Derwent Lightfast | An oil-based 100% lightfast coloured pencil

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​The revolutionary core is resistant to prolonged colour change ensuring artwork will not fade for 100 years under museum conditions. This premium range of oil-based pencils offers an incredible range of rich, vibrant colours

​Features

• 100% lightfast, all colours are superior quality and comply with ASTM D6901 and Blue Wool Scale ISO 105
• Revolutionary oil-based core creates a buttery, velvety texture allowing colours to mix and blend
• Rich, vibrant colours that deliver a rapid and opaque laydown
• Colours can be mixed on the page to create a paint-like effect
• Strong point for detailed drawing and layering techniques

CHARACTERISTICS

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Base: ​ Oil Based*

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Hard or Soft lead:  MEDIUM

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CORE SIZE:  4mm

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Lightfast rating:  ASTM-6901 & Blue Wool ISO 105

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Costs: RRP £3.60

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No. of colours: 100

* The Lightfast pencils are a unique blend of oils and waxes. They are not 100% oil-based but are an oilier blend, so can be classed as an oil-based pencil.

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ADVANTAGES
* Highly rich pigmentation
* Vegan friendly
* Made with a unique blend of oils & waxes
* Compatible with other Derwent pencil ranges
​* The light pastel colours can help extend your colour palette
* Can be used with oil mediums & solvents​

DISADVANTAGES
* Softer than most oil-based pencils, so likely to wear as wax pencils.
​* Personally find the need to sharpen more often due to softness
* Can be prone to breakages due to the softer lead
* Lack of lighter colour tones, particularly in the blues and greens
* Some of the pigments are similar
* Expensive

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Caring for your pencils (adapt this to fit these pencils)

• Avoid dropping your pencils onto a hard surface. Put them somewhere safe, where they cannot roll onto the floor.
• To avoid damaging the leads. Store your pencils safely when not in use. Placing them in a pencil wrap or a pencil chest, will help to protect them. 
• Damaged wax leads? Do not place them in the microwave, instead put them in the sun for a short while, to help soften the wax.
• During use, place your pencils in a jar, with the tips pointing up. Your pencils are safer when contained this way, rather than placing them on your desk, where they could roll onto the floor.

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Derwent: " Professional Quality Artist’s Pencils: Oil-based, smooth and creamy with a beautiful laydown of rich colour; the thick, superior core gives dense colour application which brings vibrancy to any drawing "

• Revolutionary oil-based core creates a buttery, velvety texture allowing colours to mix and blend​
• Rich, vibrant colours that deliver a rapid and opaque laydown

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TO COMPLETE THIS SECTION. REPLACE THE TOUCAN WITH THE FINISHED DRAWING.

The colour application is highly opaque. You only need to lightly touch the paper to add pigment, which blends together beautifully with the Derwent blender. The core measures 4mm, which is broad enough to offer good support, especially if you are applying a heavier pressure. These pencils are not as firm as the Procolour range, though, so care must be taken not to apply too much pressure as they can break or crumble.

Application and blending

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Derwent claim: " Derwent Lightfast Coloured Pencils: Premium quality, fade-resistant colouring pencils in a range of bold shades; ideal for professional artists and hobbyists who exhibit their work. "

• Colours can be mixed on the page to create a paint-like effect
• Strong point for detailed drawing and layering techniques

​" Are the colours the same as other Derwent pencil ranges? "

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​The Lightfast range is based on the same hues within the other Derwent ranges however due to the amount of pigment in the Lightfast range the chroma is far richer and the colours will appear deeper than other colours with the same names in the other ranges.

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Many coloured pencil artists, use more than one pencil brand. The Derwent Lightfast providing a large range of earthy shades, they sadly lack in lighter shades. In this instance, a second range such as Derwent Chromaflow, Caran d'Ache Luminance or even Prismacolor Premier pencils. ​The Derwent Lightfast pencils are classed as an oil based pencil, however, they also have wax in them too and resemble the Caran d'Ache Luminance range. Having a softer core means they will wear down easier than most other oil based pencils, as they tend to be firmer. On the positive side, this softness allows them to blend easier and hard edges are less noticeable.

