No time to read? No worries—here are our top picks!
🏆 Best Overall: Faber-Castell Polychromos – High quality pigment, smooth layering, broad color range, and great control.
🎨 Best for Blending: Prismacolor Premier – Buttery soft texture and beautiful gradients, great for realism.
💰 Best Budget: Arteza Professional – Affordable and decent performance for beginners.
These picks are based on real testing, careful side-by-side comparisons, and artist feedback coming from creating the same artwork with each pencil set. I’ve included video clips and photos of the pieces I drew so you can see the differences yourself.
Watch the full video review where I break down what works and what doesn’t, what I loved and what I hated from each brand while coloring a tangerine:
What Are Colored Pencils?
Colored pencils are a dry art medium made of a core of pigment encased in wood. Unlike graphite, their cores are made of different materials depending on the type of colored pencil, which affects how they lay down color, how well they blend, how they interact with different surfaces, how they interact with water and solvents, and how resistant they are to smudging or fading.
There are different types of colored pencils, the most popular and commonly used in art are:
Traditional Colored Pencils
Pigment + Wax/Oil | Versatile, vibrant, ideal for realism.
These are colored pencils we’ve known all our life. Traditional colored pencils are made of a core of pigment mixed with wax or oil and encased in wood. These are the ones we’ll talk about and thoroughly review in this guide!
They are one of the most accessible mediums out there. They’re easy to carry, mess-free, and highly versatile for layering, sketching, and amazing for realistic rendering. Most colored pencils are made for casual doodling, while there are others exclusively made for professional-level work.
Water Soluble Colored Pencils
Pigment + Water-soluble binder | Activates with water; may or may not behave like true watercolor.
You might know them as watercolor pencils, but that name isn’t always accurate. These pencils consist of pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder, but the type of pigment used determines whether they’re truly “watercolor” or simply “water-soluble.”
Watercolor pencils contain pigments specifically designed to work like watercolors. They produce transparent washes and dissolve smoothly in water. You can use them with watercolor paint freely and they usually share the same properties.
On the other hand, water-soluble pencils may dissolve when wet, but the pigments used are not necessarily intended for transparency or traditional watercolor techniques, and might be permanent in some cases. They often produce less transparent, more opaque effects, and may not blend as seamlessly.
Pastel Pencils
Pigment + Gum/Chalk | Soft, matte, powdery; use with pastels, require textured paper.
Not to be confused with pastel colored pencils (traditional colored pencils in pastel colors), these pencils are made of great amounts of pigment mixed with a gum or chalk binder (pastel material) encased in wood and shaped like a pencil. They are basically pastel sticks made into pencils.
They produce soft, powdery, matte finishes identical to dry pastels, and are meant to be used with them or on their own. These pencils won’t blend with traditional colored pencils and require a textured, toothy surface to work the best (usually specialty pastel paper).
Colored Graphite
Graphite + Pigment | Muted, subtle colors; behave like graphite pencils.
These aren’t exactly colored pencils; they’re closer to graphite pencils with a subtle hint of color but we’re including them on our list so you know what you might come across when buying colored pencils.
Colored graphite pencils combine traditional graphite with small amounts of pigment, offering muted, delicate shades perfect for sketching, doing tonal studies, and subtly applying colors to drawings.
The graphite base means they’ll behave similarly to regular graphite pencils. They are easy to erase and smudge. You’ll find sets with soft and muted hues instead of the usual bold or vibrant colors we see in traditional colored pencils sets, perfect if you prefer understated sketches or adding hints of color to your drawings.
Conté Pencils
Pigment + Clay (+ Wax/Oil) | Firm, matte, earthy tones; precise sketches and blending on textured paper.
You might be familiar with Conté sticks or crayons. Well, Conté pencils are basically the same stuff, just shaped into pencil form.
They are made from compressed pigments and clay, sometimes mixed with a little bit of wax or oil binders. Traditionally, Conté pencils come in limited, earthy colors like sanguine (reddish-brown), sepia, black, white, and various browns.
They’re firmer than pastel pencils but softer than graphite, making them ideal for precise sketches, portraits, life studies, and art school drawings.
Conté pencils produce a matte finish, and blend nicely on textured paper. Like pastel pencils, they require toothy, textured surfaces and won’t blend smoothly with traditional colored pencils and other wax or oil-based mediums.
