Softer lead colored pencils that are easy to blend would tend to smudge (being able to move the color around is what makes them easier to blend). Harder lead colored pencils that are meant for layering techniques would tend to not smudge and are better for details as well because they are better at holding a sharp point. Eraseable pencils are better for sketching and not for coloring (you'd erase a sketch line and not a full block of color). Even professional artists whose main medium is colored pencils would have different preferences and even use different pencils for different purposes.
@@KaseyTheGolden I’d also like to point out that the softer lead pencils are way less dusty. These blend together better and work really well for you because of your “gorilla grip”. The ones that are designed for layering have harder leads and are more crumbly as a result. These blend by layering multiple very light layers over each other and generally don’t get the wax-bloom problem that softer pencils get. Softer lead pencils also tend to fill up the “tooth” of the paper more easily. That can prevent you from adding details at later stages in your drawing even if you’ve been lightly layering them. Harder lead pencils tend to fill up the “tooth” of the paper less so you can more easily add detail later. Anyway, that was a long way of saying I liked your review and how you discovered your pencil-hardness preferences.
@@Superfluffyfish I'd say that the crumbly/dusty thing is not so much of a rule. I've found many dry hard crumbly pencils, some very soft, buttery and not at all dusty ones, some soft but crumbly ones, and some hard but smooth and not crumbly ones. It all depends on the formulation of the pencils.
To answer your question about professional coloured pencil artists: we only use lightfast products only because it's such a slow media that non lightfast products are unable to be sold at the price point we need to charge for labour. You don't want to pay for something that doesn't last when you're paying that much for it, right? From there we use a combination of a firmer core and a softer core. Soft core blend beautifully, firm core do better fine details. There's a lot of options at the artist quality tier but they're expensive as hell. If you're a hobbyist colorist, supplies don't matter as much but I recommend not going with the cheapest pencils ever because you'll feel like a crappy artist. The crappier the supply, the more skill you need to make them look nice and compensate for their flaws. They're working against you. Artist quality are way too expensive to learn on. Get a mid quality supply in the student grade area to learn on. If you want to splurge on any supply? It should be the paper. Better paper will make any color pencil look a million times better. Hope that helps!
This comment deserves way more likes. More informative than the actual video unfortunately 😅 KaseyGolden, if you want some advice, maybe try the medium you're going to compare out a bit before you do a massive video like this. I like your presentation style and the idea, but the actual information was not very good imo. Have a nice new year everyone!
@@DragonWistArt But these comparison video's are just a way to get a ton of traffic with little knowledge needed... and you can just keep them up for years to keep getting hits.
The paper has a big influence on the performance of a colored pencil. A lot of pencils that have a weak performance on smooth paper just might shine on a less smooth paper.
I have opposite experience. I need the absolutely smoothest paper in the world. So when light layering is not leaving me with white spots of paper not being covered evenly cause it's not smooth
As a coloured pencil artist with thousands of pencils under my belt, it was so weird to see this North American brand selection. 😂 Hadn't heard of so many of them, and get expecting for the familiar brands to pop up (and they never did). Koh-I-Noor Polycolors do come in *144* colours, but apparently this data is not offered in North America (their website?).
I am an artist from the US and I haven't heard of most of these. But I think that is probably because many of these were designed for children and not for artists. So much here was not taken under consideration, but this was just a fun comparison, right?
Small nits, but as you mentioned, some pencils may not be available open stock in NA, but they are indeed available open stock in Europe or Asia, such as the Tombow Irojiten, the Posca Pencils, the Karmina and the Bruynzeel. The other thing to keep in mind with polychromos and pablo’s is that those pencils are meant for layering to be able to blend them, not straight burnishing. That’s why they are not blending in the same way as the prismacolors or chromaflow.
The Bruynzeel Expression pencils (which were the Bruynzeel pencils featured on this video) are not available open stock anywhere. Their artist line (Design) is and so are some of their kids' lines.
There is a way to get the Posca pencils single! I think it's more up to the art store though. My local place does sell them single! These tests are always fun to watch!
Those Faber Castell black edition are in my opinion the best value for the pencil you get. Nothing beats my love for the polychromos and the caran d’ache luminance. Ps Bruynzeel from Royal Talens is also a cheap brand of color pencils and very populair here in Belgium/the Netherlands
This is so interesting! I mean I knew that some pencils are just better than others. But I didn't expect that big of a difference between different brands! I love my polychromos and I got them a few years ago pretty cheep on a sale (got the big box with every color for around 100 bucks, but they do cost 250 on their website now.) but honestly I might get different pencils (cheaper ones) In the future just to safe some money. Some of the cheaper ones really looked great to me.
It’s nice when they’re available as singles just so you can test a few out before making a decision, as well! But honestly Faber-Castell is a pretty solid choice as well!
I saw a blue Twistable during your intro and got so excited. I love the first formulation of these and how well they erase when I want to use colored line-art and paint with watercolor.
The other big thing to keep in mind is that the higher price point does offer some other features. Lightfast and archival quality and pigment availability are the reasons why most art supplies cost more. The caran d'ache luminescence and derwent lightfast are both extremely light fast and museum quality. Most general people aren't going's to *need* this level of pencil, but as the video shows, there are a lot of options.
totally agree with you in terms of what constitutes as 'erasable', the expectation for me is that it should be 100% gone. It really frustrates me when something is touted as erasable but it still leaves a ghost. It's kinda funny that reg pencils are technically darker and yet can be erased most of the time, yet make it a coloured thing and it's then really really hard to make something that is erasable. makes me curious about the like make up of these materials and how we can erase things in the first place.
Some colored pencils arent really meant to burnished they're meant to be lightly layered to build up the color which is why you are seeing some of them not perform the same at the same price point. They're just meant to be used differently. I am like you and prefer softer pencils so I can burnish because I find layering to be too tedious
I was always under the impression that the Verithins were meant more for plan/blueprint/schematic drawings for architects and engineers, rather than for art purposes, which would explain the hard lead and sharp lines and poor blending.
Royal and Langnickel are a UK brand. They're an affordable higher end of student quality/cheaper artist quality. Arteza don't sell their expert coloured pencils as singles as such but they sell their colours in packs of 3 so you don't have to buy the whole 120 set again just for one colour. They're one of my favourite coloured pencils that are on the affordable end. I prefer softer, more buttery pencils and you do have to give some leeway for the crumbliness/dustiness when you want a softer, more blendy pencil. My ultimate favourite pencils are the Prismacolor Premier. I would absolutely love to have the full set.
@@KaseyTheGolden they're one of the brands you find everywhere here, I guess similar to the Michael's/Hobby Lobby own brands across the pond. I remember one of my first "proper" (aka non-kids supply) art supplies was Royal & Langnickel - they tend to be more for paints than coloured pencils though. They do some really nice little starter sets for different types of paint.
I think the best colored pencil topic is quite subjective. Price might differ a lot depending where are you from. Your preferences as well as probably what you grew up with is whats most affordable in your country. For example i am from Czech Rebublic hence can get Koh-i-noors for peanuts (esp. if you pick version without gold ends in paper box) and they are also what i grew up with, so they seem very natural to me . Things like Prismacolor coloursoft are pricey here and i absolutelly cant get them open stock. Not to mention growing up on Koh-i-noors i expect my pencils not to break too easily and have some hardness (though also enough pigment so the drawing with such harder pencil is not that hard :D ).
I'm very glad to see Derwent being recognised for its quality. I visit their pencil museum every year to see their supplies. The lake district is very beautiful and for being the home of pencils (so they say) it makes sense that they’ve made such high quality art supplies, even if they are a little pricy.
Polychromos are my favorite, even though their "white" is basically a blending stump. I also wish they had a wider selection of skin tones. I splurged for the Caran D'ache Luminance set a while back. Probably won't buy another set of those. Though I would buy their white and they have some really good skin tones. I also got a ton of Prismacolors accumulated. They're good for sketching and coloring books, but I'd recommend Derwent Chromaflow over Prismacolor. They hold a point longer and don't break all the time. Also, Lyra Rembrandt and Koh-i-noor are some pretty decent oil-based pencils that are cheaper than Polychromos.
Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils used to come in singles! My sister used to use the Rose color for her sketches before she used her last pencil to a nub. She uses the Pilot Color-Eno lead in pink now.
When did primary colors become empowerment colors for artist? Gaslight defined means; "to manipulate another person into doubting their own perceptions, experiences or understanding of events, according to the American Psychological Association." If one's psyche is so fragile that watching swatches of primary colors causes them to doubt their own perceptions, experiences or understanding of events, the person should avoid youtube and see a APA professional to prevent further harm. Since this content creator is obviously an adult, not a child, I'll assume you and your 18 supporters are a part of the group of American's that feel entitled and superior to other humans. "Boyboss" may be a good title for such people.
It would’ve been nice to have the name it the pencils written down along with the brand, since there are multiples of many brands. It makes it slightly confusing 😅
it's so crazy to see polychromos at over 2 dollars a piece. I have been using them for almost 10 years now and I never paid more than 1,70 euro (so that would be about 1.85 dollar). I often get them even cheaper than that. Maybe it's because they are a German brand. I mean, a ton of the pencils shown, I haven't even heard of before. And I personally haven't seen prismacolor in the art stores here (North of the Netherlands). I am very biased towards Polychromos because of how long I have been using them, but they are my favorite pencil brand.
Sadly a lot of my information varies location to location! Price, availability, if they’re available as singles… it’s hard to make a video for the world. 🥲
We used to get Polychromos for 1.60 € each as well, but recently the price has shot up. I think they're 2.40 now? Strange, as other brands have not raised their prices in a similar way. Prismacolors used to be not sold in Europe due to a legal settlement but I think that expired this year (might have been 2003-2023?). At least I've been seeing more European art stores offer them this year.
They weren't shown here but I really like derwent coloursofts, they are a bit pricey so I don't use them often but my sibling put me onto them and they are very pigmented and great for those asthetic big shaped art pieces. This was a great video, it was really interesting, it's cool so see the different pencils strengths, I like a hard pencil for detail and layering but some of those buttery smooth ones are just so tempting!
thx for doing this video ! It’s a decent resource and I’m sure it took a long time and was annoying to film. since u already have the pencils and equipment I thought I might give a few humble suggestions if u ever wanted to film a follow up to this: 1) please include the collection name as well as the manufacturer. Faber Castell or Prisma by itself is meaningless. They each make at least 5 different collections of pencils at vastly different price points. 2) eliminate all kids quality pencils. If a brand has less then 24 colors or is edible. it’s not a viable brand. Gluten free brand is for kids that eat their pencils and crayons. Etc. 3) Dust test is a bit meaningless. If you must include it, use three ratings. Failed, ok, and no dust. 4) rating the smoothness and moistness is important. Include a rating for smooth/dry/waxy/oily/etc. include close ups as you apply. 5) make sure that the color you choose to represent blue is the same for all brands. You are using dark blue and true /French blue for some brands. 6) choose a few random difficult colors to test for each brand. I would suggest purple, one or two pastels. 7) include whether they include a blender in their collection. 8) test the blender if they have it. 9) erasable is not a thing with regular colored pencil. No need for that metric. It also confuses the dust metric because ur literally erasing dust right before that rating. So eliminate that part. 10) test at least some white, black and gray from each collection. 11) include country of manufacture in your chart. Very important.
Arteza is available in open stock, actually. The way they curb the cost issue of "singles" is they sell single colours in 3 packs. If you've used a colour so fast it doesn't warrant replacing the whole set, this is fine.
