The Softest Cored Colored Pencils, Derwent Chromaflow, Prismacolor Premier, Derwent ColourSoft and ??
The Softest Cored Colored Pencils, Derwent Chromaflow, Prismacolor Premier, Derwent ColourSoft and ??
With the introduction of the new Derwent 150 set of Chromaflow, there has been a lot of talk about the Chromaflow and comparing them to other popular pencils. Only a few days ago I created a post comparing the Derwent Chromaflow with the Derwent ColourSoft, which was a popular comparison, however; I think it is safe to assume that the most sought after comparison is that of the Prismacolor Premier to the Derwent Chromaflow and ColourSoft.
In this post and indeed the video I have just posted on YouTube to help visually represent my demonstrations, the focus was the three pencils mentioned above, however I wanted to also introduce two cheaper pencils, that are also popular in their own right.
I have been reviewing primarily colored pencils for the past ten years or so and since day one of getting involved in art, the one thing that I can guarantee I get asked almost every day is, “Can I recommend a soft cored pencil like Prismacolor”? Everyone, or at least the vast majority of colored pencil hobbyist and enthusiast, seem to want a Prismacolor type pencil and I can completely see why.
When a highly regarded company in the colored pencil world actually sets out to make a pencil like Prismacolor or to at least compete against that particular pencil, it is easy to see why so many colored pencil artists crave soft cored colored pencils. By the way, in case you are new to the world of colored pencils and missed the reference of a company making a pencil like Prismacolor, that would be Derwent when they first introduced the Chromaflow Colored Pencils.
I would however just like to clear up one thing before we get into the soft cored colored pencils on this list. When I very first started out doing this, when I uploaded a review, I would also get people asking me in the pencil was wax or oil and no matter what my reply was, half the comments would claim the pencil to be the opposite. I wanted to make sure when I delivered my reviews, that I was doing my own research and not just copying and pasting someone else’s opinions and so for the first two or three years I worked really hard trying to develop relationships with all the major companies.
One issue that I thought had to be quashed, was this notion that a pencil was one or the other, wax or oil. Most people also assumed that wax equals soft cored and oil equaled hard core. After a long time reaching out to chemists from big companies to pin this myth down, I was able to do just that and if you are interested I have linked my research and video discussing the matters. So from that point on I no longer referred to pencils as wax or oil and instead simply described how the core felt and performed.
Derwent Chromaflow, Derwent Coloursoft and Prismacolor
The initial reason for making this review was to compare the new Derwent Chromaflow Colored Pencils to the Prismacolor Premier as well as the Derwent ColourSoft Colored Pencils. Recently I created a comparison of the Derwent Chromaflow and Coloursoft which I have included a link to if you are interested, but I knew that the big comparison everyone wanted to know about was Prismacolor.
It wasn’t until halfway through my comparison of all three pencils, that I decided to include two other soft cored pencils from a much cheaper price bracket. Like I said, everyone seems to be after a cheaper alternative to Prismacolor and so I thought it was only fair to add some cheaper alternative.
The Biggest Problem With Soft Cored Pencils
So whilst everyone is after a super soft cored colored pencil, nobody wants the issues that come with such a soft cored pencil, but here is the thing guys, this is not simply a quality control issues as most people think. It is no coincidence that all soft cored pencils experience sharpening issues; whereas pencils like Faber Castell Polychromos, or the Caran d’Ache Luminance or even the Derwent Lightfast Pencils experience very little issues when sharpening.
And again, this has nothing at all to do with wax or oil. The Derwent Artist pencils are the hardest cored pencils on the market and yet they would be considered a wax based pencil by most. The issue is, there are different types of waxes used in pencils and most pencils comprise of wax and oil, it is all about the quantity of each ingredient as to whether or not the core comes out soft or hard.
Testing
As you can see, because I am comparing five different pencils in this review I have not had the time to complete artwork as I normally do when I am comparing two pencil together, however I have conducted what I think is a comprehensive test that should help you see the difference in each pencil.
