If you can afford it and want to splurge? Prismacolor. Otherwise, any decent student-grade pencils like Daler-Rowney's Simply line or even some basic Crayola pencils will work fine.
this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
21 points (95.7% liked)
Art Shareπ¨
5656 readers
154 users here now
This is a friendly community for everyone who wants to share their art with the world! Everyone is welcomed π¨
Rules
AI Art: While we appreciate AI generated art, there are more appropriate communities to post that type of art to. Please keep posts to non-AI generated art only. This rule includes AI art that was then manually manipulated (e.g. drawing on top of something generated by AI).
Nudity: Nudity is and has always been a part of art, but it may be something that some users don't wish to see or cannot view in certain circumstances (e.g. at work). If your work contains nudity, please mark it as NSFW. Work that contains nudity that is not marked as NSFW will be taken down. As long as the NSFW tag is used, we welcome nude subject matter.
Spam: Please do not spam this community. Self promotion is fine if you just want people to be aware of your work, but blatant attempts at spam will result in the past being removed and possibly a ban. If you aren't sure if what you are posting is spam, please contact the moderator first.
Conduct: Be nice, and don't be a jerk. Constructive criticism is OK, but don't be mean. Encouragement is always welcomed.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Wife ordered a twelve pack of prismacolor. Thank you! :-)
I like Faber Castell and Black Widow brands. Not Crayola cheap but also not super expensive either.
Never heard of those. Thank you!
Depends where you live. The already suggested Prismacolor for example can be hard to find in many countries.
The German FaberCastell has decent non-artist grade colored pencils (much better than Crayola). They also have excellent artist grade ones but they're also more expensive (the Polychromos), they're much less soft than the Prismacolor (US, btw). You may also want to watch for the Swiss Caran d'Ache as they too will offer non-artist grade while still really nice as well as amazingly good but also very expensive artist-grade ones called the Luminance.
Cheaper of the three while still good, I would also suggest the German Staedtler.
Keep in min those 3 brands not only sell your traditional kind of colored pencils but also sell watercolor pencils (unlike traditional pencils, those can be used with water and a paint brush to activate the paint and, well, paint it) so be aware to pick the kind you need, it's written on the package ;)
Last but not least, even though I'm certainly not a fan of Amazon, it must be said that their Amazon Basics colored pencils are very, very good if you like softer pencils like the Prismacolors. For the price, they're a real bargain. The issue is that, beside being Amazon branded, they only sell sets so one can't buy a single color when needed.
Wow! That was incredibly thorough! That's awesome! Thank you so much for the great answer and taking the time to go over all of that! It is greatly appreciated.
You're welcome. Colored pencils are great ;)
While I do love prismacolor (mentioned in the other reply), if you're looking to save a little bit of money, I enjoy Derwent Coloursoft. They are wax based, so they do have limits on layering; however they go down easy and blend well up until that point.
(To avoid amazon, I'd order from dick blick or another art supply store)
Thank you so much. We'll look into those! I appreciate it. <3
Prismacolor are my fav. Little pricy but worth it. They also make a school line that's cheaper (both price and quality)
You can find them at any art supply shop. Even Michaels has em
Awesome! Thank you so much for the recommendation and the time! :-).