When it comes to buying colored pencils, there are a lot of options to choose from. I previously reviewed 26 different colored pencils side-by-side to see how they compared in quality, performance, value and more.
Today, I’m breaking it down further to share with you MY FAVORITES and what I personally recommend as the BEST colored pencils for adult coloring, professional art, for any skill level, any budget, and more.
In this video, I’m going to share my personal recommendations for the best colored pencils to buy from everything I reviewed.
Now, a lot of this comes down to preference, and what you buy will be determined by a variety of factors, so first, I’ll walk you through what I think is important to consider, and then I’ll walk you through some of my personal recommendations for different categories:
- The best colored pencils for adult coloring books
- The best colored pencils for skin tones and drawing portraits
- The best colored pencils for drawing animals and fur
- The best colored pencils for hyper-realism and colorful pencil art
- The best colored pencils for beginners
- The best affordable colored pencils
- And the BEST quality colored pencils in the world (in my opinion)
Affiliation/Sponsorship Notes: This content is NOT sponsored or endorsed by any of the brands mentioned in this post or video. This post contains affiliate links for Amazon and Blick and I may earn a commission if you click them and make a purchase (at no cost to you). I have not been asked to write a review for any of these brands, and all opinions are my own. Further to this, the only pencils reviewed that I have received for free from a brand were the Black Widow Monarch set, which were given to me for a previous video, not this one. All other pencils reviewed were purchased by me or gifted by personal friends/family.
What colored pencils should I buy?
When it comes to choosing what pencils to buy, a lot comes down to preference, and different artists will have different priorities. If you’ve already used colored pencils in the past, you might have more of an idea of what’s important to you, but if you’re just starting out, I’ll try to help you with my own recommendations in this video.
But as a starting point, here are some general things to consider when choosing what’s important to you:
Open stock
Buying pencils in “open stock” basically means buying individual colors instead of in a set. This allows you to start with just a few pencils if you’re wanting to test multiple brands, or easily replace certain colors that you find yourself using the most often. For some people, this is a very important factor in the brand they choose, because they want to be able to easily replace certain colored pencils without having to buy a whole replacement set.
On the other hand, if you’re someone who isn’t as specific about using certain colors, or doesn’t mind mixing different brands, this may not be as important in your decision making.
Color range
It’s good to have a range of colors when you purchase a new set of pencils – but the artwork you do most often will determine the colors you need the most. If you’re coloring a lot of nature, you’ll want a bigger range of greens and browns. If you’ve just bought an underwater coloring book, you’ll probably be using a lot of blues. And if you enjoy drawing portraits, you’ll want a variety of natural skin tones.
If you’re unsure, I recommend looking for a set that includes a good mix of light and dark versions of each color from around the color wheel, along with a few neutral grays and browns, a few skin tones, and a white and black.
Ability to blend
I talked a lot about blending in my last video because it’s something that is personally important to me. I love the look of smooth gradients where the colors blend seamlessly together. But if you’re doing a lot of animal portraits or fine detailed work, blending may not be as important compared to other factors.
Sharp point
A sharp point, on the other hand, is incredibly important for fine details, but far less important for blending. If you’re mainly buying pencils for adult coloring books, a sharp point may not be a huge priority – after all, the lines are already drawn for you. But if you’re looking to draw fine details, this is something that becomes more important.
Lightfastness
Basically, lightfastness tells us how long pencil art will last without fading when exposed to light. Highly lightfast pencils can create artwork that lasts up to 100 years in museum conditions – whereas cheaper pencils without lightfast ratings will start to fade after just a few years, and lose their vibrancy.
To the average colorist or hobby artist, lightfastness is something you don’t need to worry about. But if you’re ever looking at selling your original artwork, lightfastness becomes an important consideration.
Price
And finally, price. While it would be wonderful to eliminate price as a deciding factor (and I definitely have my favorite sets of pencils if that were the case!) it’s just not realistic to do so. Colored pencils can be really expensive, especially the artist-grade sets like Holbein, Faber-Castell Polychromos or Caran d’Ache Luminance. So some of my recommendations today have included price as a deciding factor, but there are a few exceptions where I feel it’s important to splurge or save up for the better quality sets if you can afford to do so.
The best colored pencils
Now let me talk you through my personal recommendations for colored pencils. I’ll start with a quick disclaimer – that I am probably biased in my opinions, because I have used some of these pencils for longer than others, so naturally, I have my favorites. So I’m approaching this by creating a shortlist of possible pencils, which you can also find in my blog post in the description below, so you can make your own judgements too.
But super quickly, before we do… I also love to teach different drawing and coloring techniques for beginners, and along with other adult coloring tips, product recommendations and ways to get creative in your everyday life. So if this sounds like something you’ll enjoy, please take a moment to subscribe to my email newsletter!
The best colored pencils for adult coloring books
When choosing colored pencils for adult coloring books, there are a few things I was looking for. First, they had to feel good and have a smooth or soft texture. Adult coloring needs to be an enjoyable, relaxing experience, so I want pencils that are smooth and nice to hold, and that blend easily. I don’t want to feel frustrated or anxious at any point during coloring.
I also didn’t want pencils that were crazy expensive, which actually pushed a few of my absolute favorites off this list. While they might be my go-tos for my professional art, I wouldn’t generally recommend them for adult coloring pages because they just cost too much.
Keeping a sharp point isn’t a HUGE priority for me for adult coloring, simply because the lines are already drawn and I don’t think I’ll need to draw fine details as often as in my colored pencil art. Again, your priorities may be different on this.
Main Priorities:
- Soft, smooth texture that’s nice to use
- Easy blending
- Affordable
Shortlist:
- Faber-Castell Goldfaber
- Chameleon Color Tones
- The Black Widow Range
- Castle Arts
- Prismacolor Premier
- Arteza
My top picks: Prismacolor Premier & Arteza Colored Pencils
I will be using both of these brands frequently from now on in my adult coloring books, and I really couldn’t pick a winner between them because they both offer a slightly different experience that are both well suited to adult coloring.
Read my full review of Arteza in my previous post.
See how Arteza went in my Best Prismacolor Alternatives video.
Buy on Amazon:
48 set of Premium pencils or try the 120 set of Expert pencils
Read my full review of Prismacolor in my previous post.
See how Prismacolor compared against the Caran d’Ache Luminance in this video.
Buy on Amazon:
Set of 12 | 23 | 24 | 36 | 132 | 150
Buy on Blick:
Various sets or open stock
The best colored pencils for skin tones and drawing portraits
I get asked a lot about the right colored pencils for skin tones and drawing faces and these are sort of the same question but in two parts – first, if we are just talking about coloring skin tones, then my previous advice applies, but you’ll want to focus on a brand that includes a good range of natural skin colors that you can use as a starting point.
If we’re talking about drawing actual portraits and faces, then we also need to consider the ability to hold a sharp point for fine details, handle a lot of layering, and work on areas like hair, eyes, and facial features. But, for the sake of keeping things simple, I’m going to focus on the SKIN.
Coloring skin is something that takes more practice than anything. A good artist can draw an amazing portrait with ANY set of pencils, and even the best pencils won’t turn a beginner into an expert.
But here are some things to consider when looking for pencils to draw skin tones:
- First, color range. Skin includes a huge range of colors, and often has undertones of greens, blues, and colors you’d never expect. But, it definitely helps to have a basic range of natural colors to use as a starting point. Some brands include a great range of skin tones in their bigger sets, and others sell stand-alone skin-tone sets, so if you expect to be doing a lot of portraits, I’d recommend starting with one of these.
- You want to look for a pencil that has great blending and layering. To create realistic depth in skin, you want to be able to layer lots of colors on top of each other, so that does eliminate a lot of our cheaper or beginner pencil brands from my shortlist here.
- And remember, you can always mix brands, which is what I personally do. So you can expand your color range and enjoy the blending features of certain pencils combined with the fine details of others.