I have also included a YouTube video over on The Art Gear Guide YouTube channel where you can watch these tests play out and help you get a better understanding of how each pencil compares. I also want to say that this is not a top 5 list, this is simply a comparison review, showing you how each pencil performs under such tests and hopefully it will help you determine which pencil is best for you and your style of art.
I completed all of the testing on Derwent Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper, this is not very high quality paper and if I was using a paper like the Derwent Lightfast or Fabriano Artistico Hot Pressed paper, I well dare say I could have accomplished more layers, but as all tests were conducted on the same paper the results are relevant.
AS you can see from the image, I completed a blending test first, allowing me to see how the pencils blend different colors together to help create a seamless gradient all using light layers. the next test is a layering test and here I simply applied light layers until the layers stopped making a difference in tonality or the resistance due to bloom was too much.
the final test was originally going to be using odourless mineral spirits, however, I have reviewed each of these pencils individually before and in those reviews I demonstrate how they react to OMS. So, for this test I used the Caran d’Ache Colourless Blending Stick. For me personally, this is my preferred method for blending, but I think it is a good test to show as all pencils can react differently to blending pencils or OMS.
Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils
Whilst creating this review, I created a simple scale regarding hard and soft cored pencils, this was originally for my own notes but I thought I would add it here as it might help you to understand my thinking in my conclusions. With 10 being the softest core and 1 being the hardest core, this is the simple scale, so the Derwent Artists Colored Pencil would be a 1 on this scale and I willy apply numbers to the other pencils throughout.
As you can see with the blending test for the Prismacolor, this was a seamless test and the application of light layers after light layers was a smooth transition throughout. I selected different color families for all of the pencils on this test and here you can see for the Prismacolor I selected the Blues. You can see that the gradient is pretty seamless and there is no problems at all. Granted some of this is also in the selection of colors which you will see later I messed up on with a different pencil, nevertheless, the smooth transition from tone to tone was effortless.
With the layer test, I was able to achieve 7 layers with the Prismacolor, by the sixth layer I was starting to feel the resistance and was hesitant to apply a seventh layer as I though the seventh layer would not apply correctly and help to achieve a difference in tone. However as you can see when you watch the video of this layering, the final layer does indeed make a slight difference, without creating bloom and streaking.
The images you can see are of the sphere before and after I have used the Caran d’Ache blending stick and again I think this is a test you should watch on the video, but from seeing both images I think you can tell just how smooth a finish Prismacolor achieved using the blending stick.
Derwent Chromaflow Colored Pencils
The Derwent Chromaflow is definitely a slightly harder core than that of Prismacolor, you can see in the blending test, I was unable to select enough greens from the same tone family, although the Derwent Chromaflow 150 set offers a wonderful selection of greens, for each blending example I used four or five colors from dark to light and I made a mistake selecting the right colors. However the application of layers was quite a bit smoother than Prismacolor but this is down to the fact the core is slightly harder.
the layering test for the Chromaflow provided eight layers. As with the Prismacolor pencils, by the seventh layer I could start to feel the resistance and that I wasn’t going to achieve many more layers so I pushed it with eight layers and still achieved a really smooth application. With one of the next examples you will be able to see what happens when you apply one too many layers and it all goes wrong.
The image shows you a before and after of the sphere using the blending stick and as you can see, the Derwent Chromaflow reacted beautifully, helping to provide a really clean and smooth gradient helping to create the look of a three dimensional object. Check out the video to see this test come to life.
Faber Castell SuperSoft Colored Pencils
The Faber Castell SuperSoft Colored Pencils are significantly cheaper than the three main pencils on test here, and I think in this overall comparison it shows. For the blending test I selected yellows and oranges creating a sunset type look and whist the actual blend of colors created a decent gradient, you can clearly see how much less saturated they are compared to the Prismacolor and Chromaflow. The saturation levels just aren’t there in comparison and it is clear but this is to be expected in a significantly cheaper pencil.
