My Top 5 Watercolour Pencils
My Top 5 Watercolour Pencils
I really enjoy doing these top 5 lists, it gives me the opportunity to look through all my notes and previous reviews, which inevitably reminds me of pencils I reviewed and forgot about over time. Over the years I have reviewed a lot of art supplies and unfortunately, once I complete a review, I am always looking to move onto the next one.
Watercolour pencils are not for everyone, I understand that, however, I think they are a wonderful medium allowing artists easy, fast and messy free access to two mediums at once. With a simple water brush in your kit and a few well selected watercolour pencils you can create a beautiful watercolour painting anywhere you like. There is one third party accessory that I would advise all watercolour pencil artists to buy is the Caran d’Ache Aquarelle Palette. This simple plastic palette completely transforms the medium of watercolour pencils. The palette allows you to mix and blend your colors, without having to mix them straight on the paper you are using, the palette allows you to see the colors you are mixing, as you would with watercolour pans or tubes, before applying it to your painting.
There might be one or two in this list that surprise you or that you may not of head about before, don’t worry if this is the case; every pencil in the list has been reviewed on an individual basis and so if you would like to know more about a particular pencil, head over to The Art Gear Guide YouTube channel or Website and type whichever pencils into the search options
Number #5
For number five on my list I have cheated a bit, I have submitted two pencils. No matter how hard I tried to separate both pencils in terms of abilities, they were both just too close to call, so I have included them both. Now, just because I have submitted them both, that is not to say you can’t say, “Harry, you are out of your tree, the Prismalo is a much better pencil or the Bruynzeel is the better pencil.” by all means, be my guest and if you are unsure or never tried both pencils, check out the individual reviews over on The Art Gear Guide YouTube Channel or website.
Bruynzeel Design Aquarel
The Bruynzeel Design Aquarel water soluble pencil sports a slim 7.8mm round barrel encasing a 3.8mm generously pigmented core. When the core of the Bruynzeel Aquarel is applied to quality watercolor paper in its dry format and then water applied, all of the pigment is dissolved. A lot of the time, when you use low grade water soluble pencils, when you apply the pencil to the paper and then activate it with water, only some of the pencil marks made disappear, leaving some visible under the layer of paint. I understand some artists like this effect, nevertheless, it is a good indication that you are using low grade pencils.
Perhaps the only significant difference between the Caran d’Ache Prismalo and Bruynzeel Design Aquarel, is the amazing packaging the Bruynzeel pencils arrive in, however, in my view, packaging does not make the product perform better and so I had to ignore this in my gathering of top 5 watercolor pencils. One big downfall however for the Bruynzeel Design Aquarel is the largest set being a 48 count. I know in terms of watercolors this is not too much of a problem, but up against other watercolor pencil sets, it’s just not enough.
Caran d’Ache Prismalo
The Caran d’Ache Prismalo is according to the Caran d’Ache website, one of their student grade products, but as I am sure many of you are aware, some of Caran d’Aches kids range products can be on power with other artist quality brands.
The Caran d’Ache Prismalo is actually a gorgeous pencil to view, hold and use. I know this is a strange thing to say about something as regular as a pencil, but I know pencil enthusiasts will understand what I mean. For me personally, I love how each pencil is capped on the end of the barrel with a white cap, to me there is something very retro about this look.
The Prismalo is another quite slim pencil with a 2.95mm core, albeit jam packed to the rafters with quality pigment, encapsulated within a sleek slimline 6.5mm hexagonal barrel. The quality and quantity of pigment in this pencil is really quite staggering when you remember it is a student grade product and every crumb from the core dissolves beautifully when activated with water. Finally for the Caran d’Ache Prismalo, the largest set is an 80 count, of which when you open the set, it really is a beautiful sight of gorgeous color to behold.
Number #4
Coming in at number 4 is the Caran d’Ache Supracolor II Soft, as is the correct name, however for the remainder of the article I will just refer to them as Supracolor Soft. Caran d’Ache products in my opinion really are some of the very best on the market, but that statement applies even more so I find to their water soluble products. That being said, I wanted to make sure that this top five list was not all Caran d’Ache products, hence working really hard to test my selection side by side and squeezing in two pencils in the number 5 slot.
The Caran d’Ache Supracolor Soft is another product Caran d’Ache like to refer to as a student grade product, which may well be the case for them, but for almost every other company in product of water soluble pencils, they are anything but student grade. The Supracolor Soft sport a 6.9mm Hexagonal barrel, protecting a gorgeous soft 3.8mm core, exploding with color once activated with water.
The Supracolor Soft comes in a wide range of set sizes from open stock, sets of 12, all the way up to a 120 set. I know Caran d’Ache have been around for a while and so therefore had plenty of time to get their stuff together, regardless, they know how to squeeze as much pigment into their products as they can.
