The Best Colored Pencils for Blending

Coloring with pencils is a fun and relaxing activity that can produce beautiful results. However, to achieve a realistic and smooth look, you will need to learn one essential skill: BLENDING.

If you can learn to blend pencils, you can color almost anything. You can blend color from dark to light or blend one color to another. If you were to color a sunset, for instance, you’d likely blend colors from deep red to orange to yellow in a soft transition. ☀️

Looking for the right pencils to blend with can be a challenge, especially with how many choices there are out there. Some pencils make blending much easier and give better results for both new and experienced artists.

While not all pencils blend the same, you can blend ANY brand of pencils with the right paper and the right technique. The important thing to keep in mind is that cheaper brands will sometimes take more effort and patience to produce the same results compared to higher quality and more expensive pencils.

This video and article is not sponsored by any brand or artist. All information presented in this article and video are my opinions only. This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a commission if you click them (at no cost to you).

• How I Tested the Colored Pencils
• Why Is Blending Important?

• The Results
• Which Colored Pencils Blended the Best

How I Tested the Colored Pencils

For this test, I got to blending over 90+ brands of colored pencils, including popular brands like Prismacolor, Faber-Castell, and Caran d’Ache.

My goal when testing and comparing all these colored pencils was to find out exactly which pencils to reach for when blending and which to avoid where possible.

For each brand, I did a first blend test on the Neenah Bristol Vellum paper. I took each colored pencil through its paces, blending a 1-color gradient and a 3-color gradient while paying particularly close attention to how each pencil felt during this process and how easy they were to blend.

For the second blend test, I blended all 90+ brands on a variety of different papers, including:

• Canson Bristol Smooth
• Strathmore Toned Paper
• Standard Printer Paper
• Smooth Card Stock.

I did this to see if any pencils performed significantly better or worse on different types of paper. If you would like more help selecting which paper will work best for you, check out my blog: How to Choose the Best Paper for Coloring Pages.

Keep reading to see the pencil results below!

Why Is Blending Important?

Blending is a technique artists use to create smooth transitions between different colors (or intensities of the same color). Blending allows artists to create depth, and dimensionality, and gives their work a more polished and professional look.

Different methods of blending can involve different tools like specific ‘blending’ pencils, dry tools, or solvents. (I compared every type of blending here!)

But you don’t need any special equipment to start blending; all you need is a set of colored pencils.

The best way to blend colored pencils is to work in light layers and slowly build up your colors.

Start with the lightest pressure and overlap each of your colors where you are wanting them to blend together.

Here’s a quick video explanation of how to overlap your colors:

As you add more layers on top, you can increase your pressure. There’s no perfect rule for how much pressure to use or how much to overlap your pencils, so it’s best to practice this and get a feel for how your colored pencils and your chosen paper work together and develop your own technique.

Layering forms the foundation for almost every other blending method, including blending with solvents or burnishing with your pencils.

Creamier pencils (like Prismacolor Premier) make the blending process easier because the colors tend to “melt” together, especially on the final layers. But using this method, you can blend any type of colored pencils… even Crayola!

If you are just starting or would like a refresher, you can check out my blog ‘How to Blend Colored Pencils’ or check out my video tutorial ‘How to BLEND COLORED PENCILS For Beginners (Prismacolor Tutorial)’.

The Results

A blendable soft core is one of the most popular features in a coloring pencil, so much so that brands often include this in their advertising. A soft core does have some downsides like more breakage and not lasting as long as a firmer pencil, but in most cases, colored pencils with a waxier, softer core will blend more easily than pencils that have a firm or oil-based core.

For this test, each pencil’s blending score was based on:

• How they felt during the blending process
• How easy they were to blend
• How well the blending turned out and
• How each pencil performed on different paper

Each pencil was given a score between 1 and 5 (F to A) or 5+ (S) if they were off the charts. These scores are reflected in this handy tier list .

Here are how the colored pencils performed on this blending test (sorted alphabetically):

Which Colored Pencils Blended the Best?

Unsurprisingly, the colored pencils with a firmer core didn’t perform great on this test, while the soft & creamy colored pencils performed much better.

Here is the list of the best colored pencils for blending (all scoring a 5+):

This information should help you make an informed decision when you are searching for the right pencils to blend. But remember that the right technique and paper will help any pencil perform its best.

My team and I are still working on gathering all the data from each of the following tests. You can see the full results and scores of each set of pencils below: