Caran Dache Pablo Versus Faber Castell Polychromos
Caran Dache Pablo Versus Faber Castell Polychromos
I have only really completed two comparative reviews, but I am always saying that I am going to compare this pencil against that pencil, however, every time I go to record a video, a new pencil comes to me or a new marker and I put the comparative review on the back burner. However, I am going to have to stop this and start recording them as I have so many videos listed, comparing pencils lots of you want to know about and lots that you wouldn’t even think about comparing.
In this comparison review we are looking at the Caran d’Ache Pablo against the Faber Castell Polychromos. Now, if you are relatively new to the world of Colored Pencils, the Faber Castell is the work horse for so many colored pencil artist, some of the finest colored pencil artists in the world use exclusively Faber Castell Polychromos. The Faber Castell Polychromos pencil is an all round amazing pencil with a wonderful palette of 120 pigments, to see a more in-depth review of the Polychromos, you can follow the link to my review on this pencil.
Next up is the Caran d’Ache Pablo, Caran d’Ache are arguable the finest manufacture of art supply’s, if not thee certain in the top three. the most prominent pencil Caran d’Ache produce is the Luminance which has a total count of 76 pencils, however when I first started out in colored pencils, I was always told that the Caran d’Ache Pablo are the equivalent to Faber Castells Polychromos. So I have decided to compare them both and see just how similar both pencils are. As with the Polychromos, if you would like to watch my in-depth review of the Pablo, you can do so by following the link.
I have to tell you that throughout all my comparison video I never tell you which is my personal favourite pencil because I don’t want my choice to influence yours in any way. I will show you the various tests that I have conducted of each pencil side by side and let you decide on the results. I also have to explain that these test are as scientific as I can get them, I can’t always maintain the exact same pressure on both pencils, but I try my best.
Pablo And Polychromos Characteristics
First of all, I am not going to get into whether or not the cores are wax or oil, after extensive research and talking back and forth with pencil company chemists, I have learnt that there is no such thing as a just wax core or just oil core, this is a myth as all cores comprise of multiple ingredients. When I very first started out reviewing colored pencils, I would contact the companies and ask them about the core, if they were wax or oil. More often than not I would be talking to people on the sales team who would often unintentionally say just whatever they thought it was. After publishing my review I would get comments telling me they are not wax or they are not oil based etc. Eventually I started to contact the companies and speak to agents as opposed to sales, which lead me on to further investigate the wax and oil issue. After this I stopped saying the cores were wax or oil based and spoke about the cores in the terms of hard or soft.
That being said, both the Pablo and the Polychromos have a medium hard core. If you imagine the Prismacolor as the softest core and the Derwent Artist as the hardest core, both the Pablo and Polychromos fall in the middle, but slightly closer to the Artist. this means that both pencils hold their points really well, I did find that when using my M&R handheld sharpener, the Pablo didn’t sharpen as well as the Polychromos and for some reason, I was able to get a much sharper fine point on the Polychromos than I was on the Pablo. I think this might have something to do with the fact the Pablo barrel is hexagonal and the Polychromos sports a round barrel.
Both pencils feel really nice in the hand with equal weight balance, they are both made from Californian Cedar Wood. The Caran d’Ache Pablo is slightly thinner than the Polychromos weighing in with a precise 3.8mm encapsulated in approximately 7.1mm hexagonal body. the Faber Castell Polychromos sports the same core size as the Pablo, a 3.8mm core just loaded with pigment, the barrel however is slightly thicker with a 7.8mm core.
Both pencils provide a lot of important information along the barrels, for a lot of people the information is irrelevant, they just want to select a beautiful color and use it, however, for artists, information such as lightfastness is so important if they intend to sell their work. Along the barrels of both the Pablo and Polychromos they have printed the pigment name and stars represent the lightfast scale. On the opposite side of both barrels is printed the company logos and the pencil brand.
With regards to the pigment name being printed on the barrels of pencils, in this review and especially my video review, you will see that the pigment names can be a mixture of confusing and unnecessary.
Pablo and Polychromos Performance
There is no debate about whether or not both these pencils are high quality pencils, in this comparison all I am doing is looking at the differences, if any, between them both. Throughout my comparison video, I will only be comparing like for like, comparing the Luminance against the Marco Renior would be a pointless exercise .
I have completed a few test with both pencils, the fist of which is leaving a single light layer with each pencil using four different colors, Scarlet, Naples Yellow, Cobalt Blue and Grass Green. There really wasn’t much of a noticeable difference throughout this test and as you can see the result are very similar. I made sure when conducting the tests to select exactly the same pigment names for both the Pablo and Polychromos, however you will be able to see that with the Grass Green, both pencils are clearly different tones.
The Next test was to complete 5 light layers on top of each other, this shows us what the pencils are like layering and any issues that may or may not occur during the process. The reason I stop at five layers is because this is generally considered the least amount of layers that should be applied before using Odourless Mineral Spirits. OMS is used to break down the pigment into an almost painterly consistency, allowing the pigments to merge and blend seamlessly. In order for this process to take effect to deliver the best possible results, the more pigment that is on the surface the better. With this test you can see for yourself as to which pencil performed the best.
