As a disclaimer, Prismacolor is still my go-to colored pencil of choice. I use it for most of my colored pencil work. However, I believe that these issues are important and should be discussed at length, at least to make other artists aware of the pros and cons to the supplies that they get.
Now- a brief history with me and Prismacolor. I started using Prismacolor in high school, actually starting with the Prismacolor markers. I learned about them because of THE INTERNETZ-- as I do most of my supplies originally-- and I really really wanted to try either them or copics. Copics turned out to be out of the price range of a kid in high school without a job, so I started a gradual collection of these babies.
Aw yeah. Back then, they ranged from $2.90 each to $3.50 each. They since have gotten a little more pricy, one of the reasons being is they started chasing after Copics coattails as Copics rose to popularity by getting a brush tip instead of their fine tip. I don't know if they still sell fine tip markers, but all I've seen in art stores are their brush tip.
Anyways, they were pretty decent. I made some decent art with them. Wore them dry, and have still been carrying their empty dried out carcasses in case someday I get refills for them. (Which, I haven't. Haha) The pros to these was their bright, vivid colors that I actually consider brighter than copics. They also are good at mimicking the bright "comic" and "cel-shading" style. When it comes to blending... Well, these pale in comparison to copics. Once I started working and bought my first copics, there was no going back.
No matter what Prismacolor does, they won't be THAT good.
(Haha sucka)
Now this might be comparing apples to oranges a little. Copics are entirely different with an entirely different feel. I consider copics to be a little more "watery" and meant for blending, giving a very watercolor feel to them. Because of this, it's a bit harder to get the vivid color in many cases. I personally LOVE the gentle feeling colors, but that's not always what you want. Still, many artists would agree that copics are a thousand times better.
Also, I find it interesting once again that once Copics rose in popularity Prismacolor changed to brush tip, and jacked up the prices in the stores somewhat.
Actually, that's part of the whole issue.
In 1938, they were founded, then ran with a few different crowds including Eagle Pencils before being bought out by Berol. Berol then joined forces with Newell and became a HUGE art making industry. That was about 1995.
Now I might be a little salty, but I know that once huge companies become... Well, bigger, things start becoming more about the money, and less about the quality of the supplies. It's a gradual thing. It starts with mass advertising. Getting artists -EVERYWHERE- using their supplies. more than that, convincing them that they can't LIVE without their supplies. They then FLOOD THE MARKETS. You can find their supplies everywhere. You see it everywhere. The art stores have SURPLUSES of this supplies. And then, once the artists are hooked, they suddenly have MAJOR sales. You know, make those artists run to it like moths to a flame whenever those numbers go down.
But in order to support these extreme sales, something has to give. And what gives is quality. Gradually, of course. Perhaps it's cheaper wood. or ways to make their binder cheaper. Or finding a way to factory create the pigments that they once got from the actual dyes. This, of course, is gradual. And they don't ALWAYS put it on sales price. Usually, they make it just the same price. And no one would be the wiser. As it is, the artists continually go back to it because they know they can make quality art with it. The brand is familiar, like an old pair of socks, and they know it works.
Well, those poor local art suppliers are starting to become privy to it. One of the reasons is that because Prismacolor has flooded the market, they can't compete even when getting their stuff directly from Prisma themselves. There are people selling these pencils for WAY WAY under market value and the local retailers would be LOSING money if they tried to compete. More than that, when the pencils are broken, damaged, or just don't work, it's the local retailers that get blamed. And especially in the past three years, complaints have started to rack up.
The biggest things are the fragility of the pencils. And in fact, this is an issue that I have been having with my set of prismacolors and one that leaves me quite frustrated. For one, the lead often slips out of their wooden pencil casing, slipping and sliding and making the pencil virtually unusable. I have found a way around this with the help of my friend and local illustrator Keliana Tayler, which is to tape the bottoms of the pencils. It seems to be a decent fix.
However, the second is not such an easy fix. That is that whenever you sharpen the pencil, the lead seems to ALWAYS break, and it takes three or four tries before you get a nice sharp tip to continue drawing with.
Now, I'm also really rough on my art supplies, as I am rough on my clothes and shoes too. I carry them in pencil cases in my bags where they are jostled. They fall on the ground. They get stepped on sometimes. I'm not the kind who babies my art supplies. I'm not going to carry my pencils in a velvet pillowed case. This is perhaps to my disadvantage because eventually the wear and tear of just simple transport and just time wears on the durability of the pencils and can break the lead inside the pencil. So, one of the things I COULD suggest is to find a nice, sturdy pencil carrier to carry the pencils in, and to only take them when you need them to avoid wear and tear.
Anyways, they were pretty decent. I made some decent art with them. Wore them dry, and have still been carrying their empty dried out carcasses in case someday I get refills for them. (Which, I haven't. Haha) The pros to these was their bright, vivid colors that I actually consider brighter than copics. They also are good at mimicking the bright "comic" and "cel-shading" style. When it comes to blending... Well, these pale in comparison to copics. Once I started working and bought my first copics, there was no going back.
No matter what Prismacolor does, they won't be THAT good.
(Haha sucka)
Also, I find it interesting once again that once Copics rose in popularity Prismacolor changed to brush tip, and jacked up the prices in the stores somewhat.
Actually, that's part of the whole issue.
In 1938, they were founded, then ran with a few different crowds including Eagle Pencils before being bought out by Berol. Berol then joined forces with Newell and became a HUGE art making industry. That was about 1995.
Now I might be a little salty, but I know that once huge companies become... Well, bigger, things start becoming more about the money, and less about the quality of the supplies. It's a gradual thing. It starts with mass advertising. Getting artists -EVERYWHERE- using their supplies. more than that, convincing them that they can't LIVE without their supplies. They then FLOOD THE MARKETS. You can find their supplies everywhere. You see it everywhere. The art stores have SURPLUSES of this supplies. And then, once the artists are hooked, they suddenly have MAJOR sales. You know, make those artists run to it like moths to a flame whenever those numbers go down.
But in order to support these extreme sales, something has to give. And what gives is quality. Gradually, of course. Perhaps it's cheaper wood. or ways to make their binder cheaper. Or finding a way to factory create the pigments that they once got from the actual dyes. This, of course, is gradual. And they don't ALWAYS put it on sales price. Usually, they make it just the same price. And no one would be the wiser. As it is, the artists continually go back to it because they know they can make quality art with it. The brand is familiar, like an old pair of socks, and they know it works.
Well, those poor local art suppliers are starting to become privy to it. One of the reasons is that because Prismacolor has flooded the market, they can't compete even when getting their stuff directly from Prisma themselves. There are people selling these pencils for WAY WAY under market value and the local retailers would be LOSING money if they tried to compete. More than that, when the pencils are broken, damaged, or just don't work, it's the local retailers that get blamed. And especially in the past three years, complaints have started to rack up.
The biggest things are the fragility of the pencils. And in fact, this is an issue that I have been having with my set of prismacolors and one that leaves me quite frustrated. For one, the lead often slips out of their wooden pencil casing, slipping and sliding and making the pencil virtually unusable. I have found a way around this with the help of my friend and local illustrator Keliana Tayler, which is to tape the bottoms of the pencils. It seems to be a decent fix.
However, the second is not such an easy fix. That is that whenever you sharpen the pencil, the lead seems to ALWAYS break, and it takes three or four tries before you get a nice sharp tip to continue drawing with.
Now, I'm also really rough on my art supplies, as I am rough on my clothes and shoes too. I carry them in pencil cases in my bags where they are jostled. They fall on the ground. They get stepped on sometimes. I'm not the kind who babies my art supplies. I'm not going to carry my pencils in a velvet pillowed case. This is perhaps to my disadvantage because eventually the wear and tear of just simple transport and just time wears on the durability of the pencils and can break the lead inside the pencil. So, one of the things I COULD suggest is to find a nice, sturdy pencil carrier to carry the pencils in, and to only take them when you need them to avoid wear and tear.
(This is one that I have seen artist Keliana Tayler use, and it's good for when you are the go, protecting your pencils, and sorting the colors so you know EXACTLY where it is)
HOWEVER, I also submit the argument that you make do with what you have. I have used the metal casing that the pencils normally come into, but the box often jostles open and the pencils end up in the bottom of my bag. I've used plastic ziplock baggies but it eventually gets full of holes and isn't very pretty. I've ALWAYS carried one of those zip up pencil cases but they always tear around the zipper area before too long. And those plastic pencil cases you get in elementary school are good, but I find them often too bulky to carry around in my backpack or Handbag of Holding.
Regardless, make do with what you have until you can afford THE NICE THINGS. (Also why doesn't Prismacolor just sell them in this nice case in the first place? It would make everything a lot easier)
There is also the issue of sharpening pencils. I have heard one colored pencilist say that sharpening pencils is like breaking the necks of the poor pencils which was a VERY MORBID way of looking at it. Instead, he argues that you should use sandpaper to sharpen your pencils and that it will prolong their life and not twist and crack the lead.
For the determined artist, that might be a good fix. However, I personally don't have time for that and instead I've used different pencil sharpeners.
While it's true that the cheaper the pencil sharpener, the more likely it is to break, it seems whatever hand sharpener I used didn't make too much of a difference. I bought PRISMACOLOR'S OWN colored pencil sharpener, which has two holes- one bigger and one smaller. I've tried using both and it still breaks equally as much-- though I had a little more success with the bigger hole.
