non-expensive pencils (colored)

[kindaquiet]

I have to admit even though the less costly (student-grade pencils) do have less pigmentation than some others. Does anyone have any tips on how to make drawing with this kind of pencils better?

[JPQ]

no ideas but i think at least Mondeluz ( i dont yet own polycolour series) made by koh-i-noor is quite accetable product and at least where i live they can be cheap.

[marieUK]

I'm afraid I can't help with tips on making student grade better. In my experience if the pigment isnt in the pencil theres not a lot you can do. You don't say where you are based but if you can get them Lyra Rembrandt polycolours are a professional brand and they are very reasonable as are prismacolors/ Also you can sometimes get some good bargains on ebay.
Hope that helps

[TessDB]

I must agree with Marie on this-- If you aren't happy with what those pencils are doing already, there's no suggestions or tips to make it better. Student grade pencils simply aren't going to do what you want them to.

Have you considered either Blick's colored pencils or the Soho pencils at Jerry's?

Both are artist grade, available as open stock, and really inexpensive compared to the other brands. I haven't tried them yet, but from what I've read and seen from the folks who *have* tried them, they're a great value.

Another thing to consider is looking on ebay for used pencil sets. Folks can find great deals that way-- just remember to investigate the seller. Another way to go is watch hobby stores like Michaels or Hobby Lobby. Both sell prismas, and can have outrageous sales sometimes.

Long story short, if you want to work in cp, it's worth the money to get a better set of pencils.

Hope to see you sharing some of your work (regardless of what pencils you're using!) soon.
Rosemary

[DusanPos]

all of these I did with cheap, Crayola brand pencil crayons.
in fact, when i got my first batch of prisma's and derwent colorsofts, I still prefered using Crayola. To this day, i still like crayola's when compared to colorsofts. A lot of my initial pieces were done with Crayolas...

its all in how you use it.... you can create great things with any kind of materials

[Sweetbearies]

I mix and match between Prisma Colors, Crayola, Prang, and whatever cheapo gleapo pencils I have in my stash, and I love the results I have been getting. One very talented colored pencil artist I talk to from the UK uses Crayola exclusively, and his work is amazing. He has a very popular YouTube channel where he creates zombie and vampire artwork, and everyone seems to adore what he creates.

[ourcassidy!]

Wow quite a bit of saturation there with the crayola pencils. I generally agree that materials -especially the quality of the pigments - make a lot of difference, but there are those that seem to be able to produce beautiful quality work with so called student grade as well. Lightfast abilities are an issue that would concern me...however there is on artist Don Marco who uses only crayola colors , like the ones we used in school, and has beautiful work out there that is said to have lasted many years....check his work at www.themastercrayonartist.com. Pretty amazing.

I would encourage you to use what you have if you are not in a position to purchase artist quality...the main thing I believe is to make art. And if and when down the road you do get better quality materials you will be amazed! But for goodness sakes do not give up making art. If you have nothing more than a school graphite pencil and paper then use that...but above all make art!

Pam

[mudcat3]

I was using Prang pencils that I got on sale in an office supply store. As I used up certain colors I replaced them with open stock Prismacolors from Micheals. There is a big difference in color saturation and the softness & smoothness of the cores. The Prangs often had hard scratchy bits in them. I eventually went to all Prismacolors and gave away the remainder of the Prangs to young relatives. I now branching out other brands like Derwent, Caran D'Ache, Koh-i-noor and others.
I had the opportunity to buy on ebay various student brands to use for presents to kids. I tested them out: Crayola is the best of that class of pencil (but not good enough to replace my Prismas).

[chammi kaiser]

Wow, if that is what you do with 'cheap' pencils, then stick with them until you can afford the better quality. Look on EBay . Sometimes there are real bargains to be found.

[Parsa]

I got a couple SOHO pencils from Jerry's as a sample, but I wasn't too impressed. The pigment load was weak. I couldn't get deep colors, no matter how I used them. Granted, they didn't send me a dark blue, but the colors they did send were more waxy than pigment loaded.

Koh-i-Noor Woodless Progresso pencils in a set of 24 are cheap and much better. Some of the colors are a bit too waxy for my taste also, but you can get some really strong saturated colors. In fact, I think dark, heavy use is the strong point of these pencils. I had trouble laying a very light layer with these. They do seem to work well with erasers to lighten them up though.

[talia_sparkle]

I just wanted to pop into this thread and say how much I love your art, Dusan!
They are really gorgeous pieces and I love the style.

If you can do that with cheaper pencils then why not? The only issue is lightfastness and archive-ability (if that's a word). Maybe buy a few open stock pencils from a few different "premier" brands to see what you prefer then look for bargains via ebay or discount stores.