Just like my screen name implies, I am an artist and am always looking around for art supplies. You can never have too many art supplies. Right now, I am looking around at various brands of professional top of the line art pencils. It's a pretty daunting task considering how many brands there are.

So far, I've been looking for a colored pencil brand that lasts a while, and doesn't produce a wax bloom on the paper. A wax bloom, for those of you who don't know, is when the tooth of the paper, or the texture, is completely smoothed down and covered with pigment. This happens a lot with pencils that use wax as a base in their cores to help lay down color on the paper.

I've pretty much narrowed my search to one brand that fits my bill, Faber Castel Polychromos. Their cores are made from an oil base, rather than wax, so you can layer them seemingly to and endless degree without fear of a wax bloom happening. Another thing I like about this brand is the hardness of the cores, which is a huge change from the Prismacolor brand I already own. Prismacolors have wax based cores, and very soft one at that. As a result, the pencil lays down a lot and the sharpened tips often break. There is also risk of the whole core shattering and falling out of the wooden casing if dropped.

I also like how professional Polychromos look compared to the Prismacolors, with that band of metallic paint near the top, and an end cap of paint to give them a nice polished look. Prismacolors almost mimic Crayolas in appearance, labeling aside. I've also heard a lot about how the quality in Primsacolors have gone down hill in recent years.

Anyways, I was wondering what you all thought of Polychromos, and if they are worth the price. I don't want to spend that sort of money without doing a bit of research first.