I've got the 24 pack of Prismacolor Col-erase on my desk right now :3 Admittedly, I haven't used them too much b/c i have to sharpen them XD I use the pink and blue one mainly as an undersketch for marker or watercolor drawings. I own a set of Castle Art Soft Touch colored pencils that I would have liked to see in the video and compare it to the others. Oh well.
I am a color pencil artist; have been for many years. I have to say that from when I was a kid to now, I am happy to see more companies showing the humble colored pencil some love. The main draws, for me, with buying multiple sets is: 1) wax vs oil 2) lead thickness 3) color selection Some brands have more earthy tones available, while others have really good bright or pastel colors. You just gotta do a lil research into the brand to find out what suits your needs best. 😊
I love these comparison videos I find them so interesting! I have faber castell polychromos and caran d'ache luminance because at the time they were the only pencils I heard were universally good. Honestly though, looking at this, I might give some cheaper brands a try in future 🤔
Thank you for your dedication to creating this video! Evaluating usability compared to price for such an incredible number of pencils was a huge undertaking. Of course you couldn't possible obtain ever pencil that exist, but you effort was excellent. The chart indicating brand, price, blend, etc. made it evident that the results would benefit colorist and artists looking for pencils that perform well to use in the initial/development stages of their work, allowing their best supplies to be reserved for their final productions.The swatching and price portion of the content was perfect for this purpose. There are content creators, as well as the ASTM, who spend months testing and analyzing artist grade colored pencil attributes such as toxicity, lightfastness, texture, and/or the malleability of the combined ingredients creating each pencil's core. However individual users concerns about each pencil's perform verses its price have to be done through trial and error. The swatches and blends allow viewers to determine if a pencil will work for it's intended application in their project, regardless if it is coloring in a book, marking wood, or architecture drawings. At some point I would like to see how other pencils compare in terms of performance; such as the Stabilo All, Derwent Drawing/Graphitint, pastel/chalk pencils, tri-tones, and even water solubles such Inktense and Mondeluz since many artist used them without water do to their softer cores. Nice work!💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
in the art supply store in germany where i got my fancy tombows, they are actually sold in singles. but i guess many of the pencils in this video are sold in singles in store. just not online
Derwent is my go to, it’s pretty affordable and their watercolor is absolutely fantastic for the price it’s the only watercolor I’ve ever used I’ve been able to get a flat color with
the fine touch pencils are available as singles, but i think you can only get single colors in store, and they’re meant to have a similar texture to prismacolor, just a cheaper alternative :))
Thanks for doing this. Wish you could have put the full names under the brand space, since some companies have a few entries. Hope you do more comparisons.
Lyra Rembrandt Polycolors do feel nice to work with, but I totally see why they're 'underrated'. They're nothing special, and don't have a competitive advantage in any category. For example, over here the Polycolors are roughly the same price as the Faber-Castell Polychromos (used to be 1.60 € per pencil but with the current inflation...). While FC Polychromos have good lightfastness ratings, LR Polycolors have more variation and the manufacturer ratings are not reliable. These two things alone make it hard for artist to choose Polycolors over Polychromos and for kids/schools Lyra itself offers other, cheaper options which do their job well.
I've tried most of these pencils, plus other brands like Black Widow, which are super popular in the colouring communities. I will say Prismacolor suprised me in 2 ways in the this video. 1) that they were so low down the chart in terms of cost per pencil for the Premiere, and 2) that the Verithin cost more per pencil than the former
As a French Canadian Addict to my favorite Art Store DeSerres, I was happy to see your review of their pencils. It validated my own review of it. Ok for school, summer camp but not for professionnal artists. They newly lunched this product so I hope they will improved it.
I grew up on the Twistables, briefly attempted Prismas and other smaller brands, and clicked the best with a mix of Holbein and both main Faber-Castell lines (Goldfaber and Polychromos), although I have also used some Staedtler. So neat seeing the variety! Prang and Sergeant Art, my beloathed.
Have you saved your previous testing posters? If you have I would love to see them ♥️ Also, I know these videos must take some time to process and it’s much appreciated and very enjoyable to watch 😊
faber-castell's albrecht drurer pencils have a large variety and are sold in singles, they're my go-to if I use pencils in my art because they're soft, ergonomic, and I just like their colours. they're kinda crumbly and smudge a little if the ink's not quite dry though. the lyra polycolour are my second go-to, mostly because their earthier tones are really nice. I need to get back into using coloured pencils in my art again!!!
The Albrecht Durer are watercolor pencils so it makes sense that any liquid would make the “smudgy.” I actually love the feel of them because they dissolve almost completely when water is added (depending on if you dug it into the paper or not). Personally they feel very similar to their non-water soluble sibling Polychromos which basically don’t smudge at all.
@@ciannacoleman5125 y'know I'm not surprised they're watercolour pencils, given my track record of picking up pencils liking their texture and then discovering they're watercolours! I feel like when they're used as regular pencils they're a lot creamier in texture and I just prefer that
Thank you for this massive effort! , got to see a lot of brands I hadn't heard of before too :O I just wanted to comment that Maped does sell bigger sets, I have a 72 single color pencils set from then 😊
i just watched this video in full and i don’t even use colored pencils 😅 super entertaining for some reason!! also even though i know how primary colors worked, i was so amazed when i first saw the orange and green in the gradient
Hullo Kasey, I have Prismacolor, Faber Castell's Poly's and Albrecht Durer's as my main "Art" pencils(I used to use Koh-i-noor watercolor pencils before I invested in the Albrecht's from Faber and the Poly's have 144 different colors). I use Brutfuner Square and Cezanne pencils for my budget brands, these are the ones I give to nieces and nephews when they visit! I have never had much luck erasing color pencils, but when I borrowed an electric eraser (Derwent Branded) it got a LOT of pencil color up! I have wanted to try Holbein, but they are simply to expensive and I just do not use pencils enough to justify the expense of buying even more color pencils! I do enjoy watching you send art supplies through your testing criteria, well done Kasey!