Keel-billed Toucan

Using the Derwent Lightfast pencils on a paper with a tooth is recommended. You only need to apply a light dusting due to the high pigment content, and the tooth of a paper helps to facilitate blending.  Apply in circular movements during blending, which helps to fill the tooth of the paper and achieve a smooth finish. To extend the colour palette, use the pastel hues to lighten other shades. These can also be used to burnish sections of your drawing, particularly where you need to create transitions. 
The Strathmore Bristol Vellum was used for this pencil sketch. 

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Can bloom occur with Derwent Lightfast pencils?
Bloom can still occur on oil-based pencils due to the melting point and humidity. The best way to combat ‘bloom’ is to wipe away with a soft tissue and lightly spray with a fixative designed for coloured pencil use. Working in a non-humid environment will always prevent bloom.​
​Taken directly from the derwentart.com Q & A section.

VIDEOS SHOWCASING THE DERWENT LIGHTFAST PENCILS

It is always interesting to watch an artist at work and this short video, taken from Derwent's You Tube channel, shows one of their Brand Ambassadors Jake Spicer, as he reviews the full Lightfast range. 

DERWENT LIGHTFAST AND SOLVENTS

EXTEND THIS AREA USING WE INSTEAD OF I.
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​Q.  Can Derwent Lightfast pencils be used with oil mediums?
A.   Derwent states: "As an oil based pencil they can be mixed and thinned on the page with a solvent based medium just as with oil paints. We would recommend non-toxic solvents like Zest-it" 

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​Q. Can Derwent Lightfast pencils be mixed with water?
A. No, Derwent Lightfast pencils are not water-soluble so cannot be mixed with water. As an oil-based pencil they can be mixed and thinned on the page with a solvent based medium just as with oil paints.

For those who may not have used a solvent to blend coloured pencils before, the Zest-it pencil blend is a non-toxic, non-flammable, archival solvent, which is ideal for use on watercolour surfaces.   
The canvas used for this drawing of a Double collared Sunbird on Pomegranate, is the Ampersand Pastelbord. It too is archival, but as the surface is not porous like a watercolour paper,  it was begun as a complete trial, unsure if it would work or not. 

These pencils have soft leads and need very little pressure to achieve strong pigmentation on a textured surface like this, all the colours were applied to the area before the solvent was applied. With a cotton bud,  into the zest-it solution and softening the pigment. I blended using circular motions to ensure the surface was fully covered. I left it to dry and then applied dry pencils over the top to create the finer detail. 

This drawing was created using both Derwent Lightfast coloured pencils and the Caran d'Ache Luminance range because they compliment each other well. Each range has different colour palettes that the other did not especially the Lightfast greens and blues having more of the darker tones whilst the Luminance has more lighter colours.

Additionally, I also tried the Zest-it 'pencil blend' over the blended skin tones just to see it it made a difference. Although the pencils achieved a nice blend without the solvent, the zest-it blend softened it even further helping to create smoother transitions. The grey tone you see in the image above is the 'Cloud Grey' pencil (the metallic shade) which did not blend well at all and I would personally suggest that this colour is used for subjects that require a metallic finish and not to create shadows as I tried here because it just does not work well, hence the reason I posed the question to Derwent.

An in-depth look at the colour palette

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The pigments in these pencils are very rich. The laydown is good and the pigments are opaque. There are 100 colours, which are all lightfast, but there is a downside to this range, and that is that they lack a broad colour palette. The colours mostly offered up are earthy tones, these tend to be the most lightfast colours even in cheap brands. These tend to lean towards the warm palette, with very few leaning towards a cool one. Other brands such as Caran d'Ache and Faber Castell both have lightfast ranges which provide a wide colour palette, so this does provide a bit of an obstacle for the Lightfast range. It would be useful if Derwent was able to extend the range, introducing some lighter colours, so there is more choice.

There are a few pigments from this collection  that offer up the same colours in other ranges like Chromaflow, Drawing and Procolour, however this is not limited to Derwent, as many other companies do this also between different ranges. The grey palette is very limited, with 7 out of 9 colours being very pale with no dark tones at all. The colour Cloud grey is actually a metallic grey. There are three oranges out of 100 colours and the pinks that are available are mostly pale. There are also some colours that look almost identical, which seems somewhat wasteful.  In the brown collection, the Sandstone, Persian Orange and Burnt Sienna are very similar & in the blue collection, the Dark Turquoise and Pacific Blue could easily be mistaken for the other. In the greens, the Pine and Racing Green also very closely resemble each other. 

