Who makes the best colored pencils?

Don't ask me, I'm white.

What?

in michaels, the art store where i work, they have a cheap section for poor folk hid among the paint in the aisle next to the name brand art pencils and markers, everything is 5 dollars, the pastels which cost 30 dollars? u get the same colors in the 5 dollar set.

ive noticed in my artwork, that if you suck, which i do, then use cheap stuff, but use it alot.
There was a test done in a pottery class, where one secion was ordered to make as many pots as possible, the other just one perfect pot...


the quantity side had better ones, ever since i read that i realised its not how good your artwork is, but how much art you work on..


having said that i really dont know much about colored pencils, heh. oils was always my strong side, even tho i refuse to submit and am still using pen and pencil...

Um, I still have my electric pencil sharper... I liked having both dull and sharp pencils for different effects..

Thank you all again! I love going into a shop having some idea of what I'm talking about and knowing what kind of questions to ask the clerk.

I ended up buying a set of 24 Prismacolor pencils, 12 Derwalt water color pencils and a fat notebook of paper.

(I know, I know.... who does their Christmas shopping this early? Me.)

my 10 yr old daughter and i only ever use derwent colored pencils.

nice choices!, i have 3 sets of derwent pencils and prismacolor is expensive, moreso than the rest but is high quliaty in my opinion.

prisma markers are world famous among graffiti folk who are using blackbooks.

I have tried several brands and have settled with Prisma Colors.They are very smooth and blend nicely. They also have a large library of colors.

prismicolours i seem are the best, they have smooth clear water proof colours, that blend beautifully into your masterpiece or drawing, it is sold in USA, and europe, u can buy them online however they will be expensive. I have been a fan of prismicolours for a long time, they always bring out good results.

I am a professional artist and Prismas(Prestismacolor) pencils are the absolute best color pencils out there. They are smooth. and blend well. They aren't cheap at 1.80 a pencil, but are the best. Not to mention they do what you want them faster.

Naaah, If you can afford em, Caran d'Ache by Sennelier and their Aquamonoliths" are the very best.
I keep several of the Aquamonolith for highlighting along edges in Watercolors. I like to edge areas of washes with complementary colors or a black or indigo border then do a very dry wash. it makes the entire subject "pop".
Next to whites, I will always use a lavendar highlight so the white comes forward (like clouds or puddles).

I only keep a few basic highlighting colors (Hookerish green, Indigo, Vermillion, light puple or lavendar, black and Ultramarine)
Theyre about 5 to 7 bucks a pencil so complete sets are a waste of money cause any colored pencil is still inferior to watercolor.

Prismacolor!

Just found out that putting them in the microwave for 5 sec will mend them also. At least it works for Prismacolor pencils. That'll the thicker,waxier one's not sure if it works for Prismacolor Verithin. But I'm assuming those don't break as much being that they're a harder lead.

clever..

Forgot about this. Ive been using the watersoluble graphite pencils by Derwent?. They aren't as great as crcked up. Their washes show the pencil lines and that screws up the washes

I've never tried water soluble pencils..

Meantime, good news. At long last I've figured out how to finish setting up my drafting table. I sold my original (ah, beautiful it was, steel but elegant) table when I left Los Angeles and my business partner had two big ones so one went to me. Thus we set it up and when I moved to New Mexico, took it down again, so not much practice with setting up table #2. It's a heavy steel wonder and I ended up afraid of it since once the steel rods that position the cross bar to be higher at the back - one of those slammed down the channel and nearly took part of my hand off. So I put on gloves..
Anyway, I managed to get the cross bar stuck at an angle and couldn't get it unstuck for love nor money. Well, not money, but anyway, I tried all manner of things and finally left it in the "junk room" awaiting a brainstorm. Today I played around with it in a determined manner and figured the thing out.

This is good news and bad news. Good is that I'll love having the table up.
Bad news is I have to figure out where to put what in what room. That'll be fun, and probably make me toss some landscape stuff I don't need anyway.

a steel table eh? Cold in the winter and hot and sweaty in summer.

Does it have a tilt top that you can use to crack nuts when not being drawn upon?

I guess itd be good for washes, water wonst soak in.

I had a director table that I bought from the Pa College of art in an auction. I paid 55$ for it and kept it several years till I got tired of pumping up the table lift so I sold it for like 250$(When I bought it, it hd just been used to teach classes in ACRYLICS and you know how fast they dry and mess up anything. Well, I just used a ketone to dissolve the acrylic and it cleaned up almost like brand new. It had a stainless ring pedestal with a lrge black aluminum center post that was conical in shape. It was very modern looking.
I wound up buying a rally old fashioned marine architects drawing table from a boat yard that was used to design Chesapeake craft. That table is my baby.

In coastal CA, no problemo.

The tilt was my difficulty in setting it up, since I wasn't intimate, as it were, with that particular table, and I was screwed when nothing, nothing, and nothing moved.

I drew with slightly tilted tables for bags of years, and unlike you, am not all interested in watercolor stuff, was doing plan drafts up the kazoo. I grew to like the tilt.

I use Derwent, Cretacolor and Mont Marte brands. These are high quality color pencils and provides better results and finish.