Super informative! I haven't used a lot of colored pencils, but I believe I would be a fan of softer ones, even if they're crumbly. I don't have a heavy hand which helps in that respect.
the dual tipped faber castel and prismacolor colerase you could buy individually at my local art store, but ik you can’t online. along with I think all of the artist loft brand ones, so not as bad. again I think all three brands’ singles aren’t available online :)
Love your video as always Kasey, but am I the only one who got annoyed with the fact that she didn't label the difference in crayola pencils (and any others)
Great video! very helpfull, professional color pencils are very expensive in my country, but the basics faber castell lines are made in brazil, so they easy to find. After this, we want a test with de watercolor pencils!
1. Thanks for this exhaustive info. Must have cost you a pretty penny. 2. After trying only about half a dozen brands, I settled on Rembrandt Lyra Polycolor, because I like the texture, and they don't constantly break like Prismacolor. Apparently they are oil-based, which might mean something. 3. Were I ever to buy another color pencil, it would probably be the one that claimed to be fade proof, as I have had two nice drawings ruined by fading. Both times the blue, btw. 4. I vastly prefer the super thick pencils, which of course only come in cheapo kiddie sets.
I use colour pencils daily. My first pick is the Faber Castell Polychromos, then the Caran D-'Ache Museum Aquarelle, then the Uni 880, then the Staedtler Ergosoft. I'd like to note I own exactly one Tombow Irojten, which I bought as a single.
I think Colerase come in singles in some art supply stores. They're hard but they're great for hand animation. You can use different colors for secondary motion and stuff. The blue and red were my go to for a while.
Appreciate these videos so tyfs and doing all that work for us 😁 I love the prismas, irojitens and my polychromos too. Black widows I find are another smooth pencil but they come in separate tins to make up a set of 180 I think (so sort of like the irojitens) I'm going to have to do the crumble and gradient tests on them now lol 😂
🌸 I only wish there was a lightfastness category chatted about. Of course It can be searched online, but it’s helpful if art people consider this when thinking about supplies and prices and whether they are buying for sketchbook purposes or hanging an original work exposed to light. :)
Li'l Guy Enamel Pins are FINALLY available in my shop! Grab 'em here:
www.kaseygolden.com/shop/lil-guy-blind-bag-enamel-pin
Hi
Softer lead colored pencils that are easy to blend would tend to smudge (being able to move the color around is what makes them easier to blend).
Harder lead colored pencils that are meant for layering techniques would tend to not smudge and are better for details as well because they are better at holding a sharp point.
Eraseable pencils are better for sketching and not for coloring (you'd erase a sketch line and not a full block of color).
Even professional artists whose main medium is colored pencils would have different preferences and even use different pencils for different purposes.
Absolutely!
@@KaseyTheGolden I’d also like to point out that the softer lead pencils are way less dusty. These blend together better and work really well for you because of your “gorilla grip”. The ones that are designed for layering have harder leads and are more crumbly as a result. These blend by layering multiple very light layers over each other and generally don’t get the wax-bloom problem that softer pencils get. Softer lead pencils also tend to fill up the “tooth” of the paper more easily. That can prevent you from adding details at later stages in your drawing even if you’ve been lightly layering them. Harder lead pencils tend to fill up the “tooth” of the paper less so you can more easily add detail later.
Anyway, that was a long way of saying I liked your review and how you discovered your pencil-hardness preferences.
@@Superfluffyfish I'd say that the crumbly/dusty thing is not so much of a rule. I've found many dry hard crumbly pencils, some very soft, buttery and not at all dusty ones, some soft but crumbly ones, and some hard but smooth and not crumbly ones.
It all depends on the formulation of the pencils.
To answer your question about professional coloured pencil artists: we only use lightfast products only because it's such a slow media that non lightfast products are unable to be sold at the price point we need to charge for labour. You don't want to pay for something that doesn't last when you're paying that much for it, right? From there we use a combination of a firmer core and a softer core. Soft core blend beautifully, firm core do better fine details. There's a lot of options at the artist quality tier but they're expensive as hell. If you're a hobbyist colorist, supplies don't matter as much but I recommend not going with the cheapest pencils ever because you'll feel like a crappy artist. The crappier the supply, the more skill you need to make them look nice and compensate for their flaws. They're working against you. Artist quality are way too expensive to learn on. Get a mid quality supply in the student grade area to learn on. If you want to splurge on any supply? It should be the paper. Better paper will make any color pencil look a million times better. Hope that helps!
This comment deserves way more likes. More informative than the actual video unfortunately 😅
KaseyGolden, if you want some advice, maybe try the medium you're going to compare out a bit before you do a massive video like this. I like your presentation style and the idea, but the actual information was not very good imo.
Have a nice new year everyone!
Too much talking to less likes
@@DragonWistArt But these comparison video's are just a way to get a ton of traffic with little knowledge needed... and you can just keep them up for years to keep getting hits.
The paper has a big influence on the performance of a colored pencil. A lot of pencils that have a weak performance on smooth paper just might shine on a less smooth paper.
I have opposite experience. I need the absolutely smoothest paper in the world. So when light layering is not leaving me with white spots of paper not being covered evenly cause it's not smooth
@@Nellhatesyou just like paper makes a difference, so does your technique and you're trying to do.
This must have taken so long.
So long!
What the fawk?!?
@@shamardaniel4819 ?
Ikr?😂😂😂😂😂
Not just time but the damn money. I tested black coloured pencils lately. I bought like 8 and I almost went broke 😅
As a coloured pencil artist with thousands of pencils under my belt, it was so weird to see this North American brand selection. 😂 Hadn't heard of so many of them, and get expecting for the familiar brands to pop up (and they never did).