" The colour range was carefully put together based on our knowledge of lightfast pigments, while trying to maintain a balance throughout the colour spectrum. Unfortunately, some colours in the spectrum are known to have poor lightfastness, so we had to leave those out.  We created a range of blues that covered most parts of the spectrum. We wanted to include light tones, mid tones and darker tones. We also looked to include different shades of blue, ranging from redder shades to the greener shades. Also, 100% lightfast pale hues are very difficult to achieve, hence there are fewer.  When we looked at the Luminance range, we found it to be very unbalanced and obviously put together due to the colours they could make lightfast. "

Hues: L-R Oyster, Salmon, Light Aqua, Champagne, Wheat, Flesh Pink, Arctic

" The paler tones we do have (Arctic, Oyster, etc), can be used on their own for shading or adding subtle tints. They can also be used to lighten other tones by blending them together. "

There are six pale hues that can be used to extend the colour palette, but not all colours mix equally, and it would be easier to have more light colours, rather than trying to mix and match a colour or hue.

The 'Cloud grey' pencil has a distinct sheen to it, which does not blend well at all. For this reason, we do not recommend that you use it for shading or contrasts, rather that you use where a metallic finish is required. We posed the question to Derwent about the inclusion of this shade, asking why it was not named as a 'silver' or 'metallic' tone. They replied:

" Cloud grey was based on a colour of the same name from our Graphitint range. We didn’t want to call the strip Silver as it is a lot darker "

Finally, the Lightfast range include 3 blacks in their palette with the Midnight black offering a blue undertone, Mars black, a brown undertone and the Black being the standard black which is very rich. I think this was a great idea by Derwent.

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Lightfast information and colour chart

Derwent: " 100% Lightfast Coloured Pencils: Unique coloured core combats the effects of UV-rays to maintain colours, ensuring artwork will not fade for up to 100 years, under museum conditions "

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• 100% lightfast, all colours are superior quality and comply with ASTM D6901 and Blue Wool Scale ISO 105

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Are all the Derwent Lightfast pencils 100% lightfast?
Following extensive testing, we can confirm that all 100 colours in the Lightfast range are 100% lightfast, meaning they are lightfast for up to 100 years (under museum conditions). All colours are professional quality and comply with international lightfast testing standard. Lightfastness refers to the chemical stability of a pigment under long exposure to light. The Derwent Lightfast range has been tested according to the ASTM D6901 standard, which states that pencils with a rating of LFI and LFII are fully lightfast. All the Derwent Lightfast pencils fall into this category and when displayed under museum conditions will not fade for up to 100 years.

Of the 100 colours, the lightfast ratings are as follows;
LF 1 = 48     LF 2 = 52 
....mix them with other coloured pencil brands that have high lightfast ratings too, such as the Derwent Lightfast, Caran d'Ache Luminance, Royal Talens Van Gogh and the Faber Castell Polychromos. 

PROTECTION
To offer further protection, ensure the framed piece is not hung in a sunny area where strong sunlight will hit it for extended periods.

Other articles that may be of interest

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Comparing coloured pencil brands

Coloured pencils | A guide for beginners

View all our coloured pencil articles

Coloured pencil tutorial - Peacock feather with Derwent Lightfast pencils

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Design and packaging

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The artwork on their current designs are highly competent, as well as vibrant and engaging. They show off the range of colours the PREMIER range offers and against the stark black, make the designs highly eye-catching. (Change this write up to represent the Lightfast brand)

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Sets available:

Open stock (Individually) In a tin 12, 24 & 36 and 72
​Also available in a wooden box containing 48 and 100 pencils

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Range was launched 25th June 2018 with the first 36 colours
Extended the range in July 2019 with 36 extra colours
Completed the set on September 2019 with the final 28 extra colours

Open stock

Tin of 12

Tin of 24

Limited Edition - 28 colours

Tin of 36 (June 2018)

Tin of 36 (july 2019)

Wooden box - 48

Wooden box - 100

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Online customer reviews

Positive

​" I normally use Caran d'Ache Luminance and Faber Castell Polychromos, though I have Van Gogh and Prismacolors as well, so it's great to see a range of Lightast pencils made in Britain as that was something that was sadly missing. I bought these because they are 100% lightfast and oil based so shouldn't bloom. I have to say I am most impressed as they are really lovely to use and very creamy for an oil-based pencil so they really do go down very well and blend beautifully. "