Main Priorities:
- Range of natural skin colors
- Easy blending and layering
Shortlist:
- Faber-Castell Polychromos
- Caran d’Ache Luminance
- Black Widow Skin Tone set
- Prismacolor Premier
My top pick: Prismacolor Premier
When it comes to drawing professional portraits, I’d happily reach for my Caran d’Ache Luminance. And the Faber-Castell Polychromos are another popular choice, especially for fine details on skin or faces.
But if we’re talking about skin tones in general, whether it’s for portraits, coloring books, or anything else, Prismacolor Premier will almost never let you down, and they are my recommendation for any skill level. Their wide range of colors and easy blending make them a very popular choice for skin tones. In fact, they even offer a stand-alone portrait set if you don’t want to invest in the full color range right away.
Read my full review of Prismacolor in my previous post.
See how Prismacolor compared against the Caran d’Ache Luminance in this video.
Buy on Amazon:
Set of 12 | 23 | 24 | 36 | 132 | 150
Buy on Blick:
Various sets or open stock
What? Not the Caran d’Ache??
My top pick is actually a draw between the Premier and Luminance, because I’d personally use Luminance for the more professional-level work I do, but Premier for the rest. I would recommend Premier as a starting point, or for adult coloring, or for amateur art. In the example above, I used Prismacolor Premier for 99% of this piece, so you can see that they definitely do the job!
I actually like the Caran d’Ache more, but the price is usually much higher. If they were the same price, I’d recommend the Luminance over Premier. So what you are drawing (and how professional or significant it is) is a key to the decision-making here.
Even if you’re wanting to use the more expensive sets, you can use them alongside the Prismacolors like I’ve done in the above picture – where I’m using my Prismacolors with the Caran d’Ache Luminance to work on the skin tones around this hand. I still used mostly Prismacolors for most of this.
The best colored pencils for drawing animals and fur
When it comes to drawing fur (or even hair), the biggest priority with colored pencils is the ability to hold a sharp point for fine details.
You also want a selection of natural colors, rather than the bold, vibrant colors that I’m personally usually attracted to in a set of pencils. So the wonderful Holbein pastels or Chameleon Color Tones are not the best fit here.
In this case, I don’t think you can beat the quality of the Faber-Castell Polychromos.
Main Priorities:
- Can hold a sharp point for fine details
- Range of natural colors
Shortlist:
- Polychromos
- Derwent Artist
- Derwent Studio
- Marco Raffine
- Koh-I-Noor
- Lyra Rembrandt
My top pick: Faber-Castell Polychromos
In the example above, I used a combination of Faber-Castell Polychromos and Caran d’Ache Luminance, and while the Luminance are a wonderful pencil, the Polychromos are definitely better suited to the fine details. I chose to mix brands in this image because I didn’t have enough natural colors in my small set of Polychromos, so I was using the Luminance pencils to make up for the colors I was lacking. Eventually, I would like to get more Polychromos for my own collection as well.
The best colored pencils for hyper-realism and colorful pencil art
The key with hyper realism is that most artists don’t just use a single brand. In fact, most don’t even just use pencils! They use a combination of mediums, such as markers, pencils, pastels, pens, and white gel pens, which- quick side note – I have a video about, where I tested a bunch of white pens to see which performed best, just like I’ve done with these pencils!
A sharp point is really important for crisp edges, and you want a pencil that can blend really well to create those perfectly smooth gradients that don’t even look like pencil work at all. Obviously, there aren’t many pencils that can do BOTH crisp edges and smooth blending, so this is where mixing media can again be a good way to get around this.
Bold, vibrant colors are a MUST, and one of the reasons that I personally love this kind of artwork. It also helps to use a smoother paper, like Smooth Bristol, which is a popular choice among artists on Instagram and YouTube.
My top picks for drawing realism with colored pencils:
Personally, I’ve been using a mix of Prismacolor Premier, Faber-Castell Polychromos and Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils. I use a combination, and choose which pencils I’m going to use based on the piece I’m doing, the details I need and the colors I have available.
Any of these 3 sets can perform great on their own as well. They are all capable of producing high-quality, realistic images that leave people amazed.
