Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils – Test

The Prismacolor Premier colour pencils are a wonderful tool. We test out the Botanical Garden Set to see if they are really as good for blending and art as their reputation indicates. Are Prismacolor pencils the best colour pencil you can get for more serious art and realistic coloring?

Vishal: Today we are testing the Prismacolor Colored Pencils – The Botanical Garden Set. This is a set of 12 beautiful color pencils and a nice metal tin. We are artists and calligraphers and designers and we make things and let’s make things with the Prismacolor Premier. Samir why don’t you tell us more about these Prismacolors?

Samir: Prismacolor is one of those color pencils especially which is almost ubiquitous. If you go on the internet and you see very detailed, rendered color pencil art you’re usually going to find that it was done with Prismacolors. There’s a certain kind of color pencil art that has become very popular because of the consistency of the Prismacolor colored pencils.

Vishal: Just like the Copics. There are other markers available but people gravitate to the Copics, people gravitate to the Prismacolors, people gravitate to the Posca.

Samir: We’ve not tried too many color pencils on Stationery Test Drive and the ones we have tried have been very simple student grade tools.

Vishal: This is NOT a student grade to tool and I know that because this particular set actually has a non – photo blue pencil. Non – photo blue meant that you could put these lines down and they would be nearly invisible to photographic processes and easily removable from digital images, and that’s how comics started to to be made.

You did your rough sketches in blue and then you did ink over them or you did pencils over them that were graphite pencils or if you were an editor and you’re marking up a page on a print thing you could put this in the margins and not have your editorial notes show up. Your notes would be invisible!

I have heard comic people especially say, get the Prismacolor non – photo blue because it’s a perfectly consistent blue.

Samir: Of all the colored pencils that we have tried these certainly lay out the most flat and consistent color.

Vishal: But how how they lay it out is another matter. You can’t quite put them down in a way that is, let’s say how a child or an untrained person would put down color pencils.

This is a set of botanicals and you can see that there’s pinks, a few greens, blues and yellows. However, there’s something that’s very botanical and let’s say very arboreal that is missing from this set, and we’ll talk about that in a while. But let’s show off our test drives.

Minjal, you have made lettering. “Interest is the most important thing in life. Happiness is temporary but interest is continuous.”

Minjal: For all those people who borrow money, yes, interest is unfortunately continuous. I knew that you and Vishal would end up making some kind of a drawing, botanical illustration with the pencils, so I decided to just try it for simple lettering. What I noticed was that all the colors, they’re not uniform in the amount of darkness that they have. Some of the colors required more pressure even for a simple, single stroke of writing.

Also. I thought these color pencils were a little waxy. We’ve used the Staedtler Luna, the texture of those pencils is very different. The Ikea Mala was again completely different. And these feel like crayons in some way. It was nice to use but this is almost 2,500 rupees in India.

Vishal: Wow, so that is quite a lot. That is $30 or $40 I guess.

Samir: But Prismacolor has always been a very expensive brand among even the reasonably well regarded color pencils.

Minjal: All I’d say is that you know if you’re seriously into drawing and illustration because they’re actually good to use, you should invest in a set.

Vishal: Like most millennials I too have been incepted with the idea that gin is wonderful, which is come going to come is quite a surprise to anyone time traveling from the ‘Great Gin Peril‘ of the 1800s where it was considered the worst thing in the world.

But yes, this is a Botanical Set, I used it along with my Sumi ink to get that sort of nice gray, crinkly on this paper. I enjoyed using these, and I agree with everything Minjal said. They’re a bit waxy, they’re not quite as easy to put down.

One of the things I think is strange is that there are no browns in this set. And I know you can color theory your way to it with yellows and greens and build up the things, but I couldn’t really just go out and reach for a brown.

Yes, we’re spoiled in this 21st century with just having 34 and 64 color things but sometimes that’s fine, sometimes you just want to put down one thing and I did mostly put down one thing. I kind of faked a cork by using green, orange and yellow, and it’s not extremely successful but it’s fine.

I do like the texture that I got on this page which is a bit of a toothy, cartridge paper. But this is all mostly one, singular layer. I didn’t really mix the colors, it’s nice to be able to get this kind of chalky texture. It feels like it’s chalk on a board, almost like a pastel which I guess in some ways color pencils are.

Samir: I think especially when it comes to the Prismacolor they are known to be kind of, of the consistency of chalk pastel, which is what makes them so popular for heavily rendered work.

So I decided that someone had to do the properly botanical thing but then of course I didn’t want to do regular flowers so we have a ‘Pitcher Plant.’

Vishal: A pitcher plant! I mean there’s a lot of drinks on this test drive!

Samir: I quite enjoyed using this. I knew what I was getting into when I started. Because I have heard of how people use Prismacolors. I’m actually very impressed with both of you trying to do what you did with a single layer. The fact that you got something that looked so finished, that’s a lot of effort.

Vishal: It didn’t feel like a lot of effort and that’s something to be really commended, the Prismacolors should be commended for that. It never felt like I was fighting against this thing, it was just that I wanted more out of it and maybe it’s working at a level of subtlety that I’m just not prepared for but you clearly were.

Minjal: Also in my case because I’ve not really done any shading or actual drawing with it I thought the Ikea Mala color pencils, although they are marketed as color pencils for kids, the pigment seems much more brighter, easier to put down on paper.

Samir: It’s interesting that you brought brought up the Mala because I was going to say that the way you’ve used the Prismacolors, probably the best tool that we have tried for that way is the Ikea Malas, in that they give a very clean and consistent output for a color pencil.

