My Top 5 Artist Grade Colored Pencils
My Top 5 Artist Grade Colored Pencils
In this review we take a look at my top 5 artist grade colored pencils, this is not quite hot on the heals of my Top 5 Budget Colored Pencils which you can see by clicking the link. Now I have no idea if what I am about to say is an official status or if it is just something I have made up, and what I mean by official is if the UK Colored Pencil Society or Colored Pencil Society of America have officially created these categories, but here goes.
In the seven years that I have been reviewing colored pencils and other art supplies, I have come to the conclusion that there is a difference between, Artist Grade and Artist Quality colored pencils. Let me explain. In my opinion, a colored pencil that is Artist Grade has been lightfast tested only under the Blue Wool or ASTM system, and you will be surprised at how few there are in this group.
An Artist Quality colored pencil, again in my opinion, is a colored pencils that is in house lightfast tested, the pencil blends well, layers beautifully, is available open stock and general helps to create beautiful art. I am aware it is not the pencil creating the art but the artist, nevertheless, the pencil helps, not all of us are the type of artist who can create magic with a Bic Biro.
I would also like to mention that I have been in touch with the company who are sourced with Blue Wool testing, that was a mind blowing conversation and learning just how complex this process is and just how many variables come into play when talking about lightfast conditions. It was a similar conversation when talking to ASTM, however that process seems a bit more straightforward and if I dare say it a bit more accurate. I also discovered that America have their own version of Blue Wool with the scale ranging from 2 - 9 as opposed to the British Blue Wool 1 - 8.
I know that one of my selections is going to cause a bit of back lash and some people might get upset with me, before you lose your mind with me, please remember this is just my list. I am not suggesting for a second that you must live your life by this list or that my top 5 artist graded colored pencils, is the list you must adhere to when selecting the colored pencils you would like to use. However I will explain what the pencil is and why I have it where I have it in this list when we reach it.
Number 5
Starting at number 5 and working our way up to number 1, my number 5 is perhaps a colored pencil that not a lot of people know about and if they do know about them, they perhaps are not aware that they are ASTM graded. The Royal Talens Van Gogh Colored Pencils are my number 5.
I loved using this pencil and got really nice results, the pencil layered well and blended beautifully as well. I am only giving brief summaries of the pencils in this review, but if you would like to either read or watch my YouTube review on any of the pencils in the list, I have included all the relevant links.
Perhaps most importantly the Royal Talens Van Gogh Colored Pencils can be purchased open stock which is so important for any artist. Regardless what painting or drawing you are working on, you will always find you use one color more than the other and so open stock is vital.
You can see the lightfast list provided and here is my only concern around this chart. The ASTM scale is LF1 to LF5 with LF1 being the most lightfast and LF5 being the least. In this chart things have been twisted LF3 is the highest lightfast grade and if for some reason they wanted to change things around and be different, LF3 is in the middle, any way you cut it, LF3 is not the highest. But on their tin and website they claim ASTM
Number 4
Okay, so now we are getting into the controversy waters, I am not sure if number 4 and 3 are right, I will explain when we announce number 3 and the uncertainty of some lightfast information. My number 4 is the absolutely gorgeous Derwent Drawing Colored Pencils.
This is only a 24 set of colored pencils, but the colors are exquisite, a landscape artists dream. the core of the pencils are considered primarily wax, however it is the type of wax and small amount of oil that gives the core of the Derwent Drawing Colored Pencils their unique consistency.
When you have the right paper, the softness of the Derwent Drawing pencil core is allowed to build up layers, the final drawing will look almost like an oil painting. I liken the consistency and texture once you have loaded up a lot of layers like that of an oil pastel. I know this sounds crazy given that there is not a huge amount of oil in the core, but they are just an around beautiful pencil.
Not many people know this about the Derwent Drawing Colored Pencils, but of the 24 colors, 23 are rated 8 on the Blue Wool scale and only one is rated 7. That means every single pencil in the 24 range can be used on any commission you chose to do. An all round beautiful pencil and it is only the fact it has a total of 24 colors in the range that it is my number 4.
Number 3
Okay I am biting my lip on this one because I know a lot of people love this pencil and I am going to get huge flack but let me explain what I mean. My number 3 is the Faber Castell Polychromos, I absolutely love my Faber Castell Polychromos, they are an all round amazing pencil.
However this list is Top 5 Artist Grade Colored Pencils and so lightfast for this particular group is the top priority. According to Faber Castell their Polychromos range is Blue Wool tested, that is what I have been told and if you check out their website, which I have provided an image of below, you will see they state it here.
