TESTING 63 COLOR PENCILS - The Ultimate Comparison

From $1 12-packs to $150 24-packs... which colored pencil will come out on top? Join me for my most EPIC art supply comparison yet!

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[KaseyTheGolden]

Li'l Guy Enamel Pins are FINALLY available in my shop! Grab 'em here:

[YkronRobe]

Softer lead colored pencils that are easy to blend would tend to smudge (being able to move the color around is what makes them easier to blend).
Harder lead colored pencils that are meant for layering techniques would tend to not smudge and are better for details as well because they are better at holding a sharp point.

Eraseable pencils are better for sketching and not for coloring (you'd erase a sketch line and not a full block of color).

Even professional artists whose main medium is colored pencils would have different preferences and even use different pencils for different purposes.

[chevgage]

To answer your question about professional coloured pencil artists: we only use lightfast products only because it's such a slow media that non lightfast products are unable to be sold at the price point we need to charge for labour. You don't want to pay for something that doesn't last when you're paying that much for it, right? From there we use a combination of a firmer core and a softer core. Soft core blend beautifully, firm core do better fine details. There's a lot of options at the artist quality tier but they're expensive as hell. If you're a hobbyist colorist, supplies don't matter as much but I recommend not going with the cheapest pencils ever because you'll feel like a crappy artist. The crappier the supply, the more skill you need to make them look nice and compensate for their flaws. They're working against you. Artist quality are way too expensive to learn on. Get a mid quality supply in the student grade area to learn on. If you want to splurge on any supply? It should be the paper. Better paper will make any color pencil look a million times better. Hope that helps!

[lucymiau]

The paper has a big influence on the performance of a colored pencil. A lot of pencils that have a weak performance on smooth paper just might shine on a less smooth paper.

[thinkerdreamersketcherspy]

As a coloured pencil artist with thousands of pencils under my belt, it was so weird to see this North American brand selection. 😂 Hadn't heard of so many of them, and get expecting for the familiar brands to pop up (and they never did).

Koh-I-Noor Polycolors do come in *144* colours, but apparently this data is not offered in North America (their website?).

[hanahc]

The prismacolor col-erase comes in a 24 pack! They're not great for finished drawing but great for sketching before using the real prismacolors.

[flussigkeittheyeenuwu]

The prismacolor color-erase one's do come in singles! But it's very hard to find them in singles

[vilvile]

Small nits, but as you mentioned, some pencils may not be available open stock in NA, but they are indeed available open stock in Europe or Asia, such as the Tombow Irojiten, the Posca Pencils, the Karmina and the Bruynzeel.

The other thing to keep in mind with polychromos and pablo’s is that those pencils are meant for layering to be able to blend them, not straight burnishing. That’s why they are not blending in the same way as the prismacolors or chromaflow.

[edgeyberzerker]

There is a way to get the Posca pencils single! I think it's more up to the art store though. My local place does sell them single!
These tests are always fun to watch!

[TheAverageArtist]

Omg !! This is dedication thank you for your service!

[Chaospandaaa]

This is so interesting! I mean I knew that some pencils are just better than others. But I didn't expect that big of a difference between different brands! I love my polychromos and I got them a few years ago pretty cheep on a sale (got the big box with every color for around 100 bucks, but they do cost 250 on their website now.) but honestly I might get different pencils (cheaper ones) In the future just to safe some money. Some of the cheaper ones really looked great to me.

[liesbethartlife]

Those Faber Castell black edition are in my opinion the best value for the pencil you get. Nothing beats my love for the polychromos and the caran d’ache luminance. Ps Bruynzeel from Royal Talens is also a cheap brand of color pencils and very populair here in Belgium/the Netherlands

[neovengance]

Just adding on that the tomboy irojiten are actually available online as singles! 30:00

[damienglynn]

I love these comparisons and the big spreadsheets! Really interesting to see all the variations side-by-side.

[Luna_illustrationz]

The prismacolor col erase colored pencils are sold in singles at some art stores especially small town stores!

[Rooibos_]

I LOVE THESE LONG VIDS BC I CAN DRAW WITHOUT CHANGING THE VID EVERY 10 MINS!! 💕

[MintyVoid]

totally agree with you in terms of what constitutes as 'erasable', the expectation for me is that it should be 100% gone. It really frustrates me when something is touted as erasable but it still leaves a ghost. It's kinda funny that reg pencils are technically darker and yet can be erased most of the time, yet make it a coloured thing and it's then really really hard to make something that is erasable. makes me curious about the like make up of these materials and how we can erase things in the first place.

[joeblankenship]

Polychromos are my favorite, even though their "white" is basically a blending stump. I also wish they had a wider selection of skin tones. I splurged for the Caran D'ache Luminance set a while back. Probably won't buy another set of those. Though I would buy their white and they have some really good skin tones. I also got a ton of Prismacolors accumulated. They're good for sketching and coloring books, but I'd recommend Derwent Chromaflow over Prismacolor. They hold a point longer and don't break all the time. Also, Lyra Rembrandt and Koh-i-noor are some pretty decent oil-based pencils that are cheaper than Polychromos.

[ratsteaparty]

I was always under the impression that the Verithins were meant more for plan/blueprint/schematic drawings for architects and engineers, rather than for art purposes, which would explain the hard lead and sharp lines and poor blending.

[PristinePanda]

Some colored pencils arent really meant to burnished they're meant to be lightly layered to build up the color which is why you are seeing some of them not perform the same at the same price point. They're just meant to be used differently. I am like you and prefer softer pencils so I can burnish because I find layering to be too tedious