but rather just a few pencils, which will not be as costly.
If you are at all serious about using your shavings (the grated colour part, not the wood) you can create speckled/textured areas in a painting by grating watercolour pencil onto wet paper and you can dip a regular oil-based coloured pencil into a solvent so it will smear, so you might want to experiment will sprinkling your crumbs onto a solvent and painting with them? Anyone else have any suggestions?
You can get Prismacolors in the UK from a website called 1buy1pencils. Their prices are very reasonable. I do think you should give them a go.
Hi Adrienne,
Thanks for letting people know.
We are waiting to hear back from Prismacolor at the moment, as we are interested in importing them ourselves.
At the risk of upsetting Jackson’s if you want to try Prismacolor pencils one UK source is online only at www. 1buy1pencils.co.uk. They offer a very good service. When you get round to trying different papers look at Stonehenge and Fabriano Classico 5 – both of which are stocked by Jacksons and are highly recommended. I also recommend that you look at the UK Coloured Pencil Society website. http://www.ukcps.co.uk.
Thanks for considering our feelings Roy!
We are looking into importing the Prismacolor ourselves, we have been considering it for a long time. They are the first coloured pencils I ever used many years ago.
-Julie
@Julie – yes I wasnt thinking of recycling the wood! but I’m sure I’ll find a way to use the pigment again.
@Roy – Yes I think Stonehenge is my current favourite paper – good call!
There is a major problem with Prismacolors which many coloured pencil artists can attest to and that is they have a tendency to break all the time. It leads to people favouring other brands over time. In the main they tend to be preferred by American artists however they very often don’t have access to the wide choice of quality brands available in Europe.
You can see an overview of different brands and links to various reviews on my resource site Coloured Pencils – Resources for Artists. You can also check out my polls to see which brands are most favoured by artists (but bear in mind my caveat about access and availability).
My principle advice to anybody new to coloured pencils is to try ALL the different brands. Different brands suit different people. Speaking personally I favour some brands for a few colours while mainly using others.
However the one truism which always holds good is that they are only as good as the paper or support you use them on. If you use cheap paper you won’t ever see the full range and quality of any artist’s pencil you use. paper is absolutely critical to a good result.
One final point – it’s absolutely not true that you can’t mix colours in coloured pencils All my artwork relies on optical mixing – but it does depend on how you work.
Hi Katherine!
I have noticed something about the Prismacolor that gives me pause. They have a newer range out called Prismacolor Lightfast. Does this mean their regular pencils, the Prismacolor Premier, are not lightfast? Do you know?
Thanks,
Julie
Hi Katherine,
Thanks for the advice. I am trying all brands and all papers – I was merely keeping the paper as a constant to compare three different types of pencil for the sake of this post. As with all blogs posts this was never meant to be a definitive recommendation – just my opinion as a beginner.
Perhaps you should guest post for the blog? I’m sure we’d all like to hear more from you!
Stan
Your being a beginner is just what is interesting about your sharing Stan. As you figure things out and try new materials and methods you may help other beginners and generate discussions like the one here on pencils. (Don’t worry, I will poke my nose in if you go horribly wrong!)
For those who have been there and done that it might be a nostalgic memory of when they were first trying things out and everything was something new to learn and there were so many exciting possibilities.
What will you be writing about next?
(ps. as I don’t work for Jacksons I probably shouldnt have suggested that!!!)
Sounds great to me!
What do you think Katherine?
Julie – on the guest blogging thing – I’d be delighted. Maybe I should come and pay you a visit as I live not too far away – in the East End of London where there are more artists per square mile than anywhere else in the UK!
On the issue of the Prismacolour Lightfastness – try finding any mention of them on their new website!
I’ve got a copy of the CPSA Lightfastness workbook which I highly recommend to all those serious about their coloured pencils. It’s certainly the case that a number of the Prismacolor pencils are not lightfast. In fact I saw Rhonda Fafans orginal blue wool test cards when I was at the CPSA Conference in Albuquerque in 2006 and I was horrified by some of the colours!
It need to be emphasised that the same can be said for some other brands as well.
The ones which we know are better at resisting the impact of light over time are those which have submitted their pencils to the ASTM tests. Of those that are available on the market the only ones which have done this are Talens Van Gogh and Caran d”Ache Luminance – both of which I like a lot. If Prismacolour is still marketing its pencils as lightfast tested then it would also include these – but they seem to have disappeared.
Hi Katherine
i have been away for a conference and then a family emergency. I thought I would be able to check on things from here but wasn’t able to before now.
So apologies for a late response.
I will email you next week about a guest post, that would be really great.
Lightfastness is a concern for all artists and that is one of the reasons why people upgrade to artists’ quality materials even though they are more expensive.
It does sound like a serious cp artist would want to have a copy of the workbook. Thanks for telling us about it.
-Julie
“Most professional and serious CP artists around the world would agree that the American brand Prismacolor best suits their needs”
Sorry Tani – this just isn’t true. Though some prefer them, it’s down to the individual artist and I’d say the majority don’t consider them to be the best of the best. I’d say Polychromos or Luminance are generally considered better – although Prismacolor isn’t bad by any means.
A lot of American artists are biased towards Prismacolors because European brands aren’t readily available over there, but if you’re in Europe and can’t get hold of Prismas that easily, don’t worry. You aren’t really missing out – try them if you can find them but don’t sweat over it. In my opinion they’re too smudgy and break too easily to be workable.
Choosing coloured pencils is a bit like dating – you have to try a lot and potentially spend a lot of time and money before you find ‘the one’ brand that’s best suited to you as an artist.
Hi Anna
I have been hearing the same thing from a number of experienced coloured pencil artists recently. I had wonderied why Prismacolour was so often recommended when I also hear that they are brittle and not lightfast. It makes sense that when you don’t have access to the European brands like Polychromos and Luminence that you would go with the best you have access to.
What you have said about trying a variety is also true of other art materials. For instance- I have tried most oil and acrylic paints out there and now know what works best for me. You have to find out what is suited to the way you work and the look you are after.
Thanks,
Julie
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