Prismacolor Premier Coloured Pencils: An Honest UK Review

By Carol Leather

Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils are popular with artists, hobbyists and students for their soft cores and vibrant colour.

They are not without their grumbles. Some users report breakage and off-centre wood casings. Even so, these pencils are still prized for their smooth, blendable laydown, and they remain one of the most talked-about brands in coloured pencil.

I should be honest from the start: these were the first coloured pencils I ever tried, and they are not my personal favourite. Over the years I have come to prefer a harder pencil, like Polychromos, that holds a point. But plenty of artists swear by Prismacolor, so the real question is not whether they are "good", it is whether they suit the way you like to work. This review will help you decide.

History and availability

Prismacolor pencils began in the USA and became a top choice for American artists. Their old UK counterpart, the Karisma pencils, shared the same core and were highly regarded until production ceased. When that happened, many UK artists switched to Prismacolor for the same qualities that made Karisma popular.

Manufacture moved to Mexico in 2010, and the brand is now owned by Newell. The range has been trimmed a little over the years: the Art Stix sticks have been discontinued, and two pale purples, Lilac and Lavender, were dropped when their pigments became unavailable. The big 150 set now ships with an extra white and a colourless blender in their place.

Buying Prismacolor in the UK. They are easy to find on Amazon.co.uk: tins of 24, 36, 48 and the full 150, plus several themed 12-packs such as Botanical Garden, Under the Sea and Landscape. There is also a manga set of 18 Prismacolor plus 5 Verithin, though that one is aimed more at hobbyists than the serious artist.

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To buy single pencils as open stock, so you can replace just the colours you use most rather than rebuying a tin, a specialist supplier is your friend. Artist Pencils Online, for example, carries the whole 150 range and sells singles.

It is telling that on Amazon, Prismacolor now turns up alongside budget and hobby brands rather than the premium artist names it once stood apart from. Good news for the price, but a sign of how much the competition has caught up.

Prismacolor Premier Pencils

The Premier pencils have a soft wax core that many artists adore for its creamy texture and excellent blending. For me the softness is both a blessing and a curse.

On one hand, they blend smoothly and let you build bold, expressive work that few brands match. On the other, the soft leads break easily. I have had more than my share of breakages over the years, sometimes sharpening my way through a brand-new pencil only to be left with a stub, the core having shattered inside the wood. The answer is to handle them gently and use light pressure, especially as you build layers.

A few habits make a real difference:

• Sharpen kindly. I find a good hand sharpener, like those from the German maker Kum, works far better than a crank or electric sharpener, which tend to chew through the soft cores.
• Mind the drops. A single knock onto a hard floor can do the damage, so store them where they cannot roll off the desk and treat them gently in the tin and the bag.
• Off-centre cores happen, but rarely. Quality control is the brand's weak spot. That said, in all my use I have only come across a few pencils with an off-centre core, so it is more an occasional annoyance than a constant one. The breakages are the bigger frustration.

One upside of the wax-and-soft formula worth knowing: because Prismacolor is so heavily pigmented, you can get a beautiful burnished finish quickly. The flip side is wax bloom, a faint cloudy haze that can rise over heavily layered wax pencils. It wipes off, and a light fixative keeps it away.

Comparing Prismacolor to Polychromos

When you test pencils, it pays to keep an open mind. What suits one artist may not suit you, because each of us has different preferences and techniques.

Prismacolor is most often compared to Faber-Castell Polychromos, so I tested the two together. I picked similar colours from each brand, starting with sharpened pencils, and labelled Prismacolor as PR and Polychromos as PO. I used them separately and combined.

The first thing that struck me was that the Polychromos colours are more muted. For the subjects I draw that is no problem, but it might matter to you. I also noticed the translucency of the Polychromos against the opaqueness of the Prismacolor.

Both brands layered over each other easily, even with repeated layers, so you can happily mix them. But look at the tips after only a small amount of gentle drawing: the Prismacolor had blunted right down while the Polychromos were still sharp.

So the choice often comes down to the look you want. Some artists love the rich saturation of Prismacolor for bold, expressive work; others prefer the precision and firmness of Polychromos for fine detail. It is an interesting thought that the medium itself can steer the artistic direction.

Prismacolor and lightfastness

If you sell your work or want it to last, lightfastness matters, and this is where you need to choose Prismacolor colours with care.

Only 57 of the colours carry the top lightfastness rating. A further 26, rated II or "very good", can be added without too much risk of fading over time. That still leaves a good number of colours that will shift or fade, so they are best kept for practice, sketchbooks and work that will not be on display.

The simplest safeguard is to know your ratings and, where a favourite colour is poorly rated, reach for a lightfast equivalent from another brand. As my comparison above shows, Prismacolor layers happily with firmer, more lightfast pencils, so you can fill the gaps without giving up the blending you bought Prismacolor for. If lightfastness is new to you, my guide to the lightfastness test shows how to check your own pencils, and the lightfastness page explains the ratings.

My recommendations

• Choose Prismacolor if you prize blending, vibrant colour and smooth, bold shading, and you are happy to work gently and watch the lightfastness ratings.
• Choose Faber-Castell Polychromos if you need precision and a firm point, especially for fine detail.
• Choose Derwent Coloursoft for a middle ground between soft wax and firm core, with strong colour that still takes a reasonable point.
• For the most reliable permanence of all, look at the oil-based, fully lightfast ranges covered on my Caran d'Ache page.

The Prismacolor pencil range

Alongside the soft-core Premier pencils, Sanford make several related lines you may see on Amazon: Verithin pencils, a smaller range with a narrow, hard core ideal for refining edges and fine lines; a range of water-soluble pencils; and Col-Erase, an erasable coloured pencil with a thin core that lifts with an ordinary eraser, long popular for sketching and underdrawing.

The Premier pencils come in sets from 12 up to the full 150 colours. Prismacolor's wide colour choice, soft feel and affordability keep it popular, and because so many American tutorials specify Prismacolor colours by name, the brand has a loyal following that shows no sign of fading.