Faber-Castell Polychromos Oil-Based Colored Pencils (2024)

FAQs

What is so special about Polychromos? ›

There are minimal amounts of wax used so that there is no waxy bloom produced. The pencils are acid-free, water-resistant and smudgeproof. There are no harmful pigments used. All products are certified non-toxic by a board certified toxicologist.

Certain pencils are better for each preferred application, however, the Faber Castell Polychromos lends itself incredibly well to both methods, in fact, some would say that the Polychromos pigment performs better in layers but in my testing of the pencils I found they performed excellent in both.

We do not recommend using an electric sharpener for the majority of our pencils. The sharpness of the blades along with rigorous rotation may damage the lead and the wood causing breakage. When sharpening artist pencils, we recommend using the most commonly used handheld Double Hole Metal Sharpener for best results.

They are characterised by their unparalleled light-fastness and break-resistance. To create blocks of intense colour, hold the pencil in an almost vertical position and press down hard on the paper. To colour an area evenly, hold the pencil at a very shallow angle, and only press down lightly on the paper.

The Prismacolor drawing is a lot more vibrant, but is still significantly grainier than the Polychromos drawing. Another plus for Polychromos colored pencils is that they are oil-based. Prismacolors are wax-based, and sometimes a Prismacolor drawing will develop a thin, waxy film on the surface called wax bloom.

For detailed artist drawings, we recommend using a smooth paper, such as Bristol board, Strathmore toned pads, Hot Press Watercolour Paper or textured Pastelmat. Polychromos Pencils adhere to many rough surfaces too, such as wood, stone, leather and metal.

They are oil based as opposed to being wax based like other pencils, allowing them to blend with solvents, like turpentine or white spirit in a similar way to how you would blend oil paints. They offer a soft lively colour and are water resistant.

Some teachers report that their electric pencil sharpeners get ruined from students using them to sharpen colored pencils. This is most likely due to the fact that the wax from the colored pencils will inevitably build up and clog the sharpener.

The pencils smudge. This smudging allows you to move the colour around a little bit but it also smudges my hand. This forces me to put a sheet of paper on the drawing on which I place my hand. Otherwise my hand smudges the paper.

Solvent blending

Polychromos pencils can be used with paraffin oil (baby oil) or solvents such as mineral spirits or rubbing alcohol and used for painting.

Are Polychromos pencils erasable? ›

The pigment is even somewhat erasable, though it does leave some color behind. The coverage of the soft lead is pretty amazing.

Polychromos have very saturated colors, and have a harder “lead” which means they will last longer than let's say water soluble color pencils which are soft. They are great to wo... Polychromos is a marking term and product name for the Faber-Castell line of color pencils.

The short answer is NO you are not going to get the “same” results, the media carrying the pigment is totally different, one is design to dissolve in water and the other is oil based and doesn't. You are not going to be able to build up layers of color with the Watercolor pencils the way you can with the Polychromos.

The Faber-Castell Polychromos Colored Pencils are highly pigmented quality oil-based colored pencils. The Faber-Castell Polychromos are not intended to smudge, are waterproof, and are worked differently from pastels. The Faber-Castell PITT Pastel Pencils, are basically highly pigmented pastels in pencil form. No oil.