Best Colored Pencils For Professional Artists

Isn’t there something intoxicating about all those beautiful colors lined up together with their gleaming sharp points.  Just full of potential, waiting to support your creative efforts.

So a workman is only as good as the tools he uses. Or in the case of a professional artist like yourself, the art you create will only be as good as the colored pencils you choose to use!

While it may be tempting to opt for cheaper pencils, their quality won’t be up to snuff for creating those professional-quality drawings that your profession relies upon.

So it’s natural that you’ll want to use the best colored pencils for professional artists that are available.

That’s why we’ve researched and reviewed the best possible quality colored pencils for you to use in your art.

We’ve taken a look at several different factors that are crucial for a quality colored pencil set: how easily the pencils blend together, how easy they are to shade, how smooth the pencils are to use, and many more.

We’ve collated everything you need to look for in a quality colored pencil set into a helpful buyer’s guide, too.

There are also some handy frequently asked questions down below to cover any burning queries you may have. 

In a hurry? Check out our top pick below! 

Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils

Prismacolor Premier colored pencils are the top pick for professional artists right across the globe.

The quality of these colored pencils is unparalleled, and this particular set gives you a range of 72 colors to choose from. Perfect if you want to have a varied palette! 

All of the pencils included in this set feature soft, thick cores which are perfect for shadows and shading.

You’ll get an ultra-smooth, even color lay down when using these colored pencils for your sketches.

The pencils lend themselves well to the superior blending that you need from professional pencils. 

The Prismacolor Premier colored pencils contain richly saturated pigments to give you the depth of color you need as a professional artist.

And even though these particular pencils are designed with professional artists in mind, they are ideal for artists of any skill level. 

Not only are the colors easy to blend, waterproof, and slow to wear down, the lead is thick.

This makes the pencil lead resist any chipping or cracking that can occur in lesser quality pencils.

Ideal if you’re looking for colored pencils that are of superior quality, and that will be able to keep up with the demands of a professional artist. 

What’s great about this set of 72 colored pencils is that they come in a handy metal tin.

This will be essential for keeping all of your colored pencils in the same place, ready for when you need them next.

This will also minimize the chances of you losing any pencils from the set. 

Pros:

• Set of 72 colored pencils from Prismacolor
• Features soft, thick cores for superior shadows and shading
• Contains richly saturated pigments 
• Superior blending and even color laydown
• Lead is resistant to chipping and cracking 

Cons:

• Depending on how often you use them, the pencils will require frequent sharpening due to their softness

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Castle Art Supplies 72 Premium Colored Pencils Set

The Castle Art Supplies 72 premium colored pencils set will give you everything you need to create professional-quality sketches.

The leads of the pencils are rich and velvety and are all highly pigmented.

This means that you will have the rich colors that you need right at your fingertips, helping you to lay down vivid colors with minimal effort.

These particular colored pencils are ideal for blending and layering together to achieve the depth of color you’re after.

This will be essential for more professional sketches, and the consistency of the colored pencil cores gives you everything you need.

These Castle Art Supplies premium colored pencils have been designed to protect them from breakages.

The cores of the pencils themselves are of the finest quality and are encased in strong basswood to protect them from potential breakages.

The pencils themselves are finished in a silky smooth coating to make them easier and more comfortable to hold.

All of the colored pencils have been organized in their storage tin to make them easier to use.

The pencils have all been sorted into color families, and are named, numbered, and color-coded for easier identification.

This will make it easier for matching the colors you need to get the right shade on the page.

The Castle Art Supplies colored pencils all come in a handy tin.

This will be essential for keeping all of your new colored pencils together and well organized ready for when you need them next.

The handy storage tin also makes it easier to transport them as and when you need to.

Pros:

• Range of 72 highly pigmented colored pencils
• Easy to blend and layer colors together
• Cores encased in strong basswood to protect from breakages
• Comes with a handy storage tin
• Pencils arranged in three color families by name and number

Cons:

• Some customers felt the storage tin wasn’t as sturdy as it could have been

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Derwent Colored Pencils

The Derwent colored pencils have been designed with professional artists in mind.

This particular set comes in a range of 72 colors for you to choose from.

All of the pencils can produce the vibrant colors you need for professional-quality pieces. The cores of the pencils are 4mm, soft, and can glide easily across a variety of drawing surfaces. 

The cores of these colored pencils have been designed to be as durable as possible.

They can be sharpened to a fine point to give you greater precision with your drawings.

This is ideal for a variety of coloring styles and drawings. The core itself is also break-resistant.

Perfect if you want a set of colored pencils that will be resistant to breakages or chipping! 

Derwent colored pencils all feature a soft textured core.

The velvety soft core helps you to emphasize the richness of each color in your drawings, which is just the thing you need for creating more depth.

You can easily build up color quickly with these colored pencils, which will be essential for creating more dynamic pieces. 

All of these colored pencils have been designed to be highly blendable.

