Colored Pencil Blending Test: 10 colored pencil brands!

Blending colored pencil comparison among 10 commonly used colored pencil brands!

In this short video, I test the blending performance of 10 commonly used colored pencil brands!

This video is part of a post on my art blog: Coloring minds with colored pencils.

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In my previous post/video, I showed you my key colored pencil blending techniques. Now I’ll compare the most commonly used colored pencil brands using the same methods: Optical Blending, Layering + Stiff Brushes, Layering + Colorless Blender, and Layering + Mineral Spirits.
The next figure shows the global results of the analysis and comparison.
Prismacolor Premier: Equilibrated performance in all techniques. Blending is especially good when burnished with the colorless blender. Pigment staining appeared to be high after the use of mineral spirits, hindering the layers erasability.
Prismacolor Verithin: Good for detailed hatching and crosshatching. Low pigmentation and hard cores. They are not especially good for blending with solvents.
Caran d’Ache Luminance 6901: High color pigmentation. Exceptional results when blended with mineral spirits. Colorless blender produces a waxy and sticky burnished layer, resulting in heterogeneous results when subsequent layers are applied.
Caran d’Ache Pablo: Consistent results in all techniques (good erasability). Stiff brushes move and mix the pigments easily. There is a bigger chance of color contamination by smearing since these pencils are wax + oil based. Pencils with medium hardness cores.
Faber-Castell Polychromos: Equilibrated performance in all techniques. Exceptional results when blended with mineral spirits. Bigger chance of color contamination by smearing since these pencils are oil based.
Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor: Consistent results in all techniques. Exceptional performance when blended with stiff brushes or mineral spirits. These pencils are also oil based and showed high pigment staining after solvent use.
Derwent Artists: Extremely waxy pencils with poor pigmentation. Color saturation is difficult to obtain even after the application of several layers. Blending with stiff brushes is not recommended.
Derwent Coloursoft: Pencils with very soft cores, but not especially creamy. Exceptional performance when blended with stiff brushes. They are not especially good for blending with solvents.
Koh-I-Noor Polycolor: Consistent results in all techniques. Pencils with medium hardness cores and good pigmentation. Blend easily by burnishing with a colorless pencil.
SoHo Urban Artist: Equilibrated performance in all techniques. Exceptional results when blended with stiff brushes and mineral spirits. Pencils with medium hardness cores and good pigmentation.

Disclaimer: All the results presented here are in close relation with my skill levels and may be affected depending on the used materials. I paid for all my art supplies and I tried to truly make an impartial review based on my own experience.

General Materials: Strathmore Colored pencil paper. Prismacolor colorless blender pencil. Odorless Turpenoid, Turpentine substitute. Generic watercolor scrubber brushes. Faber-Castell PITT Perfection Eraser Pencil with Brush Tip.