Throughout this test of the five layers, by about the third or fourth layer, there was beginning to be a bit of resistance from the Pablo but not so much with the Polychromos. the Paper I used for all of these test was 140 lb Hot Pressed Watercolor paper, so with the layering test, you can still see the whites of the paper as there was no burnishing in either of these two tests. With the next test of odourless mineral spirits you will be able to differentiate the results of simple layering and then using Zest-It OMS.
The next test is blending and again hopefully the results are clear enough for you to make up your own mind as to which pencil performed the best. In this test I blended the Naples Yellow and Cobalt Blue of both the Pablo and Polychromos. In both test a clear green color was created, which one do you think created brightest most vivid color.
The next blending test was again using both the Pablo and Polychromos, blending the Scarlet and Naples Yellow together. I personally felt that the results of these two test were much closer, never the less, which pencil did you feel performed to your liking.
My next test was to complete one heavy application of all four colors from both the Pablo and Polychromos. for this test I simply added one layer of each color using a lot of pressure on the pencil, almost burnishing level.
Pablo and Polychromos Palettes For Full Range 120 Sets
It is always important to check out the pigments that are in these sets because not all sets or brands carry the same palettes. If you are the type of artist like myself who loves to draw fan art, you might want a palette with a good set of reds, or again if you are like me and like to draw botanical art, you might want a palette with a nice range of greens; I myself love olive greens and so for me personally the Pablo Palette is perfect for Olive Greens.
As you can see the images above show both the 120 sets for the Pablo and Polychromos. me personally, the Faber Castell Polychromos sets provides the best selection and richest selection of reds, but the Caran d’Ache Pablo set has by far the nicest selection of greens that suit my own personal taste, in fact I would so far as to say that the Pablo 120 set has the nicest selection of greens compared to any set.
So whatever style of art you are into, checking out the palette available within the set is going to be important and of course, if you can afford both sets then bonus.
Pablo and Polychromos Lightfast Ratings.
Caran d’Ache Pablo Lightfast
This is the lightfast information for both the Pablo and Polychromos 120 sets. For the Caran d’Ache Pablo 120 set, their pencils are rated in a three star system with three stars aquatinting to Excellent Lightfast, two stars as Good and one star is fair; so that means three stars is the highest rating in the Pablo set. 45 pigments carry three stars, 68 pigments carry two stars and 7 pigments carry one star. It is important to understand that according to Caran d’Ache, three stars mean 100 plus years lightfast, two stars meaning 50 - 100 years lightfast and one star equating to approximately 15 - 50 years lightfast. the Caran d’Ache lightfast system is slightly confusing to follow as they also use a 5 star system for their Museum Aquarelle, Pastel pencils and Pastel Blocks but only three stars for the Neocolor range, Prismalo, Supracolor and Pablo. With their three star system it equates to three stars equals five stars, two stars equals four stars and one star equals three stars; I did say it was confusing.
Faber Castell Polychromos
As with the Caran d’Ache Pablo range, Faber Castell use a three star system, however, they have attributed a slightly different time scale to their lightfast ranking. Three stars mean the pigment will last approximately 100 plus years, two stars equate to 25 plus years and one star is equal to approximately 5 years. That being said, in the 120 set of Faber Castell Polychromos, 103 pigments are equal to three stars, 15 pigments are equal to two stars and only two pencils are equal to one star.
On the face of things it would appear that the Faber Castell Polychromos pencils have a much higher lightfast rating than the Pablo, but when you look a little closer and study the actual longevity of each star recommendation, both sets are quite similar.
Pablo and Polychromos Art Work
Testing both the Pablo and Polychromos in the slightly more methodical format is all well and good and can really help you to spot differences, however, seeing the pencils perform in the way they should adds another form to the testing process.
I like to draw botanical art when comparing pencils and on this occasion I drew out a bunch of tomatoes, which I then traced and placed beside the original drawing. I wanted to make sure that both drawings were identical and thus helping to select any anomalies within both works of art.
You can see from the images provided and inspect them at your leisure and you can also watch my speed drawing in the video review. Watching the images come to life and inspecting the images provided should help you conclude which pencil is performing to your satisfaction. I say to your satisfaction because we all see color and art in our own unique way.
With all of the previous test I completed, they were completed on watercolor paper, hot pressed and perhaps not the highest grade of paper. the art work however was completed on Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Smooth. This is not the vert best type of paper that you can use but it is good quality
Caran d’Ache Pablo Versus Faber Castell Polychromos Conclusion
There is no doubting the ability of both these pencils, but stacking up against each other, there are definitely differences. After testing them together, I definitely have my own personal favourite, but this is about showing you my results to help you get a better idea as to which pencil you think is best for you. I love using both of these pencils and they are both from huge names in the colored pencil world.
As I previously mentioned, I have reviewed both of these pencils individually and if you would like to look over either of those reviews you are more than welcome to do so. Simply follow the relevant links, for the Caran d’Ache Pablo review and for the Faber Castell Polychromos Review.
On these comparison videos I would also recommend you checking out my YouTube video review of the comparison as well as my speed drawing using both the Pablo and Polychromos on exactly the same image. I drew out a set of tomatoes and then traced the drawn out set, I place them both side by side on Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Smooth. I had originally wanted to complete the art work on some multimedia paper that I have ordered, however, due to the global lockdown for COVID-19, the paper still has not arrived, never the less I think the art has successfully achieved what it is supposed to achieve, which is to aid you in deciding which pencil performs to your own personal satisfaction.