As I have mentioned, the blue wool scale is graded 1 - 8 and if you look at the image above, you can see what each grade means in terms of how long it will take a pigment to fade. Now I also know that some colored pencil artists will only use the LF1 pencils or 7 and 8 pencils from the Blue Wool and that is all very well and good if you can afford to be incredibly selective, but so many artists can’t afford this way of working. What you should notice about the Faber Castell grouping of their pencils is as follows.
Faber Castell say three stars is equal to 7 and 8 on the Blue Wool Scale which is excellent. However, next they say that there two star pencils are equal to 5 and 6. Thing is 6 is a group on its own and is equivelent to Very Good Lightfastness lasting 50 - 100 years, 5 is part of the group below 5 and 4, which is equivalent to Fair Lightfastness, pigment lasting 15 - 50 years. That means their two star pencils offer a 15 to 100 year lightfast time line, but they can’t tell you which it is, so every two star pencil could last 15 years.
The same is true for the 1 star pencils, they are graded 3 and 4, but again, 4 is part of the 4 and 5 group of Fair Lightfastness and 3 is part of the 3 and 2 group equalling poor lightfast. Again a 1 star pencil is lightfast somewhere between 2 and 50 years. These ranges are too big in my opinion, I know after chatting to the guy at the Blue Wool Company that this is not an exact science, it can be a bit hit and miss, but when artists are spending so much money on art supplies based on the lightfast information we are getting from both the ASTM and Blue Wool, we should expect better. You wouldn’t walk into a restaurant and order a meal costing $50, but when the meal arrives there is only a few peas on the plate and you are told, you $50 doesn’t mean you get a full meal, it just depends on the Chef we have in the kitchen on each day. You wouldn’t tolerate it or at the very least return.
I just think so many artists are so adamant that you use lightfast products when you watch their videos, but even the companies who provide the results are telling me that the system is very hit and miss and especially the Blue Wool system, it is antiquated. This is what I mean about the 3 and 4 ranking, if I could get to the bottom of this and know why Faber Castell have graded in this way, I would be more certain of my choices, but without the certainty or a good explanation, I would move the Derwent Drawing to 3 and Faber Castell to 4.
As I mentioned, I know there are artists who only use the 7 and 8 pencils from the Blue Wool scale or the LF 1 from the ASTM scale, but in the 120 set of Faber Castell Polychromos, 100 pencils are 7 or 8, the rest range from 3 to 6. On that basis, why not sell a 100 set of just 7 and 8 lightfast pencils for artists and keep the 120 set for the rest of us who don’t mind too much using a different grade below.
Number 2
My number 2 and 1 pencils will probably be no surprise, but I want to explain why I selected these two pencils. My number 2 pencil is the Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencil. The Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencil is the only pencil in the Derwent range graded under the ASTM scale, every other pencil is graded Blue Wool.
When I look at the Derwent Lightfast 100 range of colours, in my mind and this is only my opinion, I feel the palette is best suited to landscape and botanical. I am not saying that you can’t do portraiture work or fan art work, not at all, I just feel the palette is more aimed toward landscape, botanical and possibly wildlife portraiture.
The lightfast ratings of the Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencils are really good, however, for those artists that will only used LF1 or 7 and 8 graded pencils, there are only 51 colors from the 100 range graded at LF 1. That leaves 49 colors graded LF2 that for some colored pencil artists cannot be used.
The Derwent Lightfast pencil provides a beautiful point and on the very rare occasion I might experience sharpening issues, however, for me personally, these have been down to barrel issues. For example I have encountered two barrels that almost appear to have sap still in the wood barrel and I know this is impossible given the process the barrels go through but that is what it feels like when sharpening and causes the blade to stick and snag.
I feel the core is roughly a similar consistency to that of the Faber Castell Polychromos only perhaps a little bit softer, this allows for rich blending and endless layering on the right paper. I have found that the Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencils and the Derwent Lightfast paper work amazingly together. I know this as I was also part of the focus group gathered to select a high grade paper for the Lightfast colored pencils.
Number 1
I am sure you have guessed it by now or scrolled to the bottom to see immediately, but my number 1 artist grade colored pencil is the Caran d’Ache Luminance and here is the reason why. The Luminance are lightfast graded by the ASTM system and because of this, Derwent went against all the Blue Wool testing they had done with every pencil in their range prior so that they could compete against the Luminance.
When Derwent came out with the Lightfast they knew that their direct competition and only competition was going to be the Caran d’Ache Luminance, and so to help artists they had to lightfast test using the same system, that and the fact that it is generally considered the ASTM is a more accurate system.
