Coloured pencils

When coloured pencils are mentioned, there is a tendency to think of “something to keep children quiet and entertained” but these days that’s far from the truth. Many an artist use professional coloured pencils to great advantage, producing artwork that is truly astonishing. See our Featured Artist Jesse Lane for example.

There are basically three different kinds of pencil, wax based, oil based and watercolour pencils. They all have varying degrees of pigment and binder in them which denotes how soft or hard they may be. You can use a combination of all three together to produce your artwork if you want.

Basically, a coloured pencil is a core of pigment which is mixed with either a wax or an oil-based additive covered in a wooden casing. There are many types of quality and usability in coloured pencils. Usually the price tells you a lot about this, trial and error also plays a great role in deciding what you like. What is good for one artist isn’t good for the other. The popularity of this medium is growing and has produced many societies which promote artistic ideas and give courses on the medium. Worth checking out.

Some Coloured Pencil Societies to explore:

United Kingdom – UK coloured pencil Society
America – Coloured Pencil Society of America
Japan _ Japan Coloured Pencil Society
Australia – Australian Coloured Pencil Network
France – Crayons de couleur
Please take a look, wherever you are!

If you are looking for some pencils to sketch and draw with here are some products to suite your needs:

Royal & Langnickel SPEN-12 Essentials Sketching Pencil Set, 12-Piece