Number #3
Coming in at number 3, we finally move away from Caran d’Ache and hand the title over to Faber Castell. Another Scandinavian company that knows exactly how to craft art products that not only perform exceptionally but also look and feel exquisite to use. At #3 we have the Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer; I am sure most of you guys know only too well about the Faber Castell Polychromos, but I was surprised to learn that not a lot knew about the Albrecht Dürer or that Faber Castell had a high quality water soluble pencil. That being said, I guess if water soluble pencils are not your thing, why would you know?
The Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer delivers an incredibly 4.2mm, pigment saturated core, all wrapped up in a chunky 7.6mm hexagonal barrel. On a side note, it is also worth mentioning that the Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer also comes in a much larger format in their Magnus range, exactly the same pencil only a 5.6mm core and a 9.3mm hexagonal barrel. Obviously a pencil this size will allow the artist to fill in huge areas much faster if they use the water soluble pencil in the traditional way.
The pigment levels and over all performance of the Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer is staggering and with a set size as large as 120, no artist, no matter if they are professional or novice, will want for color. The lightfast ratings for the Albrecht Dürer are also quite good with 64 out of the 120 rating 3 stars, the highest rating and 48 two star, leaving only 8 pencils a one star rating.
Number #2
Sliding in at number 2, we have the Derwent Inktense Water Soluble pencil. I know that the Derwent Inktense pencil is technically not a watercolor pencil on account of, when the pigment is applied in its dry form and then wet, you can’t return once the paint is dry and lift off paint. You are essentially working with ink when the pencil is wet, this is the reason you are unable to remove or lift paint, like you can with watercolors. However, because the Derwent Inktense is such an amazing product and the fact the set was recently extended from a 72 set to a whopping 100 set, I just had to include them.
It would be remiss of me to mention that although in this list we are only talking about the Derwent Inktense pencils, the range actually extends a lot more than just pencils. Derwent have release pan sets that you can use, just as you would a traditional set of watercolor pans, as well as Inktense blocks or XL Blocks. The full range is extensive and a playground for artists to use.
The pencils sport a gorgeously chunky 3.8mm core of gorgeous super strong pigments, encased within a round 8.0mm barrel. This is a chunky pencil no doubt, but it feels perfect in the hand, there is a robustness to the pencil on account of its girth, giving the artist permission, to go full steam ahead, into full artistic fun mode.
Number #1
some of you might have already guessed the number one spot, in which case well done, but if you didn’t, may I introduce you to the Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle. I really tried my best to limit the Caran d’Ache products for this list, but at the end of the day, quality just deserves its place and with regards to the Museum Aquarelle, no water soluble pencil in the world competes. I have reviewed a lot of pencils over the last 10 years and yes I am sure there are watercolor pencils out there I have yet to review, but until such day arrives, this is the number 1 watercolor pencil in the world; in my opinion of course.
The Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencil is like almost all things Swiss, a thing of craftsmanship beauty. The 7.6 hexagonal barrel holds within its cedar wood protective walls, a 4mm core of pure pigment. With most of the other pencils in this list, even the 120 sets, the palettes could be described as traditional palettes, your standard groups of reds, greens, blues etc. Don’t get me wrong, all strong pigments and gorgeous saturation levels etc, but the Museum Aquarelle palette is quite special, offering forgotten colors in nature or floral bouquets, colors only our natural landscapes would normally otherwise provide, yet here they lay in this spectacular range of water soluble pencils.
There isn’t a vast set of 120 in the Museum Aquarelle range, however, I don’t actually find this to be a problem given the muted yet vibrant tones of the palette. The Museum Aquarelle set comes to a head at 76 or should you wish to splash out and buy the very eloquent, yet opulent Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle Wooden Box set, you receive a count of 80, some are doubles or water soluble graphite.
My Top 5 Watercolor Pencil Conclusions
So this is my top 5 list of what I consider the best watercolor pencils I have yet to review, I would love to know what your top 5 watercolor pencil list is? do you agree with my list and if not, which would you change or would you just simply switch the 5 I have about? I’d really love to know and I am sure everyone in the comments section would benefit massively from seeing everyone’s top 5.
I have also completed a full YouTube video of my Top 5 Watercolour Pencils, I know if you have read this review you might be thinking what’s the point, but on the video review I am able to demonstrate and show you how each pencil performs in real time. I’d love for you to check it out and see what you think and don’t forget, le the know what you think of my list, would yours be the same or would you change it about a little bit, or do you have a completely different top 5 watercolour list? let me know, join in on the conversation and share with us all, I might even get to learn about some watercolour pencils I have yet to test and review.
