Art Supply Reviews

Smooth, buttery, creamy, velvety, blendable, pigment rich, versatile, professional, & ohhhh sooooo soft. 

BUY Set of 132 Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils

I realize that the above description could easily be confused with Red Velvet Cake... HOWEVER, these words describe what the experience is like to use these artist quality colored pencils. Soft & smooth from the first moment their waxy pigments make contact on untouched paper, they actually become creamier with each subsequent layer! Tonal layering is also a pleasure. On the right surface, you can build up to 20 layers of rich, vibrant, translucent color! Layering adds vibrance & a 'glow' to your work. This is a most satisfying reason to use Prismacolor Premiers. Because of their buttery consistency, Prismacolors blend effortlessly on the paper &, if desired, burnish these layers to give your piece a shiny, painterly look. Another nice feature is their excellent dissolvability with the use of solvent.  Prismacolor’s coupling with solvent can produce a watercolor look, or help you block in color fast for a glowing underpainting. Add this to their easy portability, & you have a very simple, mess-free supply kit to pack for a day out Plein Air painting.

With 132 available colors, Prismacolor Premier wax-based colored pencils take the cake for the widest variety of colors among all colored pencil brands. And get this – if you visit Prismacolor’s website, you will find a Digital Color Coordinator which takes CMYK & RGB values and matches you to the closest match they have out of their 132 colors! 

PROS Incredibly soft which allows for maximum blendability.  At times seem to be pastel-like! 132 Pigment Rich colors – largest assortment of any colored pencil brand Excellent gray scale Great dissolvability with solvents Can be used with heat for even more blendability Great for tonal layering Colors match Prismacolor Verithin for fine detail work Colors match Prismacolor Art Stix for covering larger areas Thick, 3.8mm core Can be used with Prismacolor Colorless Blender Lightfastness is in accordance with ASTM-D6901-06 Standards Colors match Pantone Matching System Colors Sold open stock to replace colors as you need them

CONS Softness means they're fragile, & if you’re not careful the lead can break very easily Wax Bloom due to their high wax content.  This can easily be remedied by gently wiping with a paper towel They can leave ‘crumbs’ behind.  Be sure to use a soft brush to light sweep away to avoid smudges on the paper They wear down quickly if using heavy pressure If dropped or not treated with care, the lead will break inside the pencil causing the lead to keep ‘falling out’ each time you sharpen resulting in a wasted pencil and wasted money

Here are a few of the many paintings I've done with Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils: