Flowers are an all too common theme in many adult coloring books and for a good reason. Not only is the subtle complexity of their color complexion a natural inspiration for artists and colorists alike, but the visual textures of flowers propose creative challenges for adult colorists looking to pigmentate a paper garden.
When it comes to the top tools, the best-colored pencils for flowers for many adult colorists are the cherished Faber-Castell Polychromos and the Prismacolor Premier colored pencils. Both offer substantial color choices with vivid saturation, and both produce strong textures to captivate the physical presence of flowers.
There is a parade of praise, information, and reviews for the beloved royalties of colored pencils — Prismacolor Premier and Faber-Castell. Whether it’s airplanes or peonies, these two brands can cater to the demands of any art piece and provide a rewarding experience for any colorist. To start, let’s take a look at why Prismacolor Premier colored pencils are the hailed masters of wax when coloring flowers.
Prismacolor Premier
With Prismacolor Premier, colorists can expect rich textures and a soft feel as they color. Though these two aspects don’t have much to do with the color of the flower, the texture and soft feel physically translate the gentleness of a flower to the eye. Most flowers aren’t built to withstand the pressure of a firehouse hose, so neither should the visual physicality of a flower be on paper.
That said, the color that Prismacolor Premier produces is a reliably saturated pigment that offers a range in tone and hue. The soft creamy cores mix well on a three-tone palette which is extremely important to catch all the subtle gradients when coloring flowers. Without the ability to vary the gradient contrast levels and without the ability to produce various textures through different coloring techniques, a field of flowers or even a single flower quickly becomes a monoculture picture that lacks defining features to keep the eye intrigued.
Thankfully, Prismacolor Premier provides artists with the capability of diversifying the texture and color blends. Every pencil in the Prismacolor Premier set of 150 colored pencils is a viable color option with enough mid-tones and natural tones to fill in the gaps between base color choices. An especially noticeable phenomenon is in the purple tones. It is a well-kept secret that in the world of colored pencils, it’s often the violet, mauve, and orchid purple-based colors that draw the short end of the quality stick in many-colored pencil sets. A massive drawback when it comes to coloring flowers, given the strong presence of purple in flowers like hydrangeas, morning glories, and lavenders.
With strong color presence and soft visual textures, the only two drawbacks to Prismacolor Premier paper gardens are the price of the pencils and the potential wax-bloom. Consumers and colorists should be ready to drop around $126.00 on a set of 150 colors. A steep but very worthwhile price for one of the best coloring supplies available in the world of colored pencils. Additionally, colorists should note that over time, as the budding season in early spring, the wax-binder of Prismacolor Premier’s will also begin to bloom, creating a thin veil of waxy filament that dulls the picture below. Not exactly a great selling point, but this problem is easily solved by lightly scraping the wax-bound surface of the flowers with a box-cutter like a razor blade or a gentle wipe with a soft towel.
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Faber-Castell Polychromos
Though Faber-Castell Polychromos contain an opposing binder in their oil-bound colored pencils with a harder feel, the astonishing colors, high contrast, and fine detail work allow artists to create bold flowers and sometimes hyperrealistic flowers depending on the artist’s skill level.
Faber-Castell colored pencils reward colorists who are interested in the technical side of coloring. Flowers have tons of texture to them which requires more than just one hand technique to color. Areas such as the mid-length of a flower pedal provide artists the opportunity to color by flicking different tones and hues of color over a base layer to produce striations in the blending. The hard-point tip offered by Faber-Castell allows plenty of character to come through in each pencil stroke. Combined with the higher pigment contrast in the cores of the pencils, artists are encouraged to achieve a blooming effect in the petals of every flower.
These colored pencils heavily reward artists interested in experimenting and practicing their techniques. For the bloom look of flower petals, flick the pencil either from the center of the flower towards the pedals or vice versa. The line-based technique contributes to the movement of the flower on the page, encouraging the viewer’s eyes to slowly roll over the pedals of the flower, absorbing depth and contrast. This is because there is a uniformity in the physical pattern across the pedals, as well as allowing other layers of color through the cracks between lines in the same physical pattern creating a ventral living look that natural flower pedals contain.