However, Caran d’Ache Luminance defiantly have the edge over the Derwent Lightfast, of the Luminance 100 range they have 61 LF1 pencils and only 39 LF1. It may not seem like much, but as a colored pencil artist who can only use the LF1 pencils on their commissions, ten extra colors is a lot extra, better value for money and obviously more color choice.
For me personally I prefer the Caran d’Ache Luminance palette, I feel the palette has a lot more portrait colors available, but I also feel there are brighter more saturated colors allowing fan art work. I love colors like the Brown Ochers 50%, 10%, Burnt Sienna’s 50%, 10% and the many other color ranges like this. I think these little differences in tonal value of the same pigment are so incredibly helpful
I love the over all consistency of the Luminance core, for me it feels softer than the Derwent Lightfast but only slightly, still, softer nonetheless. Sharpening the Luminance has always been a dream, I have never experience any issues with the core and like the Derwent Lightfast the only issue I ever experienced was a defective barrel. Layering and blending of the Caran d’Ache Luminance is also effortless and the results are sublime.
For me, when I am going to do an only colored pencil piece and I decide to use my Caran d’Ache Luminance for whatever reason, I will always use the Strathmore 500 series Bristol Plate. This is a beautiful surface with the Luminance, a very smooth surface allowing detailed portraiture work, pet portraiture, wildlife portraits and fan art pieces.
Top 5 Artist Grade Colored Pencils Conclusion
So that is my top 5 artist grade colored pencils, I can’t say this enough guys, this is only the list that I have came up with after 7 years of testing, demonstrating, researching and reviewing colored pencils. The are so many other things that come into play when deciding which pencil I like or that you may like. I am not saying that this list is definitive and you have to buy your colored pencils according to this list, what I am saying is in fact the opposite.
How we hold our pencils, the level of pressure we place on our pencil, the paper we are using etc. The Derwent Drawing Colored Pencils for me might be wonderful but for you they might be terrible and that is absolutely okay. We are all different in our own tiny way and rather than getting upset or angry, I think we should embrace each others differences, try to understand why those difference are present and sometimes there may not even be a reason or explanation.
In an ideal world, if you could afford the 100 set of Caran d’Ache Luminance and the 100 set of Derwent Lightfast, owning both sets, equating to 200 colors, you would be set regarding any subject you would like to draw. Both the Caran d’Ache Luminance and Derwent Lightfast work beautifully together, I added a comparison video to my channel a while ago and in that review I demonstrate just how well both pencils layer and blend together.
Obviously, adding the Faber Castell Polychromos to this list would be the perfect world, you would want for nothing and could tackle any genre using pretty much any artist quality paper. Setting aside my slight discrepancy with the Polychromos, all three pencils in my opinion are the best three in the world. I feel pretty confident in saying this given the number of pencils I have tried and reviewed from all over the world.
I’d also like to make it very clear that I was not in anyway shape or form trying to allude that Faber Castell were trying to be shady with the lightfast information. Faber Castell are a massive company that has been around a long while, they don’t need to do anything like that to sell their products, their products sell in huge numbers because of the exceptional quality that leaves the Faber Castell home. I was simply pointing it out and displaying my own confusion and most likely my own ignorance to something in plain sight being the answer.
If you would like to know more in-depth information about any colored pencil in this list, I have provided like to the individual written review and YouTube Video review. I would just like to say that some of the videos are really old and so the lighting and audio is not that good, I will be trying to re-do those reviews just to upgrade audio and lighting conditions. I have also added a like to my YouTube Video “Picking a Fight With Lightfast”, in this video I talk about the ASTM and Blue Wool systems and why young artists and new artists should not worry about having to own lightfast products. I try to dispel any notion that you will create your best work with only lightfast colored pencils, I hear from so many young artists worrying about not having lightfast products.
Lightfast products are important if you are wanting to sell your original work or enter your work to an Art Gallery and that is about it. Taking this into consideration, even these circumstances can be over looked with the right tips which I talk about in the video linked above.
Thank you so much for watching or reading this review, I would love to hear your top 5 artist grade colored pencils, drop your list in the comment section below and see how different or similar our lists are. Also if you would like to follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, you can select the relevant image below, this is where I announce new reviews as well as showing art work I am working on with work in progress images. Finally I have real time follow along videos of my artwork over on Patreon, for as little as $2 per month, you will gain access to a back catalogue of videos from colored pencil, graphite, pastel and watercolor.
