Tin case of 72 soft-core pencils for blending, shading, and layering; softer and waxier than regular pencils.
Tin case of 72 soft-core pencils for blending, shading, and layering; softer and waxier than regular pencils.
Color-coded for easy identification of pencils. The durable box stores soft, waxy pencils securely. You can create beautiful work with vibrant, smooth pigments. A top brand in colored pencils.
Some leads uneven or not numbered clearly. Quality-control issues with some sets.
A bargain option that comes with 36 pencils in a wide range of colors for fun and creativity while drawing.
A bargain option that comes with 36 pencils in a wide range of colors for fun and creativity while drawing.
Colored pencils come sharpened and ready to use. Made with nontoxic and re-forested materials. Sturdy design holds up to use over time. Colors are bright and the texture is creamy.
Several customers experienced packaging issues with the pencils arriving damaged or loose.
Imported set of 12 artist-grade metallic pencils with high-impact shimmer and pigment.
Imported set of 12 artist-grade metallic pencils with high-impact shimmer and pigment.
High-quality, easy-to-blend colors that show up well on paper of all grades and colors. Set comes in an attractive tin case. Smooth laydown and a popular choice for adult coloring.
Set is an acquired taste and is expensive for only 12 colors.
Popular choice for kids' coloring; a nontoxic formula featuring brilliant colors.
Popular choice for kids' coloring; a nontoxic formula featuring brilliant colors.
Vivid, blendable colors with soft laydown and fade-resistant pigment. AP-certified nontoxic. Extensive color range that is decently organized in a 2-layer box.
Quality and pigment aren't on par with artist-grade colored pencils.
Choose this set if you are looking for pencils with soft, thick cores.
Choose this set if you are looking for pencils with soft, thick cores.
Set of 48 is a solid mid-range choice with a decent selection of colors geared toward developing artists. Robust, durable leads are crack- and chip-resistant, so they last for a while if well cared for.
Gradient color assortment, so don't expect extreme colors in this set.
We recommend these products based on an intensive research process that's designed to cut through the noise and find the top products in this space. Guided by experts, we spend hours looking into the factors that matter, to bring you these selections.
From coloring within the lines to creating your own artistic masterpieces, the only thing that limits what you can create with a colored pencil set is your imagination. Not all colored pencils are created equal, though, and not all sets enable you to do every kind of coloring. Basic colored pencils are really only suited to coloring books or simple drawings, rather than blending and shading.
Unless you're already a colored pencil expert, figuring out which ones are right for you can prove tricky. Will your chosen colored pencil set meet your individual requirements, or will it end up gathering dust in the back of a cupboard?
The three varieties of colored pencils are differentiated by the binder used to hold the pigment together: wax, oil, and water.
The most common type, these colored pencils use wax to hold the pigment together inside the pencil. If you've ever bought colored pencils from a grocery store, they were probably wax-based, but that doesn't mean that only basic colored pencils are wax-based.
As well as the standard hard wax-based coloring pencils that you'll find on any elementary school supply checklist, you can also buy softer wax-based varieties for blending and layering. While these are popular and versatile, the wax can separate from the pigment and form a "wax bloom" on your work. This is more common with cheaper pencils.
Less common than wax-based varieties, you usually only find oil-based colored pencils in art supply stores, though they're also available online. Thanks to a harder core, oil-based pencils are less likely to break, but it also means they don't blend or layer as easily as wax-based kinds. On the plus side, there's no chance of wax bloom, and oil-based pencils are less messy to use than softer wax-based pencils.
Also known as "watercolor" or "water-soluble" colored pencils, water-based varieties can be used either wet or dry. When used wet, the gum arabic that binds the pigment dissolves, giving you an effect that looks much like watercolor paints.
One of the first factors to consider is the range of colors included. Some sets have well over 100 colors, while others only have 20 or 30. If you only want colored pencils to use in coloring books or to create simple art, you might not need a huge range of colors. On the other hand, creating detailed or realistic artwork requires more colors. Since you can't mix colored pencils as you can paint, you might need more colors than you think. Of course, the more colors you require, the larger your set will need to be, which means you'll need to spend more.
When creating art with colored pencils, you'll need to layer one color over another and blend them together for a smooth transition. Wax-based colored pencils are easier to blend than oil-based varieties. And softer pencils are easier to blend than harder ones.
The term “opacity” refers to how opaque or transparent the color is on the page. The greater the opacity, the fewer layers you'll need for good, even coverage. High opacity is also a huge benefit when using colored pencils on darker colored paper.
Colored cores in your pencils come in varying degrees of hardness. Harder pencils are good for fine detail but not so good for laying down large areas of color, layering, or blending. If you want to blend and layer colors, a softer pencil is your best bet. But soft pencils can be messier to use and require more regular sharpening.
Coloring books: While you can use very basic colored pencils for coloring books, higher-quality pencils with a slightly softer core will give you better, more even coverage.
Sketching: For basic sketching, you don't need a huge color range because you'll usually only use one or two colors. While it's easier to sketch with quality pencils, they should be fairly hard so they don't smudge when you close your sketchbook.
Fine art: For fine art, you generally need a variety of hard colored pencils for detail and soft pencils for blending and layering.
It can be tough to compare the prices of colored pencil sets because the sets vary in size. But you can compare sets by comparing the price per pencil. You can expect to pay between $0.10 and $3 per pencil.
Basic colored pencils cost about $0.10 to $0.25 apiece. These are usually fairly hard wax-based crayons that are fine for kids or for simple drawing or coloring but may be lacking for artistic use.
Colored pencils in the middle of the price range cost from $0.25 to $1 apiece. You can find some very good options that blend and layer well enough for amateur and student artists for $0.50 per pencil.
High-end colored pencils cost roughly $1 to $3 apiece. These are the colored pencils that professional artists use. The average buyer won't need to spend quite this much.
Think about durability. Costlier colored pencils are crafted from quality wood that's bound tightly to the core, making the core less likely to break even when dropped.
Keep your colored pencils sharp. Your colored pencils need to be sharp for the pigment to penetrate into the tooth of the paper. You might find it easier to sharpen soft-leaded pencils in a sharpener for eyebrow or eyeliner pencils.
Consider the case. If the case is poor quality, or it’s hard to get pencils in and out of it, you might want to invest in a new one.
A. Young kids who are using colored pencils for simple drawings and scribbling only need basic, inexpensive types. At this age, children often break or lose the pencils, so spending a lot on a high-end set would be a waste of money. However, if you have older kids who are showing an interest in art, we recommend buying a quality colored pencil set with fairly soft cores. These are much better for coloring and drawing and will give your child an opportunity to learn how to layer and blend.
A. You might see some mid-range and high-end colored pencil sets marked either "student" or "professional." Professional sets contain a higher ratio of pigment to binder, so the colors are more vivid and opaque with fewer strokes. Professional colored pencil sets are more expensive than student sets.
A. If you're a budding artist but don't know much about drawing with colored pencils, you'll be able to find plenty of resources online. You can find a wide range of drawing tutorials on YouTube, as well as websites with step-by-step guidelines and advice.
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