Thanks to their enhanced formulation, this means that you can easily create a range of subtly different shades in your professional works.

This especially lends itself well to still life drawings. 

The Derwent colored pencils can also be used with a variety of Derwent accessories to allow you to create even more beautiful pictures.

All of the colored pencils come in either a metal tin or wooden box to help keep them organized and protected when not in use. 

Pros:

• Range of 72 soft, vibrant colored pencils
• Break-resistant cores can be sharpened to a fine point
• Features a soft textured core for more depth of color
• All colored pencils are highly blendable
• Comes in either a metal tin or wooden box

Cons:

• One of the more expensive choices that we found

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Faber-Castell Polychromos Colored Pencil Set

This set of Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils will give you everything you could possibly need for creating beautiful drawings to be the envy of all artists around you.

This particular set includes a range of 120 colors, but is also available in smaller sets if you would prefer those.

This particular set includes all the colors in the Polychromos range. 

The great thing about these Polychromos colored pencils is that they have an unsurpassed lightfastness.

That means that their color won’t fade over time after you’ve created your drawing. These pencils use the highest quality pigments to create a superb permanent color that will stay strong over time. 

All of the colored pencils in this set are easy to blend with one another.

These pencils use oil-based leads that can easily be blended together to create more effects, transitions, and highlights.

You also won’t have to worry about getting the waxy bloom that can sometimes appear from pencils that use a wax-based lead. 

Another great feature of these pencil leads is that they have been designed to be break-resistant.

The leads themselves are 3.8mm in thickness and are not only break-resistant, but they are also water-resistant, too.

The leads are SV-bonded for the entire length of the pencil barrel. This makes for easier sharpening and ensures that your Faber-Castell pencils will last you for even longer. 

These particular colored pencils are packaged in a handy storage tin. This will be essential for keeping all of your pencils in one place for when you need them next. 

Pros:

• Range of 120 colored pencils
• High-quality pigments with unsurpassed lightfastness
• Oil-based leads which are easy to blend
• 3.8mm break-resistant and water-resistant leads
• Comes organized in a metal storage tin

Cons:

• More expensive than competitor products.

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Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor Art Pencils

The Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor art pencils have been manufactured with professional artists in mind.

However, they are also well suited to artists of varying expertise.

This particular set contains 72 colored pencils, but the Lyra pencils are also available in pack sizes of 12, 24, 36, and 105. So you can aptly choose the set better suited to your level of experience. 

The great thing about these particular colored pencils is that they are suitable for application to a variety of drawing surfaces.

Not only can you use these pencils on paper or cardboard – but they can also be used on synthetic materials, textiles, and even wood. Perfect if you like to experiment with your artistic canvases!

The leads of these pencils have been designed to deliver brilliant, smooth colors for the best results.

They are also able to offer superb lightfastness so the colors won’t fade over time once you’ve applied them to your chosen canvas.

This particular set of colored pencils offers you a wonderful range of colors.

Not only does it give you the essential strong tones that you need to create the depth of color that you’re after, but the set also gives you the more nuanced colors that the smaller sets are missing.

This gives you a greater color palette when it comes to creating your next masterpieces.

All of the 72 colors come in a metal box container to protect them from damage when the pencils aren’t in use.

This also makes the colored pencils easy to transport should you wish to draw on the go.

Pros:

• Range of 72 Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor colored pencils
• Suitable for use on a variety of surfaces including textiles, wood, synthetic materials, cardboard, and paper
• Delivers brilliant, smooth colors with superb lightfastness
• Offers a range of tones and nuanced colors
• Comes in a handy metal storage box

Cons:

• Other customers recommended making a swatch sample so you could keep better track of the colors

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Buyers Guide

The most important thing that an artist looks for, of course, is a set of colored pencils that are going to give you consistency in results.

This will be essential for creating numerous masterpieces with your new set of colored pencils.

There are many factors to consider when it comes to achieving this consistency, and a lot of them will be entirely down to personal preference. 

There’s no need to get intimidated by all the jargon, though!

Instead of just buying the first set of professional-looking colored pencils that you stumble across, we’ve put together a handy buyer’s guide to show you everything you need to consider when it comes to choosing the right colored pencils for you.

There are even a few frequently asked questions down below to help you!

Take a look at everything you need to think about when choosing the best colored pencils for professional artists.

Number of pencils

How many pencils are included in your chosen set? The more colors your chosen colored pencil set is able to offer you, the better.

That will mean that you’ll have a great color palette to work with, and the more colors that you can blend or layer together.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the more colors you have in your set, the more this will affect the price of your professional colored pencils.

Take a look at the brand you have chosen and ensure that you can afford these pencils on a regular basis when they need to be replaced. Most brands offer a variety of sets to match your needs.

Highly pigmented

Getting a set of highly pigmented colored pencils will be essential if you want to create vibrant drawings.

This means that the pencils use a high concentration of color to get the right shade that you’re after.

Highly pigmented pencils will also better lend themselves to blending and any other techniques that professional artists need to use in their work.

