A list of coloured pencil brands | Compare and contrast
An article will follow about these pencils
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Arteza coloured pencils
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Karen's personal opinion:
A nice set of pencils, ideal for kids and students or those starting out with coloured pencils as a medium. An article will follow on these pencils where I will spend more time trialling these pencils and will update this section in time.
A nice set of pencils, ideal for kids and students or those starting out with coloured pencils as a medium. An article will follow on these pencils where I will spend more time trialling these pencils and will update this section in time.
Click to read our article
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Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils
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Karen's personal opinion:
My personal choice of coloured pencils. Having tried a few popular brands in the last few years, the Luminance pencils are the only brand that allows me to apply layer after layer, light over dark without becoming saturated too quickly. They are soft enough to create smooth transitions for tonal backgrounds and ideal for portraits when creating skin tones as well as being hard enough to create fine lines in hair & fur. Being primarily a pet portrait artist, the Luminance pencil range has a wide choice of neutral colours perfect for most portraits whilst offering a good range of greens & blues for landscape in backgrounds seemingly the 100 colours in the range may have been chosen to minimise unnecessary colours.
My personal choice of coloured pencils. Having tried a few popular brands in the last few years, the Luminance pencils are the only brand that allows me to apply layer after layer, light over dark without becoming saturated too quickly. They are soft enough to create smooth transitions for tonal backgrounds and ideal for portraits when creating skin tones as well as being hard enough to create fine lines in hair & fur. Being primarily a pet portrait artist, the Luminance pencil range has a wide choice of neutral colours perfect for most portraits whilst offering a good range of greens & blues for landscape in backgrounds seemingly the 100 colours in the range may have been chosen to minimise unnecessary colours.
Click the image to read the Museum Aquarelle pencils article
View colour chart (Link to follow)
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Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils
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Karen's personal opinion:
Information to follow...
Information to follow...
A Chromaflow article will follow
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Derwent Chromaflow pencils
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Karen's personal opinion:
I have mixed feelings about these pencils. They feel more of a student quality and are quite expensive for this reason. They are currently priced at £1.80 per pencil, but I feel they should be more £1.20-£1.40 pp. They have thin barrels like the Lyra and Prismacolor brands, unlike most other Derwent pencils. The wood seems to be of lower quality than their other ranges and the application is dry and not as strong or vibrant. Some of the colours, and pigments, match those in the Derwent Lightfast range, but the Chromaflow offer a more diverse tonal palette, with lighter colours that are not found in the Lightfast range (this is due to poor lightfast qualities in some paler pigments). The Chromaflow pencils could be used where colours are limited in the Lightfast, widening the colour palette, however, some of the colours have poor lightfast ratings.
I have mixed feelings about these pencils. They feel more of a student quality and are quite expensive for this reason. They are currently priced at £1.80 per pencil, but I feel they should be more £1.20-£1.40 pp. They have thin barrels like the Lyra and Prismacolor brands, unlike most other Derwent pencils. The wood seems to be of lower quality than their other ranges and the application is dry and not as strong or vibrant. Some of the colours, and pigments, match those in the Derwent Lightfast range, but the Chromaflow offer a more diverse tonal palette, with lighter colours that are not found in the Lightfast range (this is due to poor lightfast qualities in some paler pigments). The Chromaflow pencils could be used where colours are limited in the Lightfast, widening the colour palette, however, some of the colours have poor lightfast ratings.
Click the image above to view the Coloursoft article
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Derwent Coloursoft pencils
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Karen's personal opinion:
When my favoured coloured pencil range Karisma was discontinued I tried the Derwent's Coloursoft range having heard others say they were very similar and since then I have used them as my secondary pencil range. Having soft leads, they blend particularly well especially for base tone applications and can achieve smooth transitions. The main problem with this range sadly is the poor lightfast rating on some of the colours such as the pinks, purples and the blues, which is the reason I tend to use them as undertones and cut down the wastage on my Caran Dache Luminance pencils.
When my favoured coloured pencil range Karisma was discontinued I tried the Derwent's Coloursoft range having heard others say they were very similar and since then I have used them as my secondary pencil range. Having soft leads, they blend particularly well especially for base tone applications and can achieve smooth transitions. The main problem with this range sadly is the poor lightfast rating on some of the colours such as the pinks, purples and the blues, which is the reason I tend to use them as undertones and cut down the wastage on my Caran Dache Luminance pencils.