Koh-I-Noor Polycolors do come in *144* colours, but apparently this data is not offered in North America (their website?).
To be fair the first half are basically for kids and found at any store. Not necessarily “artists’” supply.
A lot of these were the generic brands of US art supply stores. I’d be interested to see more brands from other countries though. :)
@@soniccookie655 so tell her the brand names you would like to see tested. Then she can find them online?
Staedtler is a German brand with their headquarters located near where I live ^^
I am an artist from the US and I haven't heard of most of these. But I think that is probably because many of these were designed for children and not for artists. So much here was not taken under consideration, but this was just a fun comparison, right?
The prismacolor col-erase comes in a 24 pack! They're not great for finished drawing but great for sketching before using the real prismacolors.
And you can get singles online too
my local art store sells them as singles as well. @@laurenansell442
@@laurenansell442 and in physical stores like Blick.
I like using them for watercolor line art!
The prismacolor color-erase one's do come in singles! But it's very hard to find them in singles
If you are in North America, you can order them off of Dick-Blick in singles. Shipping to Canada is expensive though 😅
I was coming to say the same thing! As well as the 3 varieties of Faber-Castell and Prismacolor.
Omg !! This is dedication thank you for your service!
🫡
Small nits, but as you mentioned, some pencils may not be available open stock in NA, but they are indeed available open stock in Europe or Asia, such as the Tombow Irojiten, the Posca Pencils, the Karmina and the Bruynzeel.
The other thing to keep in mind with polychromos and pablo’s is that those pencils are meant for layering to be able to blend them, not straight burnishing. That’s why they are not blending in the same way as the prismacolors or chromaflow.
The Bruynzeel Expression pencils (which were the Bruynzeel pencils featured on this video) are not available open stock anywhere. Their artist line (Design) is and so are some of their kids' lines.
@@thinkerdreamersketcherspy correct. Good clarification. That is the issue of referring to the pencil’s brand but not the sub-line.
There is a way to get the Posca pencils single! I think it's more up to the art store though. My local place does sell them single!
These tests are always fun to watch!
I work for an art supply company and we sell posca pencils as singles!
Just adding on that the tomboy irojiten are actually available online as singles! 30:00
Personally I couldn’t find them, lucky you!
I love these comparisons and the big spreadsheets! Really interesting to see all the variations side-by-side.
Those Faber Castell black edition are in my opinion the best value for the pencil you get. Nothing beats my love for the polychromos and the caran d’ache luminance. Ps Bruynzeel from Royal Talens is also a cheap brand of color pencils and very populair here in Belgium/the Netherlands
This is so interesting! I mean I knew that some pencils are just better than others. But I didn't expect that big of a difference between different brands! I love my polychromos and I got them a few years ago pretty cheep on a sale (got the big box with every color for around 100 bucks, but they do cost 250 on their website now.) but honestly I might get different pencils (cheaper ones) In the future just to safe some money. Some of the cheaper ones really looked great to me.
It’s nice when they’re available as singles just so you can test a few out before making a decision, as well! But honestly Faber-Castell is a pretty solid choice as well!
I saw a blue Twistable during your intro and got so excited. I love the first formulation of these and how well they erase when I want to use colored line-art and paint with watercolor.
The prismacolor col erase colored pencils are sold in singles at some art stores especially small town stores!
I LOVE THESE LONG VIDS BC I CAN DRAW WITHOUT CHANGING THE VID EVERY 10 MINS!! 💕
You would enjoy streams! 🤣
Same! ❤
I love these kinds of videos!
Reminds me of the eraser testing vid that is still one of my favorites :)
The video that started it all!
The other big thing to keep in mind is that the higher price point does offer some other features. Lightfast and archival quality and pigment availability are the reasons why most art supplies cost more.
The caran d'ache luminescence and derwent lightfast are both extremely light fast and museum quality. Most general people aren't going's to *need* this level of pencil, but as the video shows, there are a lot of options.
totally agree with you in terms of what constitutes as 'erasable', the expectation for me is that it should be 100% gone. It really frustrates me when something is touted as erasable but it still leaves a ghost. It's kinda funny that reg pencils are technically darker and yet can be erased most of the time, yet make it a coloured thing and it's then really really hard to make something that is erasable. makes me curious about the like make up of these materials and how we can erase things in the first place.
Some colored pencils arent really meant to burnished they're meant to be lightly layered to build up the color which is why you are seeing some of them not perform the same at the same price point. They're just meant to be used differently. I am like you and prefer softer pencils so I can burnish because I find layering to be too tedious
I was always under the impression that the Verithins were meant more for plan/blueprint/schematic drawings for architects and engineers, rather than for art purposes, which would explain the hard lead and sharp lines and poor blending.
The regular Faber castle pencils are available as a single. I found them at the store where I buy my first set of them.
Royal and Langnickel are a UK brand. They're an affordable higher end of student quality/cheaper artist quality.
Arteza don't sell their expert coloured pencils as singles as such but they sell their colours in packs of 3 so you don't have to buy the whole 120 set again just for one colour. They're one of my favourite coloured pencils that are on the affordable end. I prefer softer, more buttery pencils and you do have to give some leeway for the crumbliness/dustiness when you want a softer, more blendy pencil. My ultimate favourite pencils are the Prismacolor Premier. I would absolutely love to have the full set.
I happened upon Royal Langnickel in a small art store, otherwise I didn’t know it existed!
@@KaseyTheGolden they're one of the brands you find everywhere here, I guess similar to the Michael's/Hobby Lobby own brands across the pond. I remember one of my first "proper" (aka non-kids supply) art supplies was Royal & Langnickel - they tend to be more for paints than coloured pencils though. They do some really nice little starter sets for different types of paint.