" Wow! What’s not to love about these? I’ve bought every kind of coloured pencil, cheap to expensive - these are my hands down favourite. They are so creamy and easy to use, hold a sharp point well, and produce beautiful art. I love the expensive wooden feel, too. Yes, they are pricey, but considering all the money I’ve spent on art materials that don’t get used, these are worth their price. "

" An absolute joy to use - creamy, rich and luxurious. They are lightfast and of professional quality. they layer up amazingly well... with no wax bloom. Derwent have certainly made the perfect colour pencils. Recommended. "

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Negative

​I have researched coloured pencils extensively by reading and watching online reviews. I then purchased these Derwent Lightfast pencils. They are nice and smooth, buttery really...however they don't layer as well as I had hoped. You have to layer with very very gentle pressure so it takes quite a while to build up. But I found they started to clump up just a tiny bit when there were enough layers to achieve saturated colour. I had to return them, they aren't worth the high price tag unless you love them and I didn't.

​" If I have any minor complaints then its that they are really quite pricey and it's that in my set there is not enough variety of colour instead some of the colours are really similar like Ruby earth and Venetian red, Racing green and Spruce green, Seaweed and Olive Earth so I wish they had changed three of them for brighter colours, plus in my box a couple of the leads seem to break quite easily when sharpening which doesn't bode well but other than that they really are a dream to use and being lightfast they will stand the test of time."

" After using these pencils for over 9 months I’ve come to wish I had not invested in color pencils with such inconsistent quality. And I’m not talking about pigment, on the contrary, the pigment of these pencils and the ability to layer and blend makes them a pleasure to work with. My biggest and only complaint is the constant broken leads. I’ve used every pencil in this set multiple times and the only pencils I have not had too many problems with are the cool tones. The cost doesn’t justify Derwents' true quality. Hard pass IMO. "

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Mixed reviews

" I waited a couple months to write this because I spent so much money on these pencils and really wanted to like them and give them a fair review. But I don’t love them. Many of the colors are so drab! I love bright colors and my prismacolors are bold and bright and fun and quite creamy. In the right way. These are drab and boring and tooo creamy. Not as fun as prisma at all. I will not buy them again. I also bought some Holbein single pencils to compare. And Caran dache. Same thing too creamy but their colors are more fun than derwent
I’m not a pro. These are for fun art and coloring. Not a good fit for me. I really should have tried a few instead of trusting the excellent reviews. Now I have so many colors I don’t like. Half are still in the box in a drawer because there are so many neutral BORING colors in the set!! "

" I bought this pack and drew a portrait of a black dog. I was very pleased with the result. I liked the intensity of the black pencil and the other colours, but was puzzled by the lack of a mid blue pencil in this pack. That would have been useful. Instead this 12 pack contained a very pale blue and a purple. The pencils can be sharpened to a point easily, but, being soft, they wear away quite quickly. Overall, I was very impressed and I will be using Lightfast again. "

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Our conclusions

​Derwent has provided many pencil ranges over the years, with lightfast ratings being hit and miss when it comes to a product aimed at the artist looking for the highest quality of protection when it comes to the longevity of their work. Derwent has provided the very best protection in this range, with every colour offering a minimum of 100 years under museum conditions. (ADAPT THIS TO READ EASIER) For those looking for confidence that their art can be preserved for many years to come, especially for those artists that create commissions for paying customers, this pencil is ideal. They can be mixed with other brands, both wax-based and oil-based, which will provide a wider colour palette, and you can be confident that the longevity of your work will not be compromised. Vibrant pigments, mix well

 Whenever a new pencil range comes out that interests me, I will purchase a few pencils to try them out. If I think the range works well with my artistic style I will then buy the rest of the colours. From first use I knew they were my kind of pencil. I have tried oil based pencils before and found that they do not allow me to layer as extensively as wax based ones, but these pencils are a mix between the two and in my opinion lean more towards wax than oil as they have softer leads,with an application reminiscent of the Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils which are my current brand.

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Why not try one of our tutorials with your Lightfast pencils.

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​Are Derwent Lightfast pencils vegan?
Yes.
All Derwent manufactured pencils are PEFC* certified including Derwent Lightfast pencils.
(*The PEFC label guarantees products are from sustainably managed forests.) ​

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Last updated: April 2023
​Article first written: February 2016