In this article, you’ll find simple to understand, visual charts of some major brands of professional colored pencils. I use them to reference not only my colors but also my purchase decisions. I buy colored pencils as open stock, which means that most colored pencils are sold individually. This saves me time and money because I don’t buy the fugitive colors, which fade and even disappear off of the paper pretty quickly. I wanted to have a simple, visual database of color charts for a quick access to make a decision on the go, so here we are!
What can be confusing about reading the lightfastness charts of colored pencils is the star rating itself. There's is no unity in lightfastness presentation. Some brands use a 1-star rating to show that their colored pencils have excellent lightfastness (100+years), while other brands use the same 1-star rating to rate their worst or fugitive colors. So you must pay attention to the lightfastness rating of each brand, to get correct reading of their lightfastness charts.
Lightfastness is the ability of colors to withstand strong UV light over a prolonged time frame. Usually colors that have excellent rating are not supposed to fade for 100+years. Fugitive colors can fade within very few years that I saw myself happening when I began drawing with Prismacolor. I didn’t care about the lightfastness back then. I was a beginner student and my only priority was to learn how to draw, not being consumed by the analysis paralysis. It matters a lot to me now as I sell my art. Of course, this decision comes at a considerable cost upgrading my art supplies to the best performing colored pencils. So it depends at what point of learning you’re and how big your budget is. Just because you switch to very expensive pencils, it won’t help you become an excellent draftsman overnight. At the same time quality of colored pencils does matter a lot in art creation. Cheap, low-quality colored pencils don’t have the color saturation and softness necessary to create consistent shading.
What makes professional colored pencils different from others?
- lightfastness
- lead’s softness
- color saturation
- durability (breakage of its core)
- price
What are the best colored pencils to try?
- The absolute best are Swiss made Caran d’Ache Luminance. They have the best lightfastness rating, the strongest core and the softest lead to produce professional colored pencil drawings. They are the most expensive ones too, sold at over $4 per pencil.
- Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils is a new brand of upscale colored pencils. They beat Luminance in price and some artists swear by them!
- Derwent Lightfast are 100% lightfast oil-based colored pencils manufactured in England. They are smooth, vibrant and creamy. Available in a range of 36 colors.
- Prismacolor Premier colored pencils have a very soft core and nice coverage, but many of them are NOT lightfast. You should download their lightfastness chart to see the rating of every pencil they have. LF-1 and LF-2 are good to go, but avoid using pencils with the # III and # IV ratings. They fade from your page within 2 years. Literally.
- Swiss made, Pablo colored pencils is a cheaper alternative to the Luminance manufactured by the same company. These have a very strong core that resists breakage. They are saturated and soft but their lightfastness varies. The lightfastness rating is written on them.
- Coming from Germany, The Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils are different from the brands mentioned above, because they don’t have that much wax in them and behave more like soft pastels when you start blending them. Therefore, solvents don’t work on them as well as on wax-based colored pencils. They have a very strong lead with the lightfastness rating written on every pencil. Not every colored pencil is lightfast and you should refer yourself to the chart if you buy them as open stock.
- Derwent Colorsoft colored pencils are also worth your try. They are nice to work with but the lightfastness varies as well. Buy a few colors to test them in your drawing!
I requested the charts from the manufacturers. Most of them shared the pdf files, which I think is inconvenient to look up the colors on the go. So I took the liberty to modify the charts and convert them to simple jpg files.
Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils (US-Canada)
Faber-Castell Polychromos Artist Color Pencils (Germany)
102 of 120 Polychromos Colors have the *** designation | *** = Maximum Lightfastness. Maximum Fade Resistance of 100+ years
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Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens lightfastness chart (Germany)
Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils (the USA)
Lightfastness rating system: I-excellent, II-very good, III-good, IV-fair, V-poor
Caran d’Ache Luminance Colored Pencils (Switzerland)
Luminance has I & II lightfastness rating with most pencils having LF I.
Caran d’Ache Pablo Colored Pencils (Switzerland)
***Excellent lightfastness, **very good, *good.
Derwent Coloursoft Colored Pencils (UK)
Lightfastness rating: 6-good, 7-very good, 8-excellent | 6-8 won’t fade for 100+ years.
Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencils (UK)
Lightfastness rating: 1 & 2, won’t fade for up to 100 years.
Derwent Artists Colored Pencils (UK)
Lightfastness rating: 3-fair, 4-moderate, 5-good, 6-very good, 7-8 excellent
What are the best professional graphite pencils?
- Coming from Japan, the Tombow Mono graphite pencils are the top of the line for professional drawing.
- The Cretacolor Monolith woodless pencils
- Prismacolor ebony graphite pencils are great for beginners in art that don’t need to sacrifice quality over the money spent on art supplies.
- The Faber-Castell 9000 graphite pencils
What makes them stand out:
- High quality of the lead
- Resistance to breakage
- Consistent coverage
- Various degrees of softness and hardness. (9H is the hardest pencil for the lightest shading, and 9B is the softest pencil for the creation of the darkest values).
Of course, there are many more brands and pencils. Instead of buying a box, buy them as open stock at a local store or online. Work with them and then invest into your favorite brand.
I'll be adding charts to this post, so don't forget to subscribe to my email for more information coming on this topic. And check out my colored pencil drawing classes here: https://veronica-winters-art-school.teachable.com/
Art supplies available on Amazon
- Drawing pad, bristol vellum
- Kneaded eraser
- Tombow mono eraser
- Drawing fixative
- Sennelier fixative for charcoal and pencil has a super fine spray mist, matte, high-quality
- Gamvar varnish for oil paintings, satin
- Brush for varnishing oil paintings
- Color Wheel
- Canson Colorline drawing paper is available in many colors and various thickness. You might find better choices at art supply online retailers
- Molotow metallic acrylic marker, gold
- How to color like an artist, coloring book for children and adults
- The colored pencil manual, art instruction book
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