Important Stuff About Colored Pencils
Now that we know what we might come across at the art store, let’s go over the important stuff you must know about traditional colored pencils. Choosing the right pencils can level up your artwork immediately. Even with practice and skill, using pencils with poor pigmentation or weak blending ability will limit your results. Here’s what really matters:
✔ Wax vs. Oil-Based
All traditional colored pencils fall into one of two categories: wax-based or oil-based. Both use pigments mixed with wax or oil as their binder, but each has unique characteristics that affect your art process and results.
- Wax-Based Colored Pencils are the most common type you’ll find. They tend to be softer and creamier, making them great for layering, blending smoothly, and building up color quickly. They also feel softer on the paper and produce very vibrant colors. On the downside, their soft waxy core can break easily, especially when sharpened to a fine point, and heavy layers might create a wax bloom (a cloudy, whitish haze) over your finished piece over time.
- Oil-Based Colored Pencils are firmer and hold a sharper point longer. This makes them perfect for detailed work and fine lines. They lay down color smoothly and consistently, and usually require more layers to build up the intensity compared to wax-based pencils. Oil-based pencils rarely experience wax bloom, they’re also durable and resistant to fading, making them a great choice for professional work.
✔ Pigment Quality
Pigment quality is everything in pretty much any art medium, however when talking about colored pencils the need for good pigment quality increases, as it directly relates to the vibrancy, blendability and permanence of the colors. In simpler words, good pigment quality means brighter colors, easy blending, layering, and colors that will last for decades since lightfastness also depends on the quality of the pigment.
Low quality pigments are cheaper, and might look okay when you first put them down on paper, but they can become when blending or layering or fade rather quickly. They’re good for practicing, however if you’re aiming for art you can proudly display or sell, always look for pencils made from artist-grade pigments with good lightfast ratings.
✔ Blendability
Blendability refers to how smooth the colors mix, layer and transition into each other on paper. We all know that the magic of colored pencils depends a lot on their blendability, and that a good pencil set will let you create smooth gradients, realistic shadows, and even mix colors not included in the set.
Blendability really depends on two things: The core’s composition and the quality of the pigment.
A wax-based core blend better, and faster than oil based pencils. The colors practically melt together with a little bit of pressure, while oil-based cores might take longer and need you to work harder. High quality pigments also blend more evenly without leaving patchy areas or colors that seem to sit awkwardly on top of each other
✔ Core Strength
Core strength isn’t just about how easily your pencil tips break; it’s also about how they perform under pressure, how sharply they can be pointed, and how they hold up through long drawing sessions.
Professional-grade colored pencils typically have thicker cores (around 3.8 to 4.0 mm or even thicker), making them durable, long-lasting, and easier to sharpen. Wax-based professional pencils, despite being softer, often come with stronger, reinforced cores that sharpen well without breaking easily. Oil-based professional pencils naturally have firmer, harder cores, meaning they maintain sharp points longer, can handle higher pressure, and are amazing for line work, details, and layering.
Normal or student-grade colored pencils usually have thinner cores (around 2.5 to 3.3 mm), making them more prone to snapping under pressure. They usually sharpen unevenly, breaking off easily and wasting pigment in the process.
✔ Lightfastness
Lightfastness refers to how well a color resists fading when exposed to light, especially sunlight. It’s incredibly important if you’re creating art meant for display or for clients. Professional-grade pencils usually include clear lightfast ratings (often indicated by stars or numbers) on each pencil or packaging. These ratings let you know exactly how long your colors will stay vibrant and are usually measured in levels from I to V.
Normal or student-grade pencils typically use pigments with low or no lightfast ratings, which means the art you create with them will probably change colors, fade or dull down within months or weeks of being exposed to sunlight or even indoor lighting.
If your art is meant to last or to be professionally exhibited, always invest in pencils marked as artist-grade with proven lightfast pigments. Even though these are more expensive, they’re usually worth the investment as they last decades even when displayed in bright spaces.
Best Colored Pencils – Artist Reviews
1. Faber-Castell Polychromos – Best Overall
Faber-Castell polychromos are one of the best brands out there for both professional and beginner artists, often considered the “gold standard” among colored pencil brands. These pencils are oil based, have a harder core, and are super pigmented.
They’re made of very high quality goods, which makes sharpening easy, plus their harder core makes them less prone to breakage. They can keep a sharp point for longer, making them perfect for layering and burnishing techniques, and also working on details.
Theses pencils are expensive, so you will also come across them in guides for professional artists, however this pencil set in particular (the 12-piece introductory set) is one of the most used by art students when learning about color mixing, layering and color theory as it has the classic and modern primaries making it perfect for beginners who want to level up their game.
