3 min read · Feb 8, 2024
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A while ago, I shared tips on colored pencil drawing for beginners and recommended Prismacolor-colored pencils to my readers. Although Prismacolor pencils are a bit more on the pricey side, in this article, I am going to give you details about whether the Prismacolor-colored pencils are really worth the price or not.
Read the original version of this article on my blog
A gentle reminder that if you can’t afford a certain art supply, you need not worry! A high-quality art supply makes your creative process easier, faster, and more enjoyable. But expensive art supplies don’t make great art.
Prismacolor colored pencils are wax-based pencils, which makes them very creamy and easier to blend and burnish. Other color pencils (oil-based) tend to be harder to work with.
Using a manual sharpener is more recommended than a hand one, as the core of these pencils is very soft and tends to break rather easily.
The pencils layer exceptionally well. It is, in fact, one of the reasons why people love Prismacolor colored pencils. However, you have to be pretty careful with layering because the pencils have pretty high pigmentation and tend to fill the fibers of the paper very fast. So if you press just a little, you are going to have no room to build your colors and layers.
For that, I recommend you start with a very light hand and build your way through your layers.
Burnishing means pushing the pigment of the colored pencils into your paper, which leads to layering and blending your colors until no paper tooth shows through. To burnish your colored pencils, you can either use the Prismacolor white pencil or a paper blending stump. See more about burnishing in the link to the following picture.
With the Prismacolor colored pencils, it is easy to add your highlights on top, as lighter colors have enough pigment to be built on top of the dark colors.
With that being said, let me share with you some of the downsides of the Prismacolor colored pencils.
The wax-based pencils are very soft and easy to work with, but they have a high percentage of breakage.
To create details such as fur or hair, you’d need a pointed tip with some kind of pressure. But if you put too much pressure on your Prismacolor pencils, they are going to break, and even if they don’t break, the lines and details won’t be as sharp or precise.
Now I know that wax bloom is a natural oxidation process of wax-based color pencils, and with a limited number of layers, you will not notice the wax bloom issue. So, you will have to be careful with this, as the more layers you add, the higher the chance of having a wax bloom.
The price of the Prismacolor pencils is overall affordable for the quality. However, it is not the cheapest option out there, and my issue with the pencils is that they could look and feel better than they do for the price they are. You can call me crazy on that, but as an artist, I love some aesthetically pleasing and high-quality art supplies.
Now let’s answer the main question. Are the Prismacolor-colored pencils really worth the price? Yes! Worth it. They are very nice and easy to work with, so by any means, if you have been thinking about getting them or questioning if you should invest in a larger set, go for it. Enjoy creating ❤
