How to Make Cheap Colored Pencils Draw Like They’re Expensive!

Watch me draw Jazza as Thor in this video here.

My experience with the Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils is that they are easy to blend and layer and they are very enjoyable to work with. They aren’t buttery or super soft like Prismacolor. In fact, they are almost slightly chalky in comparison, which means they work on some paper better than others. The colors are bold and they are really easy to lay down – it takes almost no effort to get color on the page, and they just feel nice to hold.

You can buy them on Amazon here:  20 | 40 | 76 | 100

Or at Blick online here: 12 

For my Luminance swatches, I’ve done more of a gradient because these are swatches I’ll use over and over again, and it’s really helpful to see the different shades of each color. But for the Crayola, I’m just keeping it simple. I don’t expect to use these often and frankly, swatching them isn’t as enjoyable. Plus, I wanted the extra space to write out the color names because they don’t have any numbers on the pencils like most brands do.

1. Keep a Sharp Point

First, always keep them as sharp as possible.

Crayolas can keep a sharper point than most, so use this to your advantage!

The sharper point gets much better color out of these pencils. It also makes them smoother to use, helps them to lay down more even color, and they just feel nicer overall to use.

The Crayolas are quite hard to sharpen because of their hard wood casing, so I prefer to use a cheaper sharpener instead of one of my higher-quality sharpeners that I use on my other pencils. (I don’t want the wood to damage my other sharpeners over time)

I have been using one of my Apsara Long Point Sharpeners from my huge sharpener comparison to give my Crayolas an extremely sharp point.

2. Use blending tools and solvents

If you want to HELP your pencils blend, you can use things like solvents, blending pencils, and even certain household items like I tested in my previous post here.

But please. TEST THEM FIRST.

Unfortunately for me, I ruined my Crayola 50k artwork because the blending product I chose wasn’t the artist-grade blending product I thought it was. It yellowed after a few months and has ruined the art completely.

So, I recommend leaving your tests for a few months if you can see how they perform over time before using them on your best work.

From my other testing, I’d also recommend staying away from baby oil – which I hear recommended all the time! This didn’t seem to ever dry and was the only other product I tried that has left a noticeable stain after all this time.

Today, I’m using isopropyl alcohol. And I’ve loaded it into an empty alcohol marker to make a DIY alcohol pen.

This basically breaks down some of the binders in the pencil, which spreads out the color into the page and removes the white underneath. After it dries, you can color again over the top to build up even more color.

In my picture today, I used this on the iris of the Crayola side but chose not to use any solvents on the skin, so that the paper texture would add to the natural look of the texture of the skin anyway.

3. Work in light layers

If you watch my process in the above video, you’ll notice that I’m working in lots of layers of colors with BOTH the cheap and expensive colored pencils.

But this especially important with cheaper pencils.

Where the more expensive pencils can be a little more forgiving and can be worked with on the upper layers, cheaper pencils tend to be harder to work with – so EVERY layer counts.

If you make a mistake on a lower layer, it’s more likely it will show through on the cheaper pencils. And if you’re impatient, press to hard, or don’t create smooth strokes – it will have an impact on the end result.

So if you want to create professional results with cheaper pencils, you’re going to have to be more patient. It’s going to take more layers, more time, and you’ll need to learn to have a lighter hand.

4. Use better quality paper

This is possibly the most underrated tip when it comes to getting better results with your colored pencils.

Unfortunately, if you want to get good results with cheap pencils, you can’t rely on cheap paper too.

Paper is so important, and it was the key for me today in being able to layer these Crayolas so well that they actually held up against the Caran d’Ache Luminance.

Quality paper has more texture and thickness to allow you to layer more pigment from the pencils. Cheaper paper won’t take as much pencil, so you will be far more limited in what you can achieve.

In this example, I was using Fabriano Hot-Pressed Watercolor Paper (Buy on Blick | Amazon) but there are plenty of other quality papers available that will be a huge step up from standard printer paper.

I’ve got a whole article here about my favorite paper recommendations for colored pencils and what you should consider, along with some great budget-friendly options that will still give great results.

But using the right tools can be rewarding, more enjoyable, and can help you to focus more on creating the art instead of trying to work against your supplies.

For me, this was my experience with the Caran d’Ache range of pencils. They unlocked my joy for drawing in a completely new way. But for many, these are a luxury, and probably unnecessary. There are a LOT of mid-range pencils that come in at a much cheaper price than these and will give you a lot of these features, so don’t panic if these are out of the budget for you right now. You can see my favorite mid-range and budget colored pencils in this list (This is updated regularly!)

But if you’re looking for something special to add to your collection that’s a step up from a Prismacolor and different to a Polychromos, the Caran d’Ache Luminance would be my top choice.