Pros:
- ✅ Great pigment load
- ✅ Excellent control and good core strength
- ✅ Lightfast and professional-grade
Cons:
- ❌ Expensive
- ❌ Not as creamy as wax-based pencils
See Faber-Castell Polychromos Prices →
2. Prismacolor Premier – Best for Blending
Prismacolor is probably one of the most (if not the most) popular brands of colored pencils, especially among artists focused on photorealism and portraits. It’s also one of the easiest brands to work with. These pencils are wax-based, highly pigmented, and incredibly easy to blend.
You’ll notice their soft nature right away, they lay down effortlessly and feel intuitive, especially compared to oil-based pencils. However, they aren’t as lightfast, durable, or precise.
Wax-based pencils like Prismacolor Premier have a softer core that’s prone to breakage, so they need a gentle touch. Their softness makes them fantastic for smooth blends and layering, but they struggle to hold a fine point and need frequent sharpening, raising the chances of breakage.
Over time, you might notice a thin, cloudy white film on your drawing. That’s called wax bloom, and it’s one of the major cons of using wax-based pencils. Although it’s totally normal and can be fixed to a point, it can dull your colors and affect the final look and perceived quality of your piece.
Pros:
- ✅ Amazing blendability
- ✅ Intense color payoff
- ✅ Accessible price for the quality
Cons:
- ❌ Fragile cores break easily
- ❌ Prone to wax bloom
3. Arteza Professional – Best Value for Beginners
Arteza is one of those brands that often gets underestimated, and I’ll admit, I didn’t expect much. But after testing their colored pencils in a full drawing, I was genuinely surprised by how well they perform. The set includes 48 wax-based pencils with a medium-soft core, which means they’re soft enough to layer and blend but firm enough to hold a decent point.
The pigmentation varies slightly from color to color, some shades go down very vibrantly, while others need a bit of layering to build up, but overall, they deliver way more than you’d expect at their price point.
They blend very nicely, and almost feel like a firmer version of Prismacolor or an easy to blend version of Polychromos. Sadly, they’re not lightfast, and you won’t get the same control or precision as a professional set like Polychromos, but as a starter or backup set, they’re hard to beat. If you’re on a budget or just want a big range of colors to practice with, Arteza is honestly a solid pick.
Pros:
- ✅ Affordable
- ✅ Decent color range
- ✅ Soft enough for blending
Cons:
- ❌ Inconsistent pigmentation
- ❌ Some colors feel waxier than others
4. Faber-Castell Goldfaber – Best Mid-Tier Option
Goldfaber is basically the new and improved version of what used to be known as “Faber-Castell Creative Studio” the student-grade line from the same company that makes Polychromos. And while these pencils are definitely a step up from the older version, they’re still not on the same level as professional-grade pencils.
That said, they perform really well for what they are. The pencils are very pigmented, the cores are firm but not scratchy, the pigment is consistent, and they layer surprisingly well with a bit of patience. The colors are almost the same as their professional-grade counterparts in this particular set, but the color range in general is significantly reduced for Goldfaber.
The price is definitely a win in this case, as this is a relatively affordable set that offers quality and performance and gives you a taste of what professional pencils might feel and paint like. While everything is pretty great for these colored pencils, they are of course, not lightfast, so forget about using them for professional work.
Pros:
- ✅ Great pigment for its price
- ✅ Good layering ability
Cons:
- ❌ Slightly dry, harder core than expected
5. Staedtler Super Soft – Best for Sketching
Staedtler Super Soft is Staedtler’s answer to artists who want brighter, smoother, and more blendable pencils than their classic line. And honestly? These pencils surprised me more than I expected. They’re very soft and blend easily, and compared to the regular line, the pigment payoff is noticeably better. They’re great for sketching and blending, although I recommend using a softly textured paper to get better results..
That said, they’re still not artist-grade. The pigment load is decent but not consistent across the full range. Some colors go down beautifully, while others feel weaker or waxier, and they don’t always blend uniformly. The cores are soft enough to blend with little pressure, but that also means they’re prone to breaking, especially if you’re heavy-handed or sharpening often since the wood is not of the best quality either.
Pros:
- ✅ Soft, easy to blend
- ✅ Fun, expressive color output
Cons:
- ❌ Breaks under pressure
- ❌ Not lightfast
6. Staedtler Regular – Best Budget Option
Staedtler’s regular colored pencils are a solid choice for beginners, students, and hobbyists seeking an affordable that do exactly what they promise, and for the price, they’re honestly pretty decent. These student-grade pencils have a harder core, which makes them great for clean lines and fine details without breaking every five seconds. They sharpen well, although the wood is not consistent and chips easily. On the downside, they’re not super vibrant, and you won’t blend as easily or layer as nicely as you would with Prismacolor or Polychromos, but for basic sketches, practice, or filling in flat areas? They get the job done. I’d recommend them for schoolwork, casual coloring, or warm-ups. They’re reliable, durable and hold a point really well, plus the hexagonal barrel design gives a comfy grip and helps stop them from rolling off your desk, which is one of the main causes of breakage anyway.
