Best Colored Pencils for Blending


Finding coloring pencils that are suitable for a relaxing adult coloring book experience can be difficult. If the pencils are too expensive, the act of coloring may create anxiety as your finances flash before your eyes. If they are too cheap, the art you create won’t be as soothing and rewarding as it could be. 

The best coloring pencils for blending on a budget are:

  • Marco Raffine Fine Art Colored Pencils
  • Crayola Colored Pencils
  • Black Widow Monarch Colored Pencils
  • Castle Arts Premium Soft Touch Colored Pencils
  • Arteza Premium Colored Pencils
  • Prismacolor Premier Pencils

Marco Raffine Fine Art Colored Pencils

These are the budget vs. quality heavyweight champions. They are by far the best balance between affordability and quality, and that’s why you’ll see them recommended by many adult coloring book artists. They’re vibrant and smooth, and their color range is the most versatile in comparison to the other affordable brands on the market. 

These fine art coloring pencils seem almost like a combination of oil pencils and wax pencils, even though they are oil-based pencils. An oil base allows for a much smoother transition between colors during the blending process, and these pencils deliver a professional gradient of color when smudged. 

 These aren’t the greatest pencils for layering; however, the colors do blend well together. This is forgivable, though, since not many layers are needed to achieve color saturation. Even though they are oil-based, the pigment tends to pill on the tooth of the page like other cheap wax-based alternatives. 

These are the only oil pencils on our list, and they top the charts because most oil pencils are not budget-friendly. Oil-based pencils provide the most versatile artistic experience, so give these a shot if you’re looking to elevate your coloring experience. 

Crayola Colored Pencils

These will be by far the easiest to find and the cheapest option to use. They are available at almost every major retailer and are popular amongst school-age kids. This doesn’t mean they can’t be used by adults as well, and their place within the coloring book realm cannot be diminished by their appearances in classrooms. 

Crayolas are great for beginners, but more advanced coloring book artists will notice that the colors just aren’t as luminous as some of the other brands available. They can come off a bit dull. This can be chalked up to their more disposable nature in that they’re meant to be burned through by rough use. 

They’re a great starter wax-based pencil because they still are very useable and are so ubiquitous. They’re the easiest to obtain and the most affordable, which makes them great for entry-level experimentation. 

If relaxation is your main objective when indulging in adult coloring, these might not be the pencils for you. Because they’re cheaper and duller, they do require more work, more pressing, and more layering to achieve the same thing you could get with a few swipes of something of more quality. Keep this in mind when deciding to buy a set of this popular option. 

Black Widow Monarch Colored Pencils

These pencils are sold in color ranges, and the Monarch set is a favorite because of the beautiful pastel hues. Instead of buying pencil sets by size, Black Widows are sold in packs of 72 with different color themes.  These provide a smooth quality that makes them feel expensive. While the colors are extremely vibrant, it is harder to layer these pencils than it is with some of the artist-quality pencils.  

Castle Arts Premium Soft Touch Colored Pencils

Castle Arts Premium Soft Touch Colored Pencils provide a kind of scratchy experience, and while they blend better than Crayola, they still don’t provide an artist-level quality to the coloring experience. That’s okay when you look at the price in comparison to the more expensive sets, and their price elevation from the Crayola level is demonstrated by their superior quality. 

These are a popular choice because they come in a portable pencil case which makes for easy storage and transport. When the case is first opened, it’s immediately obvious that the colors are already sorted for you in a manner that makes it easy to see what colors you have available to you and shows you what gradients of colors you have.

Organizing colors according to the rainbow or color wheel is advantageous in the coloring process because it allows your mind to see the nuance between shades. When colors are jumbled together, it can be hard to pinpoint their unique vibrancy, and errors in color choice are more common. This set is great for beginners and intermediate users who still are having trouble figuring out which colors to use together. 

Arteza Premium Colored Pencils

These premium colored pencils are triangular in shape, and the shape is better for coloring book enthusiasts because it mimics the tripod handgrip that almost all people use when gripping a writing tool. They come in a tube container and are generally bought in a set of 48, although smaller and bigger sets are available.

When shopping for this brand, it’s easy to notice that there are Arteza Expert pencils as well. These pencils don’t win any awards for budget and are generally not much better than the premium set except for a little more vibrancy of color. If you’re going to get an Arteza pencil set, stick with the premiums to get the most bang for your buck. 

Arteza premium colored pencils are wax-based. However, they’re popular because they don’t feel waxy at all when creating color gradients. Because they’re so soft, they blend super well and are almost indistinguishable from the higher-quality brands available. 

One downside to these pencils is they’re prone to breakage if you aren’t careful. This tends to get better the more you use the pencil and carefully sharpen it, though. These pencils can easily be layered eight or more times, and the colors offered in the tube linked above are so close together that it’s simple to make a continuous gradient of any color combination you pick off of the color tree. 

Check out our blending tips HERE.

Prismacolor Premier

These are the most expensive of the affordable coloring pencils and should be considered if you’ve exhausted the range of the pencils listed above. They come in smaller sets as well as a huge 150-count set, and what you decide to purchase will depend on the item you’re attempting to color. Most coloring book enthusiasts will tell you to just spring for the large set, so you have the widest range available to you. 

These pencils have softcore and are wax-based pencils that perform just as well as artist-quality sets that can be five times pricier than this set. They’re great for blending and applying to the surface of the paper much more easily than some of the brands listed above, which is why the big box of these pencils is over $100. 

It’s possible to put down more than six layers of color, creating six different shades of the same color, with these pencils because they are so soft and easily build up in the tooth of the paper. This gives them huge versatility when it comes to the smudging and blending techniques available to adult coloring book artists. 

If you aren’t afraid to splurge a little, go for these. They make the bottom of this list just because they’re the priciest, not because they aren’t the top performers. 

Keep in mind the most well-documented downside to these pencils before taking the plunge; they often crack when being sharpened because they are so soft and silky. This leads to a lot of waste and will irk someone who is trying to get the best deal out of their pencils. They’re fancy, but they’re fragile. 

Coloring on a budget can be rewarding if you research your tools and choose the correct pencils for what you’re trying to achieve. Make sure to consider what relaxes you most; some people aren’t bothered by a little drag of the pencil or having to push harder, whereas other people are completely ruffled when the pencil doesn’t glide onto the page. 

Taking into account what it is you’re trying to achieve with your adult coloring will help you pick the appropriate settings from the list above. Remember that any artistic endeavor is beneficial, so even if you don’t get it right the first time, you’ve still done something creative and exploratory as a tangible result.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the tooth of a paper?

The tooth refers to the fibers that stick up from the surface of the paper. The kind of tooth a paper has determines when that type of paper should be used. Printing paper has little teeth while watercolor paper has the most teeth. 

Can you paint with markers?

Technically, yes. When markers are used on watercolor paper, they bleed easily like paints and can provide a paint-like experience (especially if the page is damp). 

What is a solvent?

If you’re looking for a better blend than is possible with just coloring, you can purchase chemicals that will blend the pigment on the page in a way you can’t achieve from straight coloring. Many types are available. 

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Shawn C

Hi! I’m Shawn and I Love Coloring and Art and the people in it! I created this website as a resource to help those who are considering getting into adult coloring. My website is your one-stop destination for all the inspired instruction and resources you need to start and grow your adult coloring hobby. From geometric to floral to zen doodles and from time to time even mandala’s when I am in the mood. I have researched and gathered the information to help you in your goal of starting your adult coloring hobby.

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