Colored Pencil Suggestions?
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Hi there, I have a gift card to use and I want to buy colored pencils that work well with watercolor illustrations. Any suggestions? I know that prisma color is recommended in the basics class, but would those pencils be good as well if I want to use water color over them? Thank you!
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@laura-hunt I have yet to be able to put watercolour overtop of any pencil crayon (solid coloured in), I would generally do it the other way round. I use all quality types. Prisma colours even their scholar blends well in comparison to others. I currently use whatever I have, which tends to be lower kids, student quality. And I have German Faber which I find is a harder lead than Prisma especially in the student grade. I think if you go slow and layer colours and not fill in all the paper, then you could probably put watercolour overtop. You'd have to experiment with the look you want.
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@laura-hunt I have had Prismacolor for maybe two years and they are ok. They tend to break a lot when they're being sharpened and that can be really annoying. For Christmas this year I just got Faber-Castell Polychromos and they are amazing. Much easier to blend, I haven't had one break on my so far, and they are much smoother on the paper. They are a lot more expensive though. I generally use my colored pencils over the TOP of watercolor and guache though so I'm not much help in that area.
Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer are the watercolor type but I've never used them so I don't know how they would work for you. You might try getting a small pack of each to try? Or single pencils maybe? Caran d'Ache Luminance is another brand. Prismacolor is a great starting place financially though.
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@laura-hunt as Heather and Lisa have already said, it's best to have watercolor as the base layer and put colored pencil on top. That being said, I do use colored pencil to draw in my lines, which I then watercolor over. It does work if you do it that way. However, colored pencils are made with either oil or wax bases, which repel water, so a thick colored pencil layer under watercolor will act as a resist. But you could try watercolor pencils -- they're made differently so are water soluble and you can easily watercolor over those.
As far as recommending specific brands, it really comes down to personal preference and how you'll be using the medium and what your plans for the artwork are. The type of paper you're using also has a huge effect on how colored pencils lay down, how they interact with the other media you're using, and how they feel in your hand.
My suggestion is the same as Lisa's: instead of buying a set of colored pencils, buy open stock pencils. (Open stock = buying an individual item instead of a set.) That way you can try out different brands and see which works best for you and the media you're using.
That's what I did when I decided to find a replacement for the Prismacolors I grew up using. (Like Lisa, I also had issues with the core breaking -- sometimes all the way down the barrel so the pencil was unusable.) And I've found new favorites that work even better than Prismacolors for my style of illustrating.
A few brands you may want to consider trying:
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Faber Castell Polychromos -- a great all-around pencil that is creamy but has slightly harder lead than Prismacolors. Very durable. Oil-based.
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Derwent Procolour -- a really hard pencil, great for sketching, drawing, and details. Also very durable, with the harder cores. Wax-based.
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Derwent Coloursoft -- a really soft wax-based pencil. Has really vibrant colors and is great if you want to lay down a large area of color or if you want more texture in your work.
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Derwent Lightfast -- on the soft side as well but very durable and all the pencils in the range are lightfast, which is a huge draw for professional artists who will be selling their originals. They are oil-based and one of the most expensive pencils out there. But they are still at the top of my favorites list.
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Caran d'Ache Luminance -- another lightfast pencil that professional artists rave about. Because they're so expensive, I usually only buy their white and black pencils, as they tend to be opaque and bold. They are wax-based and softer. It's hard to get sharp details out of this pencil.
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Lyra Polycolor -- a vibrant, oil-based colored pencil that is on the hard side. Really creamy, though. Mostly I use these as liners, but keep reaching for these more and more, although they do have a narrower barrel so aren't as comfortable to grip. One of the more affordable pencils, too, after Prismacolor and Coloursoft.
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Holbein Artists' Colored Pencil -- vibrant, smooth oil-based colored pencil that has a softer core. Also one of the more expensive, coming just under the price of Luminance and Derwent Lightfast. However, their soft white colored pencil is amazing -- really bright and opaque. No other colored pencil I've tried matches it. So if you like to add white colored pencil for highlights, Holbein's soft white is the pencil to use.
These are all artist grade colored pencils -- I've tried them all and like them all. You could try student grade if the budget is tight, but honestly, you get what you pay for and you'll probably struggle more, which could make the experience frustrating instead of enjoyable.
All of these pencils are available online at Blick Art Materials, as sets and open stock. Jerry's Artarama also carries all of these pencils except Lyra Polycolor & Derwent Procolour. They also do not offer open stock of Derwent Lightfast and Holbein Artists' Colored Pencils.
Wow, this was a lot of information to throw at you! Hope you find it helpful.
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Thank you everyone! I am happy to try penciling in detail over the watercolor. I've never tried using pencils with my watercolors so I wasn't sure how that look is achieved! Good to know that I should just layer the pencil over the watercolor. I really appreciate the feedback and tips. I will give it a try!
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You might consider watercolor pencils. These watercolor pencils' exceptional adaptability and blendable colours enable them to perform beyond the standard watercolour procedures.
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Melissa Bailey accurately described every brand of pencil I was going to contribute.
What I will add as a colored pencil artist, is that any set can fit your budget. This idea of needing 76 Colors to make art, is unnecessary. If you have a limited budget, consider buying open stock, and getting primaries. Though my selection of primaries is different than red yellow and blue. I can get a better variety and brightness by using magenta, yellow and cyan than I can from the standard blue red and yellow. Add in white and black and you’re quite well rounded. If the budget is bigger than just those 5 pencils, add the Colors that are harder to create, the soft pastels, warm greys, and I love a paynes grey.
I have invested in pencil crayons, like they’re going out of style, and I have a small jar of my go tos that I constantly use. And I have tonnes that have never been sharpened. It just goes to show, that with practice, you can get a broad range of Colors from a very small spectrum.
My personal favourites are Polychromos, lightfast, and luminance. I’m rather against prismacolor since they changed manufacturing. They break more than not, and I’ve had pencils that crack up the entire shaft with a single turn in the sharpener. I also find that the cores aren’t centered, which leads to more issues with sharpening. I find that they’ll cost you more than buying higher quality because of so much waste in breakage. I would highly advise to skip them. If you want a big set, that’s cheaper, look for something like Derwent Colorsoft.