I think the best colored pencil topic is quite subjective. Price might differ a lot depending where are you from. Your preferences as well as probably what you grew up with is whats most affordable in your country. For example i am from Czech Rebublic hence can get Koh-i-noors for peanuts (esp. if you pick version without gold ends in paper box) and they are also what i grew up with, so they seem very natural to me . Things like Prismacolor coloursoft are pricey here and i absolutelly cant get them open stock. Not to mention growing up on Koh-i-noors i expect my pencils not to break too easily and have some hardness (though also enough pigment so the drawing with such harder pencil is not that hard :D ).
Yum, gluten free colored pencils ready for consumption!
🤤
Considering how many pencils I've chewed on in my life, it's actually kinda helpful info!
Great for toddlers!
I'm very glad to see Derwent being recognised for its quality. I visit their pencil museum every year to see their supplies. The lake district is very beautiful and for being the home of pencils (so they say) it makes sense that they’ve made such high quality art supplies, even if they are a little pricy.
Polychromos are my favorite, even though their "white" is basically a blending stump. I also wish they had a wider selection of skin tones. I splurged for the Caran D'ache Luminance set a while back. Probably won't buy another set of those. Though I would buy their white and they have some really good skin tones. I also got a ton of Prismacolors accumulated. They're good for sketching and coloring books, but I'd recommend Derwent Chromaflow over Prismacolor. They hold a point longer and don't break all the time. Also, Lyra Rembrandt and Koh-i-noor are some pretty decent oil-based pencils that are cheaper than Polychromos.
Lyra Rembrandt colored pencils are hard or soft core? May i ask what is your suggestion between Lyra Rembrandt & Polychromos, thank you
Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils used to come in singles! My sister used to use the Rose color for her sketches before she used her last pencil to a nub. She uses the Pilot Color-Eno lead in pink now.
Suddenly I need fifty blue pencils.
those empowerment colors really said gaslight gatekeep girlboss
When did primary colors become empowerment colors for artist? Gaslight defined means; "to manipulate another person into doubting their own perceptions, experiences or understanding of events, according to the American Psychological Association." If one's psyche is so fragile that watching swatches of primary colors causes them to doubt their own perceptions, experiences or understanding of events, the person should avoid youtube and see a APA professional to prevent further harm. Since this content creator is obviously an adult, not a child, I'll assume you and your 18 supporters are a part of the group of American's that feel entitled and superior to other humans. "Boyboss" may be a good title for such people.
It would’ve been nice to have the name it the pencils written down along with the brand, since there are multiples of many brands. It makes it slightly confusing 😅
it's so crazy to see polychromos at over 2 dollars a piece. I have been using them for almost 10 years now and I never paid more than 1,70 euro (so that would be about 1.85 dollar). I often get them even cheaper than that. Maybe it's because they are a German brand.
I mean, a ton of the pencils shown, I haven't even heard of before. And I personally haven't seen prismacolor in the art stores here (North of the Netherlands). I am very biased towards Polychromos because of how long I have been using them, but they are my favorite pencil brand.
Sadly a lot of my information varies location to location! Price, availability, if they’re available as singles… it’s hard to make a video for the world. 🥲
We used to get Polychromos for 1.60 € each as well, but recently the price has shot up. I think they're 2.40 now? Strange, as other brands have not raised their prices in a similar way.
Prismacolors used to be not sold in Europe due to a legal settlement but I think that expired this year (might have been 2003-2023?). At least I've been seeing more European art stores offer them this year.
Yes polychromos are actually much cheaper there since they’re manufactured there :)
The way I cheered when we finally got a “yes” under the singles column 😅
Same though. 🤣
prismacolour col erase are available as singles but typically only red and light blue because a lot of artists sketch with those two colours only
They weren't shown here but I really like derwent coloursofts, they are a bit pricey so I don't use them often but my sibling put me onto them and they are very pigmented and great for those asthetic big shaped art pieces. This was a great video, it was really interesting, it's cool so see the different pencils strengths, I like a hard pencil for detail and layering but some of those buttery smooth ones are just so tempting!
I thought the col-erase from prisma color were available as singles in the USA ? I also found a set of 24 on Amazon a few months ago
I’m in Canada so a lot of my availability is different! Just find what you can, haha.
They’ve stopped selling most of them as singles unfortunately but Blick and Jerry’s may still have some in stock until they run out 🥲
Yeah, I believe that there are 25 Col-erase colours. There’s the non photo blue that doesn’t come in the 24 pack.
thx for doing this video ! It’s a decent resource and I’m sure it took a long time and was annoying to film.
since u already have the pencils and equipment I thought I might give a few humble suggestions if u ever wanted to film a follow up to this:
1) please include the collection name as well as the manufacturer. Faber Castell or Prisma by itself is meaningless. They each make at least 5 different collections of pencils at vastly different price points.
2) eliminate all kids quality pencils. If a brand has less then 24 colors or is edible. it’s not a viable brand. Gluten free brand is for kids that eat their pencils and crayons. Etc.
3) Dust test is a bit meaningless. If you must include it, use three ratings. Failed, ok, and no dust.
4) rating the smoothness and moistness is important. Include a rating for smooth/dry/waxy/oily/etc. include close ups as you apply.
5) make sure that the color you choose to represent blue is the same for all brands. You are using dark blue and true /French blue for some brands.
6) choose a few random difficult colors to test for each brand. I would suggest purple, one or two pastels.
7) include whether they include a blender in their collection.
8) test the blender if they have it.
9) erasable is not a thing with regular colored pencil. No need for that metric. It also confuses the dust metric because ur literally erasing dust right before that rating. So eliminate that part.
10) test at least some white, black and gray from each collection.
11) include country of manufacture in your chart. Very important.
Holy moly this was a big test! Very interesting!
Arteza is available in open stock, actually. The way they curb the cost issue of "singles" is they sell single colours in 3 packs. If you've used a colour so fast it doesn't warrant replacing the whole set, this is fine.
