[Artchic528]

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.

[lizardlady]

I know nothing about the brands you mentioned. Maybe you could google looking for comparison ratings of the various brands?

[*Laurie*]

I agree- Prismacolor pencils produce a wax bloom. I think all wax-based pencils do. In art classes I used colored pencils that were not wax-based and could be easily blended. Unfortunately, I cannot recall the brand name of those pencils.

[mctone]

I have to admit that I'm not an artist, but I love the way a gifted artist can take a colored pencil and make something beautiful on a blank sheet of paper. It reminds me of how God takes us in His Divine hand, and on the blank sheet of our world, can make something beautiful happen, if we allow Him to work in our lives.

I don't often express myself for fear of offending someone, so I hope you don't take offense to this reply... I just felt it was worth expressing.

[IrisBloom]

Here's an article with one person's opinion on them:

https://coloronmag.com/article/prism...faber-castell/

Apparently they have different qualities that are used in various ways. I would get the ones that are suitable for the current project and go from there.

[Artchic528]

Originally Posted by mctone

I have to admit that I'm not an artist, but I love the way a gifted artist can take a colored pencil and make something beautiful on a blank sheet of paper. It reminds me of how God takes us in His Divine hand, and on the blank sheet of our world, can make something beautiful happen, if we allow Him to work in our lives.

I don't often express myself for fear of offending someone, so I hope you don't take offense to this reply... I just felt it was worth expressing.

You didn't offend me. We all express ourselves in different ways. It's what makes this world a beautiful place, because truly, in our differences, we are all one.

My mother was quite artistic and I inherited a lot of her supplies - including some oil-binded coloured pencils. I gave them in turn to my (adult) daughter. I think they were Faber-Castel.

I found this comparison chart. I'm not sure if it is helpful but here it is:
Colored Pencil Comparison Chart

[possum220]

As a non artistic possum I was wondering if you might find it helpful to go into an art supply store and ask them what would be the most suitable for your purposes? You don't actually have to buy anything and then you can take your time shopping around or online for a bargain.

[MuseumGhost]

I wish I could help more. I don't have experience with anything besides Prismacolor pencils....and they are, indeed, subject to the problems you described.

Good luck in your quest for answers, and good on you for your continuing urge to create!

[eskielover]

I had seen this on pintrest awhile ago, always looking for new techniques. Your thread now helps make sense of the use of alcohol to break down the wax of the color pancil for blending

http://pin.it/Rp3GdPe

[Artchic528]

Originally Posted by eskielover

I had seen this on pintrest awhile ago, always looking for new techniques. Your thread now helps make sense of the use of alcohol to break down the wax of the color pancil for blending

http://pin.it/Rp3GdPe

Yup. A lot of artists love Gamsol (alcohol based solvent) for that reason. It's the safest solvent to use when blending.

[Turtle_Rider]

I just seen a video demonstrating a brand called luminance caran d'ache pencils. You can watch the video here:

Sorry, can't help you much. I'm not into tranditional drawing