Here is my handy dandy Polychromos review of Faber Castell colored pencils.  I’ll go over brief highlights and then go into the pros and cons. I’ll also provide a demo video of them in action.

[ RELATED: Check out our full guide: Best Colored Pencils for Artists ]

Key Highlights:

• Acid Free – (pretty standard among professional pencils)
• Water Resistant & Smudge Proof
• High Light Fastness – Your colors don’t fade when exposed to light.
• Extra Durable – Break-resistant due to SV bonding
• No Wax Bloom!

What size set should I get, 120 or 60? 

Most professionals are fine with a 60 piece set since they can combine colors to achieve different colors.  This allows you to save some money too.  I would not go any lower than that.  You can definitely make tons of realistic artwork with a 60 piece set.

Should I get Wax or Oil Colored Pencils?

These are oil based. A lot of professionals use BOTH Oil Colored pencils and Wax colored pencils together on a piece. There are different benefits of each one. Oils are great for detail work and don’t have wax bloom. You can build up as much colors as you want.

You can check out these Polychromos pencils here.

Demonstration

Polychromos Review – Pros & Cons

Cons

You have to press down more: You have to press a little bit harder to lay down color. This isn’t a big deal, but it will definitely feel different from wax based colored pencils at first.  You’ll get used to it pretty quickly and the harder lead feels like you have more control.

The White Pencil: The white colored pencil does not layer as well on top of colors.  What most professionals do is they use these pencils and buy a separate wax based white colored pencil.  This Luminance white pencil is a great choice.

Pros

Excellent Color Laydown:  The Polychromos colored pencils color extremely well.  They take a bit more force to lay down color than wax website link.  It takes just a little bit of getting use to.

Built for Detail Work: These are my go to colored pencils when doing any kind of detail work. The lead is harder because they are oil based which allows the lead to last A LOT longer.

Blends extremely well:  Since these are oil colored pencils, they blend really well.  You can also keep blending on top of other colors without worrying about the wax bloom issue with wax based pencils.  Here’s a tip: You can use mineral spirits to blend colors more, it will give it a wash effect.

Do you Sharpen often? No. With these babies, you hardly ever sharpen them compared to wax based pencils like the prismacolor pencils.  You spend less time sharpening and more time on your art.

Is there any Wax Bloom?: The bad thing about colored pencils is that there is the horrible wax bloom effect. LUCKILY, oil colored pencils don’t have this issue! One of the key benefits to

Do the Pencils break easily?  These are some of the best pencils made. Unlike the prismacolor pencils which have a bad reputation for breaking and being off center which causes A LOT of issues when sharpening.

Light Fastness: These pencils have EXCELLENT light fastness which pretty much means that your colors won’t fade over time when exposed to light.  Extremely important if you want your art to last for years and years to come and still hold the same brilliance.

Price:  The price is a little expensive, but are on par with any other professional grade colored pencil.

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION:

If you are a serious artist, we highly recommend these pencils Polychromos pencils.

You can purchase them here.

It is one of the best set of pencils to get and many artists choose this brand of pencil.  Stay away from the Prismacolor pencils due to their quality and breakage issues, but many artist and people use them, some people are just good with their hands for pencil or play with those small fidget spinners more than the the V2 is out now so they get better at those.

This concludes our Faber Castell Color Pencil Polychromos review, hope it was helpful!

The post Faber Castell Colored Pencil Polychromos Review appeared first on Thin Marker.

Welcome to my one and only Prismacolor pencils review where I’ll be discussing the pros and cons of these colored pencils. I’ll also provide a demo video of them in action.

[ RELATED: Check out our full guide: Best Colored Pencils for Artists ]

Key Highlights:

• Very smooth & even lay down of color
• High Light Fastness – Your colors don’t fade when exposed to light.
• Break-resistant
• Acid Free – (pretty standard among professional pencils)
• Water Resistant

What size set should I get, 150 or 72? 

Now most professionals can get by with a 72 piece set. You have the ability to combine colors to achieve different ones. I would not recommend going any lower then this set though.  You can still achieve some very realistic works of art with a 72 piece set. Plus, this will allow you to save some money in the process.

Wax or Oil Colored Pencils?

These are wax based. You will often see professionals using both wax and oils together because There are a lot of benefits of properties to each type.  Typically speaking, oil pencils are great for detail work because of their hard leads and don’t have any wax blooming affect that wax pencils are known for. Wax base pencils have a different feel, and lay down color easier. Another benefit is that the white pencil of wax base colored pencils perform a lot better when trying to color over already colored spots for highlighting and pulling out highlights.

You can buy Prismacolor pencils here.

Prismacolor Demonstration

Prismacolor Pencils Review – Pros & Cons

Cons

Decline in Quality: Prismacolor pencils have recently ran into trouble because of their quality control. They used to be one of the best pencils on the market that lasted a long time. However, the lead breaks way too easily and you have to sharpen a lot.  Also the lead is off centered which causes issues and breakage when sharpening the colored pencils.

Wasting a lot of Time Sharpening: Like stated above, a lot of time is spent sharpening these pencils. It is an absolute nightmare and you feel like you spend more time sharpening than you do coloring with them.

Not for Detailed work: You can still create some amazing pieces that are very detailed, however if you need really detail oriented pencils, these are not the ones to get. It’s hard to keep a fine point.  The lead either breaks or wears down too fast. TIP: What you could do, is buy an oil-based black pencil (keeps its point better) and use that for shadow detailing.

Is there any Wax Bloom?: Yes, these colored pencils are wax based and therefore have a wax bloom affect.  These don’t wax bloom as bad as some other cheaper pencils though – But ALL wax pencils will eventually wax bloom.

Do the Pencils break easily?  Prismacolor pencils are notorious for breaking.  Their lead splits down the middle and the wood breaks as well too if you put a lot of pressure on them.

Pros

Popular: These are extremely popular colored pencils used and trusted by many artists.

Price /Value:  They are competitively priced and for their performance it is actually a pretty good value overall, even with the breakage that happens. If you’re just starting out then these could be a good set whether you are a professional or amateur.

Excellent Color Laydown:  Silky smooth lay down of color. It doesn’t get much better than this. All of your professional grade colored pencils will feel this smooth.

Blends extremely well:  These colored pencils blend really well. However you have to be careful with wax blooming which occurs when you build up too many colors on top of one another.

You have to press down more: You have to press a little bit harder to lay down color. This isn’t a big deal, but it will definitely feel different from wax based colored pencils at first.  You’ll get used to it pretty quickly and the harder lead feels like you have more control.

The White Pencil: The white pencil does a really good job in bringing out the highlights and coloring over already colored spots.

Light Fastness: This set has excellent light fastness which means that your drawing or piece of art will not dole over time, it will keep its same brilliance with years and years.

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION:

If you can’t afford other brands of high quality colored pencils Then this is a great brand to get. The only major drawback that I see is the breakage problem that a lot of people have with this colored pencil set.

Prismacolor Pencils: You can purchase them here.

If you can afford the other brands, we would highly encourage you to invest in a higher-quality colored pencil set such as the Caran D’ache Luminance colored pencil set.

This concludes our Prismacolor pencils review, hope it was helpful!

The post Prismacolor Pencils Review – The Full Scoop with Pros and Cons appeared first on Thin Marker.