For the layering test, the Faber Castell SuperSoft really surprised me and failed considerably over the other pencils. Here I was only able to achieve five layers and you can see just how streaky the final layer was. the application of a sixth layer would have made the coverage so much worse.
Oddly enough, when it came to using the blending stick, the core of the Faber Castell SuperSoft reacted really well to the blender. Whilst the first test you can see the lack of saturation within the layers, using the blending stick really helped to punch up the saturation levels on this test.
Derwent ColourSoft Colored Pencils
Until I made my comparison video of the Derwent ColourSoft and the Derwent Chromaflow, it had been some time since I actually used the Derwent ColourSoft and I had forgot just what a gorgeous pencil the ColourSoft really is. In this blending test I selected some purples and you can see the blending was seamless. The application of light layers, from a transition of dark to light, there was no issues at all. I wish I was able to say the same for the layering test.
As you can see, in the layering test I applied eight layers, but it is with the Derwent Coloursoft that I pushed the layers too far and you can see the mess it makes. Applying lightfast layers of colored pencils provides depth to your work, however there is always a limit and that will be very much determined from the paper you are using. With this test I should have stopped at seven layers.
Again, with the blending stick test, this too was an excellent seamless transition from dark to light helping to create the illusion of form and provide a spherical shape on a 2D plane.
Lyra Fila Giotto Di Natura
As is the case with the Faber Castell SuperSoft, the Lyra Giotto Di Natura is a Childs branded colored pencil, but it is a pencil I have raved about for a long time and absolutely love them, my only issue is that the largest palette is 36, I would love to see this set at least a 72 count. Here I selected the reds and as was the case with the Faber Castell SuperSoft, you can clearly see in the blending test the lack of saturation, especially compared to the Prismacolor, Chromaflow and ColourSoft. The ability to apply light layers and create a smooth transition caused no issues, the flaw on this test was the lack of saturation.
With the layering test, here we accomplished seven layers and on this test you can see that the more layers applied the more saturated the layer became. The brightness and vibrancy of the red used was very clear and I think goes a long way to illustrating the reason we colored pencil artists spend such a long time applying light layers in the hope of providing depth and tone.
Again as was very much the case for all of the blending stick tests, you can see the huge difference of the sphere before being blended and how pale the colors looked, but once the blending stick was applied, those colors became much more vibrant. I personally love the Caran d’Ache Full Blending stick, it has always been my preferred method of blending and I think these demonstrations show why.
Conclusion and Scale
As I mentioned, I used a simple scale for my notes, with the Derwent Artist at number 1 representing the hardest cored pencil I have used and right at the other end of the scale 10 and Prismacolor representing that end of the scale. For me really trying to be as scientific and unbiased as I could possibly be, I would place the Derwent ColourSoft at 9, very very close to the Prismacolor in terms of softness.
For the Derwent Chromaflow I would place that core at 7 or 8, definitely a harder core than the Coloursoft and Prismacolor, but nowhere near as hard as the Derwent ProColour, Artists or the Studio. In my mind, Derwent have done an excellent job creating place for the Chromaflow in the colored pencil artists arsenal. some part of me wonders why Derwent didn’t just increase the Derwent Coloursoft to the 150 set to compete with Prismacolor, but at the end of the day, whatever the reason, we ended up with another gorgeous pencil to work with.
I’d place the Faber Castell Superset at 5 on the scale and the Giotto at 6 or 7. The Giotto core is quite similar to the Chromaflow only in hardness or softness qualities. I think for me, that slightly harder core of the Chromaflow helps to provide a slightly better advantage to layering that the other two pencils.
This was a very difficult comparison to make, I really worked hard, making notes on each pencil and often redoing the tests three or four times as I started to second guess myself, but I guess that is what makes a detailed review, knowing that it didn’t take a few minutes. I hope this has helped you better understand the soft cored pencils and also please check out the video review to see each test come to life.
