Prismacolor Premier Coloured Pencils  review

Article written: February 2016

Thick cores of color last long to bring bold statements to life, while soft leads make them the best tool to blend in or shade away. They’re vivid and intense in one stroke and subtle and soft in the next, making them perfect for any project, big or small. Smooth coverage and a wide array of colors to choose from make it easy to find a soft spot for these premium pencils.
Taken from the Prismacolor website - www.prismacolor.com

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Base: ​Wax based

Hard or soft lead:  Soft

Lightfast rating:  ATSM-6901

Costs: RRP £1.60 (ave)

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150 colour Box set

​Colours Available: 150
26 Greens, 23 Blues, 15 pinks, 15 purples, 13 yellows, 8 oranges, 6 reds, 19 greys,  16 browns, 1 black, 1 white,  3 metallics, 1 red/blue, 3 neon
(colour counts are estimated due to working from a colour chart, actual colours may vary)

Sets Available:
Open stock (Individually) In tins of 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 96, 132 or 150 colours

HISTORY
Prismacolor first began in 1938 and was known as the 'Eagle Pencil Company' which was then changed to Berol in 1969, the Newell Company merged with Berol in 1995 which made Berol a branch of the Sanford Corporation. Sanford UK is an amalgamation of 6 companies and sold the Karismacolor pencil which was the European version of the Prismacolor pencils, sadly Karisma pencils were discontinued in 2005. 

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ADVANTAGES
* Vibrant and strong colour application
* Soft pencils
* Great blendibility
* Relatively Cheap
* Large range of colours
* Extensively available in the US at great prices
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DISADVANTAGES
* Many colours have poor lightfast qualities
* Many complain of poor quality wood and breakages
   with complaints ongoing for at least 10 years
* High wax bloom
* Few UK suppliers for open stock or sets

Lightfast qualities

Before deciding on a Coloured pencil range knowing that I may end up spending a lot of money on something unsuitable I always run an online search first, especially to find out how lightfast the colours are and was saddened to see how many of the pencils have low lightfast ratings. ​​If you are creating professional pieces of Art especially for paying customers, using colours that have low lightfastness, it means those colours are likely to fade faster than hose with a top rating. You could use the most lightfast ones (I & II), leaving out the lower ones but that then leaves 84 out of 150, so why should you buy a full set? Well, you could create original pieces of art to only create prints from whilst hiding the original away somewhere well protected from sunlight, or maybe protect the finished Artwork by spraying with a Fixative with a UV filter (such as Loxley (UK) or Krylon (USA)) and then get it framed with Tru Vue glass (museum quality) which is expensive as the glass can be extremely costly, however it will help protect from premature fading.

Lightfast and colour charts:

The Lightfast Chart (135 colours only)

View the Prismacolor Premier pencils PDF sheet

Blenders & Burnishers - How to use them

How a sharpener can help your pencil techniques

Karismacolor pencils - Prismacolors' European pencil

Coloured pencil mini tutorial - How to layer

Colour tones available:

Any pencil range that offers a wide selection of pastel tones and a wide selection of brown and grey tones will always attract my interest as these are the colours I use the most. The beiges, peaches and pinks are great for skin tones and the larger a collection of browns and grey tones, the better. I am happy to see that the browns and greys offer the best lightfast qualities too which is particularly good for a Pet Artist as these tend to be the most used colours, however the worst lightfast culprits tend to be the Blues, purples & Pinks so do be aware before using these colours on large sections of a drawing on which the original will be sold on unless it is sufficiently protected with UV glass.
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Blendability & vibrancy

Prismacolor pencils are great for blending, possibly one of the best I have tried as they are so pliable. The image below shows how the colours blend into each other rather well, more so if using the Prismacolor blender, but also gives you an idea of the strength of the colour too. 

Colours blended together using the Prismacolor blender

Premier pencils packaging

My thoughts on these pencils:

​I decided to purchase a small tin of Prismacolor Premier after seeing so many people using them, many giving rave reviews and producing some amazingly vibrant and detailed pencil work. I personally love these pencils - they remind me of an Oil pencil (if ever there was such a thing, a little like those wax crayons I used as a kid) they are so thick and buttery and they blend wonderfully with the pigments being as vibrant as the 'leads' appear, my main issue is both with the poor lightfast qualities of many of the colours and ongoing quality issues which puts me off using them in any of my work. I shall keep an eye out for an improvement in these issues and if both improve, my Coloured pencil collection may just grow a little more because I really do love the wide range of colours they have.

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Negatives: brittleness and sharpening leads:

Amongst these reviews were many complaints though such as "the leads continuously break", "the wood is warped", "the 'lead' falls out the barrel of the casing" etc.etc. however, whilst trialling these pencils, I did not have any problems but I suspect if I used them on a daily basis needing to order open stock regularly, I may find some are prone to such problems. If you wish to read an in depth review regarding these issues, click the link:  Pencil Topics

​​Softer pencils are more likely to break by their very nature and you may find that it works better by sharpening to a shorter point rather than a longer one, as a longer lead can put on extra pressure, resulting in more breakages. Find out more about this by clicking the link below.

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Looking for a UK stockist? Worldwide shipping is available too - click here

A second UK stockist who sell sets and single colours in boxes of 12 - They also ship worldwide