I've got the 24 pack of Prismacolor Col-erase on my desk right now :3 Admittedly, I haven't used them too much b/c i have to sharpen them XD I use the pink and blue one mainly as an undersketch for marker or watercolor drawings.
I own a set of Castle Art Soft Touch colored pencils that I would have liked to see in the video and compare it to the others. Oh well.
same here with the castle arts pencils! i love them and i was hoping to see another opinion haha
As someone who has 48 pack of Maped - they come in more colours than 24. Found a pack of 72 online and there is probably even more.
I loooove videos like this! I love raw data presented like this it’s so fun for me lol
I am a color pencil artist; have been for many years. I have to say that from when I was a kid to now, I am happy to see more companies showing the humble colored pencil some love.
The main draws, for me, with buying multiple sets is:
1) wax vs oil
2) lead thickness
3) color selection
Some brands have more earthy tones available, while others have really good bright or pastel colors. You just gotta do a lil research into the brand to find out what suits your needs best. 😊
I love these comparison videos I find them so interesting! I have faber castell polychromos and caran d'ache luminance because at the time they were the only pencils I heard were universally good. Honestly though, looking at this, I might give some cheaper brands a try in future 🤔
If you can find them as singles, it’s definitely worth a try!
17:04 That’s how much Mr Krabs sold SpongeBob for💀
He was trying to buy a singular pencil from Staedtler 💀
@@xtremeyoylecake LMFAOOO
@@Kenny-1414 “you think I could’ve gotten more?”
@@xtremeyoylecake “he stuck up for you and you sold him out…YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF”
It's fun to see how different pencils perform under controlled conditions! Thanks for taking the time to walk us through them 🙏
Thank you for your dedication to creating this video! Evaluating usability compared to price for such an incredible number of pencils was a huge undertaking. Of course you couldn't possible obtain ever pencil that exist, but you effort was excellent. The chart indicating brand, price, blend, etc. made it evident that the results would benefit colorist and artists looking for pencils that perform well to use in the initial/development stages of their work, allowing their best supplies to be reserved for their final productions.The swatching and price portion of the content was perfect for this purpose. There are content creators, as well as the ASTM, who spend months testing and analyzing artist grade colored pencil attributes such as toxicity, lightfastness, texture, and/or the malleability of the combined ingredients creating each pencil's core. However individual users concerns about each pencil's perform verses its price have to be done through trial and error. The swatches and blends allow viewers to determine if a pencil will work for it's intended application in their project, regardless if it is coloring in a book, marking wood, or architecture drawings. At some point I would like to see how other pencils compare in terms of performance; such as the Stabilo All, Derwent Drawing/Graphitint, pastel/chalk pencils, tri-tones, and even water solubles such Inktense and Mondeluz since many artist used them without water do to their softer cores. Nice work!💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
the black faber castells one... i love them! over black paper they look amazing
in the art supply store in germany where i got my fancy tombows, they are actually sold in singles. but i guess many of the pencils in this video are sold in singles in store. just not online
I definitely had a feeling it depended on location! I couldn’t even find them as singles online!
There available at places in America selling them as singles too, Dick Blick and Wet Paint Art Supply sell them!
Tombow Irojiten are available in singles online at Blick! (At least in the US. Maybe not everywhere.)
the singles and dust category were so unnecessary since for so many of them it wasn’t even accurate 😭
Yes! A recent comparison video. Thank you so much for doing this and giving us your top 3 at the end.
Love coloured pencils, have not heard of a lot of these brands, though.
Derwent is my go to, it’s pretty affordable and their watercolor is absolutely fantastic for the price it’s the only watercolor I’ve ever used I’ve been able to get a flat color with
the fine touch pencils are available as singles, but i think you can only get single colors in store, and they’re meant to have a similar texture to prismacolor, just a cheaper alternative :))
Thanks for doing this. Wish you could have put the full names under the brand space, since some companies have a few entries. Hope you do more comparisons.
Several of those brands marked as packs only are definitely available as singles
Lyras are hugely underrated...for the price poit they are really darn good! Chromoflows have a nice unique vibrancy as well.
Lyra Rembrandt Polycolors do feel nice to work with, but I totally see why they're 'underrated'. They're nothing special, and don't have a competitive advantage in any category.
For example, over here the Polycolors are roughly the same price as the Faber-Castell Polychromos (used to be 1.60 € per pencil but with the current inflation...). While FC Polychromos have good lightfastness ratings, LR Polycolors have more variation and the manufacturer ratings are not reliable. These two things alone make it hard for artist to choose Polycolors over Polychromos and for kids/schools Lyra itself offers other, cheaper options which do their job well.
Uni poscas are definitely available singly!
I would have loved if lightfastness would be a criteria, this is one of the important things for me.
Wow! 62 brands! Thats a bunch 😄Wondering if dust would be helpful to rate from 1 to 10
I've tried most of these pencils, plus other brands like Black Widow, which are super popular in the colouring communities.
I will say Prismacolor suprised me in 2 ways in the this video. 1) that they were so low down the chart in terms of cost per pencil for the Premiere, and 2) that the Verithin cost more per pencil than the former
They're harder I think than the others of the brand
I have the Derwent ones in my cart already. That gradient looks so good!
i'd like to say maped colorpeps are popular in bulgaria or Europe, they offerr more than 24 seen sets with 72 or 100 if im not mistaken ;o
As a French Canadian Addict to my favorite Art Store DeSerres, I was happy to see your review of their pencils. It validated my own review of it. Ok for school, summer camp but not for professionnal artists. They newly lunched this product so I hope they will improved it.
I grew up on the Twistables, briefly attempted Prismas and other smaller brands, and clicked the best with a mix of Holbein and both main Faber-Castell lines (Goldfaber and Polychromos), although I have also used some Staedtler. So neat seeing the variety!