Pros:
- ✅ Low cost
- ✅ Fair pigment for the price
Cons:
- ❌ Limited blendability
- ❌ Low layering power
🌟 Final Verdict – Which Colored Pencils Are Right for You?
After all that, not sure which one is right for you? Here’s my recommendation:
- If you want top-tier quality and performance, go for Polychromos. They’re made to last and work like a dream. Just a heads-up: smaller sets don’t always include the most lightfast colors, so if that matters to you, check the ratings or go for a bigger set.
- For buttery blending and deep color payoff, Prismacolor Premier is hard to beat. They’re perfect for realism, portraits, and soft transitions, but watch out for wax bloom over time, especially in heavy layers.
- On a budget or just getting started? Staedtler Super Soft or Arteza are great starting brands. Just try to grab a set with a decent color range (more than 24) as working with only the basics from an introductory set can make blending and layering a bit tricky.
Here is the full swatching chart for the introductory colors that each brand includes. Judge for yourself:
💡 Pro Tip: Don’t combine them unless you know what you’re doing! Each one behaves differently. But if you do want to combine them, try this: use Prismacolor for soft shadows and blending, Polychromos for sharp details and precision work, and Arteza to block in base colors without burning through your pricey sets. Just keep in mind that wax- and oil-based cores won’t always blend the same way together, so test before going all in.
Shop Our Top Pick (Faber Castell) Colored Pencils Here →
❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What’s the difference between wax-based and oil-based colored pencils?
Wax-based pencils are soft, creamy, and super easy to blend. The wax binder makes the colors look more intense and vibrant, which is great for layering and blending techniques. On the other hand, oil-based pencils are firmer, perfect for detailed work and layering—and the best part? No wax bloom.
Why do my colored pencils break so easily when sharpening?
Usually, pencils break because they have weak cores or you’re using a dull sharpener, however some of them might simply be made with bad quality wood. Use a sharpener made specifically for colored pencils, apply gentle pressure, and opt for pencils with thicker, reinforced cores and brands that work with high quality wood to reduce breakage.
What’s the best paper for colored pencils?
Pick a paper that’s sturdy, smooth, and has just the right amount of texture (aka tooth) for layering. Bristol vellum, hot-pressed watercolor paper, or any good specialty colored pencil paper will do the trick. I’d avoid anything thin, glossy, or super textured, unless you’re experimenting and know what you’re going for.
Can I mix different colored pencil brands together?
Absolutely! Most wax-based pencils blend really well with each other, and the same goes for oil-based ones. You can totally mix wax and oil pencils too—it just takes a bit more effort and maybe some specific blending tricks to make them work together well.
Do colored pencils fade over time?
They can fade depending on their lightfastness. Artist-grade pencils use pigments that are made to stay vibrant for decades, while cheaper ones tend to lose color way faster. If you care about your artwork lasting, always check the lightfast rating on the packaging. It makes a big difference!
How can I blend colored pencils smoothly?
If you want smooth blends, start with soft-core pencils that have good pigment, those make everything easier. The trick is to layer lightly and build up gradually instead of pressing too hard from the start.
There are a lot of different of ways to blend, depending on the effect you’re going for:
- For dry blending, you can use a colorless blender, a white pencil, or even a lighter color to smooth things out.
- For a softer, more diffused look, try cotton swabs, blending stumps, or even a bit of tissue.
- And if you really want that painterly finish, solvents like baby oil or mineral spirits can help melt the pigment into the paper.
The better the pencil (and the paper), the smoother everything comes together, no weird streaks or waxy buildup.
Are expensive colored pencils worth it for beginners?
If you’re serious about your art, yes, professional pencils are 100% worth it. They give you more intense colors, smoother blends, stronger cores, and way better lightfastness. You don’t need to splurge on the most expensive set out there, but upgrading to a solid mid-range artist-grade set or investing in a smaller set with a good color range will seriously level up both your experience and your results.
What is wax bloom, and how do I fix it?
Wax bloom is a harmless, cloudy film that sometimes forms on artwork created with wax-based pencils after heavy layering. Gently wipe it away with a soft cloth and consider using a fixative spray to prevent it from returning.