But if I had to narrow it down to 1 set for realism, I would choose the Caran d’Ache Luminance. The Prismacolors are amazing at blending, but lack the sharp points that really bring that clarity and detail. And the Polychromos take a lot more effort to create those beautiful blends – whereas the Caran d’Ache Luminance are the perfect middle-ground, and are a wonderful set to work with, although not exactly cheap!
Read my full review in my previous post.
Or see them in action in this video!
Buy from Amazon:
Standard 1 | 20 | 40 | 76
Buy from Blick:
Standard 1 | 12 | 20 | 40 | 76 | 80
Portrait 20
The best colored pencils for beginners
A lot of what we’ve covered so far is a little more aimed at a higher skill level, but if you’re just starting out, you might not want to reach for something like the Polychromos right away. Of course, it also depends on how much natural talent you have and how far you want to develop your skills, but only you can determine this.
So for this category, I’ve looked at pencils that are easy to use, easy to blend, with a good color range at an affordable price. Something that a kid could use, but that an adult could create beautiful art with as well, with NO previous experience.
I have a few favorites for this category that made the shortlist:
Main priorities:
- Easy to use
- Easy blending
- Affordable price
- Good color range
Shortlist:
- Faber-Castell Black Edition
- Faber-Castell Goldfaber
- Chameleon Color Tones
- Castle Arts
- Staedtler Ergosoft
- Prismacolor Premier
- Arteza
My top picks: Arteza & Chameleon Color Tones
I’ve chosen Arteza rather than Prismacolor here, because it is a little less creamy, and therefore a little more comparable to the pencils that a beginner may have experienced previously. I’ve chosen Chameleon because I think the double-sided pencils are a great way to simplify color matching and blending, and learn the basics of shading, which can be intimidating for a beginner. They also look super fun for a beginner and the color choices are simple and appealing.
Read my full review of Arteza in my previous post.
See how Arteza went in my Best Prismacolor Alternatives video.
Buy on Amazon:
48 set of Premium pencils or try the 120 set of Expert pencils
Read my full review of Chameleon in my previous post.
Buy on Amazon:
Set of 50 colors (25 pencils)
The best affordable colored pencils
Now, let’s find the most affordable colored pencils – WITHOUT sacrificing quality completely. If you’ve got a medium range budget, I’d suggest working off some of the recommendations I’ve already made. But if price is your biggest priority, here are the cheapest pencils I tested, based on pricing I found on Amazon.com in USD (prices will vary based on location, time and store):
-
- Faber-Castell Classic Color Pencils (Approx $20 for 48 pencils)
- Chameleon Color Tones (Approx $20 for 25 pencils, but 50 colors)
- Crayola Colored Pencils (Approx $22 for 120 pencils)
- Marco Raffine Fine Art (Approx $22 for 72 pencils)
The Arteza Premium set of 48 pencils also came a close runner up here!
My top pick: Marco Raffine Fine Art Colored Pencils
From these, most people tend to go for the Crayolas because they are known as the cheap, colorful option with a huge color range – but honestly, the Marco Raffines are only slightly more expensive and in my opinion, are quite an impressive pencil for the price.
So the Marco Raffines are my personal pick for the best affordable colored pencils.
Read my full review in my previous post.
The best quality colored pencils in the world
Now it’s time to share what I consider to be the BEST quality colored pencils in the world… in my opinion!
Price was NOT a consideration here. I was looking for the BEST of the BEST. And as I’m still learning myself, I didn’t want to make this judgement alone. So I crawled the internet, searching Instagram, Google and YouTube and looking at every professional artist I could find to see what pencils they held in their hands. I was looking at the artists with hundreds of thousands of followers and artwork featured in museums, and these were the pencils I saw over and over.