I have also used metal sharpeners and it still breaks rather quickly. Same with cheapo plastic sharpeners. The wall mounted sharpeners eat the pencils alive.
You know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.
Regardless, make do with what you have until you can afford THE NICE THINGS. (Also why doesn't Prismacolor just sell them in this nice case in the first place? It would make everything a lot easier)
There is also the issue of sharpening pencils. I have heard one colored pencilist say that sharpening pencils is like breaking the necks of the poor pencils which was a VERY MORBID way of looking at it. Instead, he argues that you should use sandpaper to sharpen your pencils and that it will prolong their life and not twist and crack the lead.
For the determined artist, that might be a good fix. However, I personally don't have time for that and instead I've used different pencil sharpeners.
While it's true that the cheaper the pencil sharpener, the more likely it is to break, it seems whatever hand sharpener I used didn't make too much of a difference. I bought PRISMACOLOR'S OWN colored pencil sharpener, which has two holes- one bigger and one smaller. I've tried using both and it still breaks equally as much-- though I had a little more success with the bigger hole.
I have also used metal sharpeners and it still breaks rather quickly. Same with cheapo plastic sharpeners. The wall mounted sharpeners eat the pencils alive.
You know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.
The only thing I really haven't tried are electric sharpeners, and that's because to get one that is worth its salt is rather on the pricy side, and I don't trust 20 dollar cheapo electric sharpeners. They don't sharpen anything and break right away.
Really, I haven't found any solutions to the pencil breakage problem. Except maybe using sandpaper, and I'm not going to do that.
Also, I'm not about to BOYCOTT Prismacolor either. I'm not going to throw my carefully acquired pencils into the fire and dance around it because they are still of decent quality and by golly I am going to USE what I've bought. However, I intend to transition to different, better quality pencils as I go on, and phase out my prismacolor pencils.
As it is, I'm using Koh-I-Noor colored pencils and Faber Castell colored pencils more often, mostly due to ease of transport, though I do grab specific color palletes that I may need for a specific project, bundle it up with a rubber band, and take it with me if that's what I need for the day.
I can't say what's the BEST quality pencils either. I will be posting a post later about different pencil brands and what they look like on paper. I am going to continue to experiment with ALL OF THEM and see what I personally prefer, because in the end it's a matter of preference. And to be honest, I care more about creating art than I do the corruption of large companies and their sneaky ways.
However, I suggest that if anyone wants to buy quality pencils, DO YOUR RESEARCH. See what different artists prefer, and gauge from there.
Here's a good resource that I used for reference:
https://wiki.ezvid.com/best-colored-pencil-sets?id=adw&gclid=CjwKEAiA0fnFBRC6g8rgmICvrw0SJADx1_zAUC7SzXaJmcPegz2ECOFld7A79-g8Lqh8c423-aLIdxoCJM7w_wcB
And if anyone wants references on where I got this information, I've gotten it from the retailers at Artist Corner in Provo and Color Country Art Supply in Cedar City as well as talking to a myriad of artists about it. If there are any questions, feel free to ask.
Really, I haven't found any solutions to the pencil breakage problem. Except maybe using sandpaper, and I'm not going to do that.
Also, I'm not about to BOYCOTT Prismacolor either. I'm not going to throw my carefully acquired pencils into the fire and dance around it because they are still of decent quality and by golly I am going to USE what I've bought. However, I intend to transition to different, better quality pencils as I go on, and phase out my prismacolor pencils.
As it is, I'm using Koh-I-Noor colored pencils and Faber Castell colored pencils more often, mostly due to ease of transport, though I do grab specific color palletes that I may need for a specific project, bundle it up with a rubber band, and take it with me if that's what I need for the day.
I can't say what's the BEST quality pencils either. I will be posting a post later about different pencil brands and what they look like on paper. I am going to continue to experiment with ALL OF THEM and see what I personally prefer, because in the end it's a matter of preference. And to be honest, I care more about creating art than I do the corruption of large companies and their sneaky ways.
However, I suggest that if anyone wants to buy quality pencils, DO YOUR RESEARCH. See what different artists prefer, and gauge from there.
Here's a good resource that I used for reference:
https://wiki.ezvid.com/best-colored-pencil-sets?id=adw&gclid=CjwKEAiA0fnFBRC6g8rgmICvrw0SJADx1_zAUC7SzXaJmcPegz2ECOFld7A79-g8Lqh8c423-aLIdxoCJM7w_wcB
And if anyone wants references on where I got this information, I've gotten it from the retailers at Artist Corner in Provo and Color Country Art Supply in Cedar City as well as talking to a myriad of artists about it. If there are any questions, feel free to ask.
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