Are Prismacolors Right for You?

There’s been a lot of back-and-forth about Prismacolor pencils over the last several years. Some artists love them; some hate them. After all the debating, you have only one question. Are Prismacolors right for you?

While I’m talking specifically about Prismacolor pencils in this post, the same question applies to all brands of colored pencils. There isn’t a brand anywhere that’s the best brand for every artist or for all uses.

But very few brands have been discussed as thoroughly as Prismacolor, so it seems appropriate to answer some of the more common questions today. I also want share a few basic tips for deciding whether or not Prismacolor pencils are right for you. If you decide they aren’t, then you can apply the same logic to finding the brand that is right for you.

You may also want to know if it’s safe to use Prismacolor pencils or not, and I’m here to tell you it is.

Depending on what you want to do with your art.

Are Prismacolors Right for You?

So how can you know if Prismacolors are good deal for you or not?

You Color for Fun and Relaxation

If adult coloring books are your thing, are Prismacolors right for you? Absolutely. Go ahead and invest in that full set of Prismacolor pencils.

Until recently, I haven’t done very much in the adult coloring book line—I didn’t have much time, to be honest. But I read plenty of articles about the subject written by artists who were into adult coloring books and pages. Almost to the artist, they recommended Prismacolor because of smooth color lay down, a wide variety of colors, reasonable cost, and availability.

Now that I’ve completed a few coloring pages of my own, I recommend Prismacolors, too, and for all the same reasons.

In fact, when I doodle with a coloring page, I often use the fugitive colors that I don’t use for any other artwork.

You’re Crafty

You’re making greeting cards, scrapbooking, or doing other crafty things. Color permanence doesn’t concern you. Color selection, ease of use, and price do.

Prismacolors are probably your best choice. There are 150 colors. They lay down like a dream, and blend beautifully. You can get them almost anywhere in the United States and in many places around the world, and in most cases they’re a good value.

They also work well on a variety of papers, including the heavier card stock you may be using for greeting cards or other fun stuff.

They’re also artist-grade, which means pigment quality is high. That means you’ll get a lot more color per pencil than you’d get if you purchased student-grade pencils.

You’re New to Colored Pencils

You think you’ll enjoy colored pencils, but you don’t know. You’re not interested—right now—in making art for sale. You just want to draw.

You also don’t want to spend an arm-and-a-leg on something you may not enjoy. But you want to try the medium with the best quality tools you can find.

Prismacolor is the answer. They offer students and beginning artists the best combination of quality and value around. Yes, there are better pencils, but they’re more expensive.

And there are cheaper pencils, but they’re lower quality. Even if you get them at a bargain basement price, you may soon find they don’t put much color on the paper or are a struggle to use for other reasons.

Prismacolor is, in my opinion, the only way to go if this describes you.

You Make Fine Art, but Sell Reproductions, Not Originals

You are a fine artist, and you make great original artwork. But the fact of the matter is, you often keep your originals yourself because you like them so much, or you give them to family members or friends. What you sell are reproductions.

Most reproductions are made with lightfast inks, so the lightfastness of the pencils doesn’t matter at all.

Use every pencil in the set, lightfast and not-so-lightfast. Get top-notch photographs or scans of the finished pieces, and sell reproductions to your heart’s content!

Then give the original pieces to whomever you like, or hang them on your own walls.

Just make sure to advise friends and family to frame those works of art under UV resistant glass and never, never, NEVER hang the art in direct sunlight.

By the way, the same applies if you make art mostly to teach others.

The Bottom Line

Prismacolor pencils are perfect for uses like those described above, as well as many others I didn’t touch upon.

In other words, if you don’t care to sell your originals, it doesn’t really matter whether they fade away with time or not. It seems a shame to me to put that kind of time into something that will fade whether you sell it or not, but it’s really up to you, the artist.

So are Prismacolors right for you? You’re the only one who can make that decision. Consider your type of art, your budget, and all the other options, then go forth boldly and make something beautiful!

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