Prang and Sergeant Art, my beloathed.
Have you saved your previous testing posters? If you have I would love to see them ♥️ Also, I know these videos must take some time to process and it’s much appreciated and very enjoyable to watch 😊
When Kasey useing coloring pencils my hand starts to hurt looking at her color. I like color pencils that are smooth
I think that’s the FaberCastell Classic? They come in 100 sets too. You just have to search for them, also 100 in aquarell.
I can almost feel the hand cramps theough the screen.
Love the comparison videos! Blick is definitely an art store in the US, and they actually sell singles of the Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils there :)
welp i thought you were my favourite art creator on youtube but nah, your just my favourite human lol keep being you, its awesome.
faber-castell's albrecht drurer pencils have a large variety and are sold in singles, they're my go-to if I use pencils in my art because they're soft, ergonomic, and I just like their colours. they're kinda crumbly and smudge a little if the ink's not quite dry though. the lyra polycolour are my second go-to, mostly because their earthier tones are really nice. I need to get back into using coloured pencils in my art again!!!
The Albrecht Durer are watercolor pencils so it makes sense that any liquid would make the “smudgy.” I actually love the feel of them because they dissolve almost completely when water is added (depending on if you dug it into the paper or not). Personally they feel very similar to their non-water soluble sibling Polychromos which basically don’t smudge at all.
@@ciannacoleman5125 y'know I'm not surprised they're watercolour pencils, given my track record of picking up pencils liking their texture and then discovering they're watercolours! I feel like when they're used as regular pencils they're a lot creamier in texture and I just prefer that
Koh I Noor has graduated to a higher number, they are available in 144 sets.
Tombows and poscas come in singles.... You can get them in stationary stores. Staedtlers, too
Thank you for this massive effort! , got to see a lot of brands I hadn't heard of before too :O
I just wanted to comment that Maped does sell bigger sets, I have a 72 single color pencils set from then 😊
Honestly I’m way too excited for a longer video!
I use an Acurit electric eraser to erase any colored pencil I have found.
i just watched this video in full and i don’t even use colored pencils 😅 super entertaining for some reason!! also even though i know how primary colors worked, i was so amazed when i first saw the orange and green in the gradient
Hullo Kasey, I have Prismacolor, Faber Castell's Poly's and Albrecht Durer's as my main "Art" pencils(I used to use Koh-i-noor watercolor pencils before I invested in the Albrecht's from Faber and the Poly's have 144 different colors). I use Brutfuner Square and Cezanne pencils for my budget brands, these are the ones I give to nieces and nephews when they visit! I have never had much luck erasing color pencils, but when I borrowed an electric eraser (Derwent Branded) it got a LOT of pencil color up! I have wanted to try Holbein, but they are simply to expensive and I just do not use pencils enough to justify the expense of buying even more color pencils! I do enjoy watching you send art supplies through your testing criteria, well done Kasey!
I'm curious about your opinion on chameleon colored pencils, as well! Super fun videos, KG! 💕
You should have used them on toned tan as well to show how opaque some pencils are, like the Faber Castell Black Edition!❤
That’s what the black line was for. 🙂
@@KaseyTheGolden Okay, I understand ^^
Super informative! I haven't used a lot of colored pencils, but I believe I would be a fan of softer ones, even if they're crumbly. I don't have a heavy hand which helps in that respect.
the dual tipped faber castel and prismacolor colerase you could buy individually at my local art store, but ik you can’t online. along with I think all of the artist loft brand ones, so not as bad. again I think all three brands’ singles aren’t available online :)
Love your video as always Kasey, but am I the only one who got annoyed with the fact that she didn't label the difference in crayola pencils (and any others)
in my opnion, it's not artist friendly color pencils as long as you can't buy them separately
Love these comparison videos. So helpful.
Great video! very helpfull, professional color pencils are very expensive in my country, but the basics faber castell lines are made in brazil, so they easy to find. After this, we want a test with de watercolor pencils!
I love the spreadsheet format
I love the teeny tiny pencils, I want to find some of my own!
The Koh-i- noor Progresso woodless have been my go to pencil for the last 10 years or so. They are so much more cost effective than other pencils
1. Thanks for this exhaustive info. Must have cost you a pretty penny.
2. After trying only about half a dozen brands, I settled on Rembrandt Lyra Polycolor, because I like the texture, and they don't constantly break like Prismacolor. Apparently they are oil-based, which might mean something.
3. Were I ever to buy another color pencil, it would probably be the one that claimed to be fade proof, as I have had two nice drawings ruined by fading. Both times the blue, btw.
4. I vastly prefer the super thick pencils, which of course only come in cheapo kiddie sets.
The weak, transparent blues and the not-red reds infuriated me.
I use colour pencils daily. My first pick is the Faber Castell Polychromos, then the Caran D-'Ache Museum Aquarelle, then the Uni 880, then the Staedtler Ergosoft.
I'd like to note I own exactly one Tombow Irojten, which I bought as a single.
I think Colerase come in singles in some art supply stores. They're hard but they're great for hand animation. You can use different colors for secondary motion and stuff. The blue and red were my go to for a while.
Should’ve tried my favorites. The brutfuners
Appreciate these videos so tyfs and doing all that work for us 😁 I love the prismas, irojitens and my polychromos too. Black widows I find are another smooth pencil but they come in separate tins to make up a set of 180 I think (so sort of like the irojitens) I'm going to have to do the crumble and gradient tests on them now lol 😂
I love your dedication ❤️
🌸 I only wish there was a lightfastness category chatted about. Of course It can be searched online, but it’s helpful if art people consider this when thinking about supplies and prices and whether they are buying for sketchbook purposes or hanging an original work exposed to light. :)
I love your comparison videos, you’re so thorough
You should try oil pastel brands, one of my fave art supplies :D