If your chosen colored pencils are highly pigmented, this should also be a good indicator that they are of good quality.

Any colored pencils which aren’t highly pigmented won’t be of the professional quality that you’re after.

Blending and layering

As a professional artist, you’ll want to make use of techniques such as blending and layering.

Take a look at your chosen set of colored pencils. Do they lend themselves well to blending with one another?

Can they easily be layered to build up highlights and shadowing? These are essential techniques for creating more depth in your drawings.

The product description should specify if the colored pencils can be blended together or layered.

If your chosen colored pencils aren’t able to be easily blended or layered, they won’t be as high quality as you need them to be.

As a result, your drawings won’t be of as  professional quality as they could be if you choose a superior set of colored pencils!

Lightfastness

Another important factor to consider is the lightfastness of your chosen colored pencils.

This refers to how well the colors are able to hold after being exposed to light. Some inferior colors from cheaper pencils will fade over time.

Colored pencils that offer a higher lightfastness will be able to hold their shades better.

While some artists prefer to do their own lightfastness test to ensure that their colored pencils are up to standard, take a look at your chosen product and see what the manufacturer says in terms of lightfastness.

It may also be worth having a nose through the product reviews and seeing how other artists found the colored pencils dealt with lightfastness.

Break-resistant

One of the most important factors to consider when it comes to choosing the best colored pencils for professional artists is whether they are break-resistant.

The more break-resistant the lead cores are of your chosen colored pencils, the less frustrating they will be to use.

After all, you can’t use a pencil that’s constantly chipping and cracking every time you try to draw with it!

It’s important to remember that wax-based colored pencils are more likely to break than their oil-based counterparts.

Even something as simple as a pencil falling off the table can be enough to crack the core inside it.

Wax-based vs oil-based

There are benefits and drawbacks to both wax-based and oil-based colored pencils, so it will entirely depend on your preference as to which one you choose.

Wax-based pencils are the cheapest option of the two.

These are able to offer a softer lead core which gives you a more buttery feel to the pencils when they’re being used.

They can blend and layer nicely, are easier to erase than oil-based pencils, and give you vibrant colors. 

However, due to the wax binding, they can be prone to wax bloom. This is when a light, waxy film is produced over the colors. However, it can also be removed by wiping it with a damp cloth.

Oil-based colored pencils won’t fall victim to wax bloom because of their oil binding.

The core of these pencils tends to be harder than that of their wax-based counterparts and can maintain a sharper point for a longer period of time.

These guys are also less likely to break or chip.

They can be layered easily, but you won’t be able to achieve a buttery consistency with these pencils. But also much more expensive than wax-based pencils.

Storage

Take a look at the storage tin that your chosen colored pencils arrive in. How sturdy is it?

Will it protect your pencils from becoming damaged when the tin is getting bashed around in your artist’s bag?

The more durable the storage container that your colored pencils arrive in, the better.

This will serve two purposes: to keep your pencils organized and to protect them when they’re not in use. Storage containers will either be made from metal tin or a wooden box. 

Frequently asked questions

What are the best professional colored pencils?

As we’ve detailed above, the best professional colored pencils are:

• Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils
• Castle Art Supplies 72 Premium Colored Pencils Set
• Derwent Colored Pencils
• Faber-Castell Polychromos Colored Pencil Set
• Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor Art Pencils

Is Faber-Castell better than Prismacolor?

This entirely comes down to personal preference. Prismacolor are wax-based colored pencils whereas Faber-Castell Polychromos are oil-based.

While wax-based colors can sometimes have a wax bloom after being exposed to air, they are often more vibrant in color than the Faber-Castell.

The Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils are able to offer superior blending and generally have a harder lead, however, they are the more expensive choice of the two depending on the size of colored pencil set you opt for. 

It would be best to take a look at our buyer’s guide above for you to better judge what you want from your set of professional colored pencils, and then you can choose the winner for yourself.

Are expensive colored pencils worth it?

Short answer: yes.

The question of whether to pay for “Artist Grade” materials or to make do with “Student Grade” is one all artists deal with and typically the solution is to buy the highest quality you can afford.

But mostly it will entirely depend on what you intend to use them for.  So the best answer, just like with tools, is to buy the cheapest until you can tell the difference.  When you understand your materials well enough to pick them up with reading the label and know which brand is which, you’ll know what you want and 9 times out of ten your going to want quality

For most professionals artists who put some mileage on their pencils, they will definitely be worth paying the higher price tag for.

This is because the expensive price tag is to account for the high-quality pigment load and construction that these pencils have as opposed to cheaper pencils. 

If you’re more of a hobbyist and only intend to use your new colored pencils for doing a few sketches every now and then, you might be better off with a cheaper set of pencils if you’re reluctant to fork out that much money on a more expensive set.  Or you might even take a mixed bag approach.  Professional quality for your favorites and cheap for those seldom used colors to round out your pallette.

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