As a beginner artist, knowing where to start on your art journey can be overwhelming. The biggest challenge may be finding the best type or brand of tool to use to bring your creative visions to life. Colored pencils are a great art medium for beginners to experiment with, but what are the best-colored pencils for beginners?
The best-colored pencils for beginners are Prismacolor Premier Soft Core, Arteza, Caran D’ache, Faber-Castell Polychromos, and Chameleon Color Tones. Sets for a beginner artist should have a variety of colors, rich color quality, and at an affordable price. The core texture is recommended to be soft so that beginners have a much easier time blending and layering colors.
While it all ultimately depends on the artist’s preferences, these characteristics in a set of colored pencils are a great starting point for the search.
Why Are Colored Pencils A Good Medium For Beginner Artists?
Of all art mediums, just what makes colored pencils the best medium for beginners?
Colored Pencils Are Easy To Control
Colored pencils offer beginner artists more control than many other mediums. Because of their semi-opaque color transfer, they are easier to slowly apply to the paper and build up color. This also means that small mistakes are likely to be more easily fixed when colored over. When compared to another medium, like paint, the process takes longer, but the user has more say in how light or dark the color goes onto the paper.
Just one colored pencil can provide several vibrant shades depending on how hard the pencil is pressed down. This also allows beginner artists to have more control over their layering and blending of colors.
Colored Pencils Are Versatile
As mentioned above, just one colored pencil can become many different shades without interacting with any other color. When other colors are put into the mix, the shade and color possibilities are endless!
Colored Pencils Are Practical And Simple Medium
Unlike most other mediums, colored pencils require no setup or cleanup. The only maintenance required is sharpening the pencil after some wear. There are also no safety precautions that need to be taken to responsibly use this medium, saving artists time, money, and worry. Colored pencils have a long life, as they do not dry out. Their lifespan is mainly dependent on how much they are used and sharpened. They are light, with little to no accessories needed other than a sharpener so their portability is a huge plus for many artists. All of these factors combine to make for a simple and relaxing medium to use, for beginners and experts alike.
What Should Artists Look For In Color Pencils?
An artist needs good quality and dependable tools to create beautiful and amazing pieces of art. But how can you tell which colored pencils are the best? There are a few key factors to keep in mind while browsing for a great set of colored pencils.
Color Quality
The first thing to look for in a good quality colored pencil is the color quality. Low-quality pencils have a lead that gives a dull or pale color payoff. This impacts the quality of the art itself, as it will be very difficult to get vibrant colors than blend and layer. A good set of colored pencils will have a rich hue and easily controllable color payoff. The higher quality colored pencils may be labeled as “artist” or “professional” grade, and the lower quality may be labeled as “student”.
Color Selection
For beginners especially, a wide variety of colors to choose from in a set is extremely helpful. Many beginners are still learning proper blending, shading, value, and mixing techniques. Having a good color selection within one set is optimal for beginner artists. It is also very helpful for beginners to find a colored pencil set with easily identifiable color labeling.
Smoothness
Beginner artists should look for colored pencils that can provide a smooth glide over the paper without any snags. This glide can tell you just how much quality there is in the pencil’s ingredients.
Ingredients
Pencils that are oil-based or soft wax cores are often very smooth and high quality. However, some beginners may not have the blending technique experience to enjoy using these pencils. Hard wax pencils are usually very brittle and make blending colors difficult. However, pencils with hard wax have a long lifespan and may be able to have a vibrant direct color payoff. Harder core pencils can be sharpened into very fine points more easily than their creamy and crumbly counterparts. This makes them ideal for fine detail work like hair and fur. Ultimately, this factor to consider while choosing colored pencils is up to the artist’s preferences. Beginner artists are encouraged to experiment with both.
Affordability
Beginner artists usually are not ready to invest large chunks of money into their new hobby. They want quality pencils at a reasonable price.
Check out our tips for colored pencils HERE!
What Should Artists Avoid When Selecting Colored Pencils?
Beginners should avoid colored pencils with dull or pale tones. These pencils are often of lower quality and will be very difficult to blend and manipulate. Often, these pencils with a lower quality will be labeled for student use rather than for professional or artist use. Hard wax pencils can be hard to blend and get caught on the paper while trying to glide. This does not create an enjoyable experience for beginners. It is also often recommended for beginners looking to work on their coloring techniques to use an oil-based pencil as opposed to hard wax. Either kind of colored pencil has to chance to be brittle and break while coloring or sharpening, so beginners should read reviews to save money.
5 Best Brands Of Colored Pencils For Beginners
Prismacolor Premier Soft Core
Prismacolor Premier colored pencils are a well-known beginner’s favorite. These colored pencils are also fantastic for coloring books. Prismacolor pencils check off many of the descriptors listed above. These pencils have a very good quality softcore lead that allows users to easily blend. Some reviews have as far as to say that the buttery application sets it so far apart from other colored pencils on the market, that it could be its art medium. With enough practice, artwork made with Prismacolor colored pencils can look like they were painted. For as great as the quality of these colored pencils is, it is affordable too. Bigger packs of the brand come to around $0.60 per pencil.
Arteza
Arteza’s sets are filled with artist-quality pencils with vibrant colors. A set of 48 included colors offer enough variety to be useful to beginners and the soft wax pencil lead can blend well enough to satisfy even expert artists. A set of this brand of colored pencils is incredibly affordable, offering 48 pencils for around $20. That comes out to just under $0.42 per pencil!
Caran D’ache
If you do not mind spending more pencils in return for incredible quality, this brand of pencils may be the one for you. The quality of Caran D’ache pencils is indisputable. The pencils are known in the art community for their ability to blend gorgeously. The color pays off and is so rich and buildable that more realistic drawings are easier to create and seem three-dimensional. The set also claims to have a soft and unbreakable core. A set of 12 Caran D’ache pencils can go for around $55.
Faber-Castell Polychromos
While Faber Castell Polychromos pencils are one of the most expensive colored pencils brands on the market, their quality is well worth it. The rich pigments of the pencils apply to paper readily, with no need to press hard. They also have beginner sets of pencils made of less expensive materials, while cutting down on quality as minimally as possible to lower the price.
Chameleon Color Tones
The Chameleon Color Tones colored pencils are double the adventure, as they are double-ended colored pencils. A set of 25 pencils provides 50 different colors. The dual-ended style of these colored pencils is very helpful to beginner artists, as it makes color matching simple. The pencils have a rich color payoff and butter-like consistency. This combined with the matching sides of the pencils will assist beginners in learning to blend very much. The storage case also turns into an easel for an easy visual of every pencil.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of paper should beginner artists use?
Smooth paper is often recommended for beginners who would not do much layering and want a high color payoff. Smooth and medium-textured paper. Brands like Strathmore offer a great selection of papers for beginners and professionals that are offered at a great price and are a great quality performance.
Beginner’s Colored Pencil Techniques
Art terminology and techniques may sound complicated and scary, but every artist has to start somewhere. These colored pencil methods will make even beginner artists’ work look incredible. Some great techniques for new artists to become familiar with while using colored pencils include burnishing, solvent blending, stippling, hatching, and cross-hatching.
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