The thing is color pencils are not meant to be clean and consistent really. Yes, kids use them in that way and the fact that you can use the Ikea Mala in that way and it gives you this very consistent line is a great thing. I think that those are really good color pencils for when you want that sort of very clean line, graphic line with a color pencil. These are unfortunately meant for something completely different.

And to be fair I have used it maybe up to 40% of its capability which is that I spent maybe about 45 minutes on this.

Vishal: Typically how long would a proper drawing of this kind take?

Samir: A properly rendered drawing where I went over this over and over again with multiple colors and it turned out to look almost like this psychedelic photograph, that would take anywhere from 5 to 10 hours to do, this is 45 minutes.

Samir: So it’s just a tool that requires a certain level of time and commitment and sort of going over it, over and over again, which is very different from your casual crayon or color pencil. So it’s just meant to be used in a way that we don’t generally put into a test drive.

Vishal: I think people talk about skill floors and skill ceilings and things especially things like video games the skill ceiling for this is much higher than other tools that we have used.

Minjal: I wanted to ask did any of you all try blending this with water? I don’t think these are water soluble.

Samir: No, there’s no mention of it being water soluble and I didn’t try that at all. The other interesting thing we need to mention is that both the previous color pencils we have covered were meant to be water soluble.

So we are comparing the the consistency of something that’s not water soluble to things that were water soluble. Maybe there are just regular Staedtler color pencils out there which are not water soluble which would have again a completely different consistency that we haven’t really tested out yet.

Vishal: Yeah but things that I definitely need to test out are the non – photo blue because yes, I have heard so many recommendations for this specific pencil, the Prismacolor non – photo blue. So if you’re a comic artist I can understand why this has been the workhorse for decades now.

As a botanical person, yes this is probably fine, this set of 12. For me yes, I think I would have just liked a brown so that I could put down like a cork or like a straw yellow other than just a lemon yellow.

Samir: Yeah, it would take like 3, 4, 5 layers to begin to get something that’s starting to be a brown and that’s a lot of work to get a brown.

Vishal: And it’s also a lot of this color theory there, right? I kind of know a little so I’m like okay I can mix this up to do that but most people are going to be clueless about that. And yes then they’ll be like okay maybe I should have got the 24 or the 36 which I’m sure has a brown, but those are going to be quite expensive. But if you just want to draw flowers with no stems and with no barks next to them, this is no bark and all bite!

Samir: I honestly think that this is probably one of the most easy to handle chalk – pastel kind of mediums that you can find. Yes, it’s very expensive so it’s really not something I’d get into unless you are very serious about doing very heavily rendered color pencil art.

Vishal: Rendered and layered.

Minjal: Samir, I think if you’re in the mood to really spend money Prismacolor also has a special ‘Portrait’ tin set since you’re into figure sketching maybe that is something Vishal could gift to you!

Samir: I think what what these are is not quite the quick sketching color pencils that at least we are used to. We’ve covered a few weeks ago the Staedtler Lumograph black pencils, now those pencils are actually very close to these pencils. Those were to a black pigment what these are to a colored pigment, they make using what would be a very difficult medium which is chalk pastels very easy to use in a pencil form.

Vishal: Well, I think that we have plumbed the very many layers of the Prismacolor. It does get our recommendation but not if you are in any way someone who doesn’t want to go down this path, if you just want a set of color pencils to try and to put down colors get something else. It’s really worth your time and money to get something simpler, even as simple as the Mala.

Minjal: Or if you’re in India get the Doms color pencils or even the Camlin Kokuyo.

Vishal: There’s Doms, Camlin, Nataraj, there’s several other people who make color pencils.

Samir: If you want flat, simple colors, student level color pencils are probably more your speed.

Vishal: Yeah, and if you want to try out layering, the Prismacolors are fine. Yes, the Prismacolor Premier Crayons De Couleur Ensemble Jardins Botaniques, if you’re in Canada. For the rest of us these are color pencils.

Anyway, we will see you next time. In the meantime, there is plenty to watch on Inky Memo, there is a whole year of Stationery Test Drive episodes.

Samir: If you liked these colors you really should check out our Staedtler Luna Water Soluble Color Pencil video, it was one of our first and one of our favorites. And if you just like brilliant colors in general you really should check out our Ecoline Inks Watercolor Inks somewhere in between video.

Vishal: Hell, why not? No bark and all bite!

1. Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils, Botanical Garden Set – https://amzn.to/4m3so2H
2. Copic Ciao, Alcohol Markers, 6 Colors Dual Brush Tip Art Marker for Adults – https://amzn.to/3GlhzbT
3. Posca Marker Set of 15 Medium Markers 5M, Paint Pens – https://amzn.to/42YLzTv
4. Prismacolor 3349 Premier Soft Core Colored Pencil, Non-Photo Blue – https://amzn.to/4jGlxtU
5. Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils, Portrait Set, Soft Core, Adult Coloring, 24 Pack – https://amzn.to/3GB1778
6. Staedtler Luna Watercolor Pencil – https://amzn.to/4jTkvLj
7. Ikea MÅLA Colored Pencil 10 Pack, Assorted Colors – https://amzn.to/3RAtlBw
8. Sumi Ink – https://amzn.to/42x4SU0
9. Doms Supersoft Non-Toxic Colour Pencil Set in Flat Tin Box – https://amzn.to/3EDrjO0
10. Camlin Triangular Colour Pencil Set with Sharpener – Pack of 2 (Multicolour) – https://amzn.to/3YPk5gH
11. Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black, Tin of 6 – https://amzn.to/4izNqmt
12. Ecoline Liquid Watercolour Primary Set – https://amzn.to/4iv4iuA