Main priorities:
- High quality, artist-grade
- Lightfastness
- Great color intensity
- Produces great results
Shortlist:
- Faber-Castell Polychromos
- Caran d’Ache Luminance
- Prismacolor Premier
My top pick: Caran d’Ache Luminance
Every time I pick up these pencils, I fall in love with drawing a little more. Even though I have NO intention of buying any more pencils anytime soon, I know that a day will come when I just won’t be able to resist completing my set and buying the rest of their colors – AS WELL AS checking out the Caran d’Ache Pablo range – which I didn’t review in this video but are often used by professional artists alongside the Luminance pencils. The Pablos are more like the Polychromos with the sharper point and are perfect for the fine details – so given how much I am loving these, I am confident that I will love them too.
But – they do come at a high price, so don’t be discouraged if you can’t afford something like the Luminance pencils right away. In fact, I don’t plan on using them exclusively. I plan to continue using them along with several of my other favorites… more details below!
Read my full review in my previous post.
Or see them in action in this video!
Buy from Amazon:
Standard 1 | 20 | 40 | 76
Buy from Blick:
Standard 1 | 12 | 20 | 40 | 76 | 80
Portrait 20
Mixing pencil brands: My dream team
Moving forward, I have a LOT of pencils now to use, many of which performed pretty well overall – so here’s my personal plan of how I’ll be using what I have:
When I’m doing my adult coloring, I’ll probably put the Luminance aside and reach for some of my cheaper pencil sets. I really enjoyed working with the Prismacolors and Artezas but I’ll give some of the other pencils a go as well. It will give me a chance to explore them further, really find my other favorites, and save my quality pencils for my more detailed work.
When I’m ready to work on my pencil art, I have selected a few favorite sets to use – a “dream team” that I’ll be working with to produce beautiful bright, realistic images, while still giving me a chance to experiment with different sets to really figure out what I like and build my skills in the process.
My dream team includes a combination of Caran d’Ache Luminance, Prismacolor Premier and Faber-Castell Polychromos. These are the only pencils I intend to restock if they run out (based on my CURRENT opinions… who knows what the future may hold!) and I would love to build up my collections to eventually own the complete color sets of all 3 brands. (Sorry, Shane… more pencils still to buy!) – Right now, I own the full set of Prismacolors and the 40 set of Luminance, along with about 20 Polychromos purchased as open stock.
But because I want to keep an open mind, I’m also going to keep these on hand to use and explore alongside my favorites:
- Derwent Lightfast
- Cretacolor Mega Color
- Uni-Posca
- Lyra Rebrandt Polycolor
- Holbein
The great thing about this approach is that I can try new things, expand my skills, and learn techniques that I might ignore if I just put all these aside and only use one brand from now on. As I practice more and learn more about my own preferences, I’ll work out what I love the most so when my pencils eventually need replacing I’ll know exactly what to buy!
The rest of my pencils won’t go to waste- I’ll use them to practice my skills, to work on my coloring books, from time-to-time along with the above pencils just for something different, or even to color along with my kids and start teaching them art skills as they grow up and want to move away from their kids’ ranges of pencils (Zac is only 5 and has is eyes on my Prismacolors already!)
General tips when buying and testing pencils
No matter what you choose to buy, here are some general tips to keep in mind:
- You don’t need a big set. Just like I showed you in my previous video, you can layer and mix colors from smaller sets to produce a bigger range of colors- so instead of buying the big sets of 120, a set of 30-50 colors is usually all you’ll ever need.
- You can layer different brands and even different mediums! This is a great way to test out different brands and fill gaps in your color ranges.
- To help keep your budget low, you can even use your cheaper pencils to fill large areas or lower layers and save the expensive pencils for details – or use the cheaper pencils for practice and the expensive pencils for your finished artwork.
- All pencils will produce better results if you use quality supplies – so invest in a good sharpener and quality paper.
- It’s worth testing a few different brands – buy open stock or small sets so you don’t break the bank until you find one you like, because a lot comes down to preference and you’d hate to spend hundreds on a huge set that you don’t end up using!
- And finally, just have a go! The best way to improve your skills is to just keep drawing, no matter what pencils you are using.
You can create good art with almost anything if you just keep practicing. Good pencils will help, but they won’t make you an artist. Quality supplies are more about making the experience enjoyable and easier – but don’t let your budget or your small set of colors hold you back from creating something amazing.