Additionally, hatching and cross-hatching on the flower’s petals near the center of the flower allow for a more densely blended color mixer between color choices. Not only are artists encouraged to vary their technique with the professional-grade oil-based colored pencils, but the high contrast and fine point of Faber-Castell’s colored pencils allow colorists more than enough opportunity for dynamic shading throughout the flower or garden bed provided on the page. The extra contrast is wonderful for defining depth and light to the eyes. Plus, the pigment in Polychromos is excellent for mixing colors into boldly saturated characters of their own on the page.
That said, like the Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, the oil giants of colored pencils, Faber-Castell Polychromos do not come cheap. Consumers and colorists should expect to spend an average of $180.00 for a set of 120 colored pencils. Again, a well-worthy commitment if you plan on diving into the world of adult coloring.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some colored pencils options outside of the Faber-Castell, Prismacolor Premier dichotomy?
To start, it should be noted that though Faber-Castell and Prismacolor have arguably the best quality colored pencils in the business, other options are available. If you haven’t checked out Derwent colored pencils, both the Coloursoft and Procolour series are very much worth a look if you are interested in saving some cash and still receiving a product with excellent pigment. We recommend the Derwent Procolour when it comes to coloring flowers.
This is because the Procolour series offers users a balance between the soft feel and vivid saturation of their Coloursoft sister series while maintaining a harder tip so artists can more easily work the finer details demanded in the flower’s pedals. What makes the Derwent product iconic is the low-binder to high-pigment ratio in the core of each wax-based colored pencil. There is little to no waxy bloom like Prismacolor Premier, yet colorists can still expect a highly saturated soft color because of the thick layers of pigment that easily bend together from the Derwent Procolour set of 72.
So, where does the Procolour drop off? Well, for an average price of $124.00, it’s hard not to just spend the extra two to three dollars for Prismacolor Premiers, especially when consumers consider that fewer colors are offered, and though Procolour’s are soft… they’re still not Prismacolor soft. Essentially, the Derwent Procolour colored pencils are a good competitor to the Prismacolor Premier for an artist who wants to color gardens but saves their Prismacolor pencils for commissioned art pieces or pieces that are taken more seriously beyond practice for practice’s sake.
Why are flowers different from other objects in adult coloring books?
There are two extremely demanding objects in the world of adult coloring: flowers and animal portraits. Now don’t get me wrong, landscapes, mandalas, tattoo art, and human portraits are demanding in their own right as well; however, given the color and texture diversity of flowers and animal portraits, colorists may choose to specialize in one or both of these areas similar to how an artist may specialize in doing caricature or comics-style art.
When it comes to flowers, many beginning artists will focus too much on the colors of a flower and, in the process, forget about the demands of shading and texture that come with coloring flowers. Though flowers share many similar qualities, each flower on an individual level is different, just like people’s portraits. However, unlike human portraits that mostly revolve around skin tones and natural tones, individual flowers are more diverse in color, surprisingly enough. It feels unifying humanistic that people’s portraits share more tones and hues amongst the vast diversity of people on this planet in comparison to the colossal array of colors and contrasts that naturally bloom from mother nature’s creative landscape.
Even specialty sets of colored pencils, such as the Spectrum Noir Colorblind Floral set, don’t completely cover the spectrum of color in Earth’s botanical beauty. Not only are specialty floral sets of colored pencils limited in scope — held back by the stereotype color palette of mostly pinks, reds, and yellows, but floral specialty sets often fall off the mark when it comes to capturing the textures and contrasts of budding flowers. After all, it’s the portrayal of texture and contrast that separates flowers from coloring time for indoor recess to adults meditatively coloring gardens and furthering their skill set in the process.
Not every coloring day is going to be great, bad days happen, and that’s okay, but every colorist does deserve to give themselves a fair chance at exploring their best. I’m a firm believer that the tool doesn’t make the artist, but when it comes to more challenging subjects such as flowers, having the appropriate tools for the job goes a long way in producing great art.
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