What are your favorite pencils? Did you agree or disagree with my recommendations? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Other Coloring Resources For You:
- The Best Prismacolor Alternatives: I Put 7 Affordable Colored Pencil Sets to the Test!
- How to Make Any Color from 12 Colored Pencils (+ FREE Color Mixing Chart)
- How to Use a Color Palette
- 5 Easy Tips to Instantly Improve your Adult Coloring Pages
- The Best (and Worst) White Pens for Drawing: The Ultimate White Pen Test!
Very imformative, thank you.
My colored pencils are probably the cheapest. Igot the from Staples and they are Prismcolor Scholar. I am a beginner but realized right away that they may be too soft for I already nee to sharpen them. Have you heard of them.
Prismacolor Scholar are the student/beginner level set brought out by Prismacolor. I haven’t tried them personally, but I’ve heard they are pretty good – although most people have said that they aren’t as good as most of the other similar priced brands. If you already have them, great! But I wouldn’t necessarily go out and buy more when there are so many other options available.
Sarah, I’d love to hear your opinion on the Pablo and the more affordable Blick studio artists colored pencils. Thanks
I’ve reviewed the Blick pencils in my Ultimate comparison (linked to in this article) and I’ve recently bought the Pablo to try!
Sarah the most affordable coloured pencil that has that Prisma Color Premier feel and great colours is Amazon Basics Premium Colored Pencils. I love them and can afford them. I can even bring them out to share when friends pop over.
I have collected a lot of pencils from all price ranges, from Amazon basics to Luminanance, ?Lightfast , Prismacolor, just about all of the Derwent range , Polychromos etc, I agree I brought out the Amazon basics and the 240 Kalour pencils again and surprising how well these basics and Kalour 240 behave. It’s always interesting to see different pencils evaluations. Paper is another thing some pencils are wonderful on 80lb paper but hopeless on some colouring books. It pays to try them on different quality paper I think.
Dear Sarah,
I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for your incredibly comprehensive and insightful buying guide on colored pencils. Your article has truly helped me make an informed decision on which ones to purchase. The detailed analysis, along with the pros and cons you provided, made it so much easier for me to choose the best-colored pencils for my artistic pursuits. Your expertise shines through every section, and I can tell you put a lot of effort into researching and compiling this guide.
The layout and design of your website are also very user-friendly and visually appealing. It is evident that you genuinely care about helping your readers make the right choices, and your passion for art is evident in every word you write. This buying guide will undoubtedly be my go-to resource whenever I need recommendations for art supplies.
Once again, many thanks for creating such a valuable resource. You have definitely gained a loyal reader in me. Keep up the fantastic work!
Best regards,
Martin Williamson
What a delightful find! These free printable coloring bookmarks are not only a fun and creative way to add a personal touch to my reading experience, but they also make fantastic gifts for my book-loving friends. The intricate designs and variety of themes ensure there’s something for everyone. Thank you for sharing these wonderful resources,
I am in 6th grade, I love nature, I live in Arizona, and I am almost 12. I would like to know how to make my drawings more realistic. No matter how hard I try to make my structure more realistic they always look like stick figures. can you help me?
“These colored pencils are truly a game-changer! The vibrant pigments and smooth application make them the best in the market. Whether you’re an artist or just enjoy coloring, the quality is unmatched. The range of colors allows for endless creativity, and the durability of the pencils ensures they last. The packaging is practical, keeping them organized and ready for use. I’ve tried various brands, but these pencils stand out for their exceptional performance. Worth every penny for anyone who appreciates top-notch coloring tools!” ✨
Wow, this colored pencil guide is an absolute game-changer! The recommendations are spot-on, and the buying guide is incredibly helpful. I’ve been searching for the best-colored pencils, and this article provided exactly what I needed. The detailed insights and reviews make it easy to make an informed decision. I appreciate the effort put into this guide; it’s my go-to resource now whenever I’m shopping for colored pencils. Highly recommend it to anyone looking to elevate their art supplies game!