Defending Prismacolor Soft-Core Colored Pencils - An Artist & Teacher Speaks Out
Colored Pencils are Hot!
A few years ago, every crafter needed alcohol markers. Then watercolor took center stage. Now it’s colored pencils.
There’s a lot of chatter about colored pencil on the internet right now.
And a lot of it is flat-out wrong.
Professional illustrator Amy Shulke speaks out about why she recommends Prismacolor for beginners and crafters, plus why she still uses them in her art today.
It's trendy to trash-talk Prismacolor pencils online
And as an art instructor who teaches with Prismacolor, this pencil-bashing makes my life a lot harder.
I’m getting more student questions like this:
You have Prismacolors on the class supply list but I’ve heard they’re not good. What other brand would you recommend?
Well, that’s a problem.
I deliberately put Prismacolor colored pencils on my supply lists.
I'm literally recommending them as the best brand of colored pencils for my class.
You like my art, right?
I’m telling you exactly which pencils I used.
The whole point of the class to the same results as the instructor, correct? But because someone trash-talked Prismas online, now I have to defend my teaching methods?
How do I respond politely to this?
Look, I’m going to be blunt in this article because the misinformation is out of control.
Someone needs to set the record straight.
Prismacolors are not crap!
Blunt enough for you?
I don’t care what KraftyKassie95 said on the Scrap-Happy Facebook page.
You don’t know her. You haven’t seen the quality of her work. She’s a semi-anonymous voice on the internet.
You’re about to make a large purchase based upon some rando in the comment section?
I’ve used Prismacolors consistently since 1985
90% of the classes that I’ve taught for the last decade use Prismacolors too.
Prismascolor Premier are an excellent choice for anyone learning colored pencil.
I recommend them for beginners.
And they’re a great forever-pencil for card makers and hobby colorists.
I wouldn’t ask my students to purchase Prismacolors if they were terrible.
I teach anywhere from 4 to 12 classes per month using Prismacolor because I sincerely think they’re the best option for my students.
So who are you going to believe—someone who is successfully teaching students to use these pencils?
Or the random internet chick who seems oddly over-invested in your pencil buying habits?
Quality versus Price
When you begin a new medium, there is always a great debate:
Do I go cheap and get lots of colors or should I buy fewer colors of greater quality?
I never recommend buying student grade anything.
Inexpensive ingredients make learning difficult.
It’s harder to get good results from a student grade product. As a beginner, the last thing we want to do is make learning more difficult.
Unfortunately, artist grade colored pencils can be cost prohibitive.
That is less true for Prismacolor Premier Soft Core pencils.
Prismacolors are a little cheaper than some of the other artist grade brands.
Prismas come in several set sizes and the color selection in every box is well-balanced and useful.
Prismacolors are also easy to find open-stock in art stores and craft stores.
This makes Prismacolor an excellent option for first timers!
Of all the artist grade brands, Prismacolor provide the most bang for your buck.
Do I think everyone should work with Prismas forever? No.
Do I think they’re the best investment a beginner can make? You bet’cha!
So why are people bashing Prismacolor?
Well, I’ll be honest with you: Prismacolor made some stupid decisions.
Just before colored pencils got trendy, Prismacolor cut corners, lowered quality standards, and skimped on shipping procedures.
Dear Prismacolor,
If your name is mud, it’s your own darned fault.
And in the modern internet world where information spreads like lightning, Prismacolor’s dumb cost cuts have become the talk of the town.
KraftyKassie95's half-baked opinion can be read and parroted by thousands of people. The internet equalizes voices so you can’t tell if the commenter is an an experienced professional artist or a once-a-month novice.
I’ve been loyal to Prismacolor since high school
That was thirty-umph years ago.
I’ve seen subtle and major changes to the Prismacolor product line over the years.
And because I’m brutally honest, I’ll give you the straight scoop on what I’ve observed- in personal use and in my classes.
SAD FACT: Prismacolor Premier Soft Core pencils are not as nice today as they were a decade ago.
But let me be clear, the pigmented core (the lead) still feels like the same buttery smooth formula.
I don’t detect any major difference between the feel of my current pencils and my collection of vintage Prismacolors.
The biggest complaints are about the outside of the pencil, not the inside.
The major Prismacolor complaints:
Keep in mind, for all the complaining going on, you’d think a Prismacolor instructor see far more quality issues than the average weekend hobbyist.
I go through at least 60 pencils a year; I use them daily and I see a heck of a lot of students using them every month.
I have not encountered problems at the scale the internet suggests.
Let me repeat that- if anyone is going to see massive Prismacolor problems, I’m a great candidate. I use a lot of pencils myself and I watch a lot of local and online students use them every month. We’re talking hundreds of users.
Despite what the internet implies, I am NOT seeing a bunch of pencil failures.
In fact, problems are pretty rare.
So what is the internet all upset about?
1. Wood casings can splinter
Splinters and shards are from a defect in the wood used to make the exterior casing. Small chunks of wood can splinter off when sharpening the pencil with a harsh electric sharpener or a dull hand sharpener.
Yes, Prismacolor is using a noticeably lower grade cedar than they used to.
The wood simply feels softer to the touch and the wood grain looks less consistent. So I’ll buy the popular theory that softer wood + less inspection at the lumberyard leads to more splintering.
But in the last five years, I’ve had only one pencil splinter.
And after I sharpened past the missing chunk of wood, the pencil looked and performed normally for the rest of it’s life.
I can’t recall any students losing splinters in class and we sharpen our pencils a lot. A LOT.
If your pencil splinters, don’t use an electric pencil sharpener until you get past the missing chunk of wood. Hand sharpeners with a fresh sharp blade will be more gentle.
This is an easy fix. There's no need to go ballistic on Twitter about it.
2. Off-center cores
Yep, this is a genuine factory defect.
At some point, Prismacolor started allowing more off-centers to leave the factory. Once upon a time, the off-centered pencils would have gone into a reject pile.
If your core is off-center you may have sharpening problems.
You think everything is normal but after you sharpen, there’s wood at the point and the colorful core is off to the side of the point.
But that’s a major failure.
If the core is just a little off center, you’ll probably never notice. The core has to be waaaaaayyyy off center to be a serious problem.
Look, this is a simple fix. Don’t buy off-center pencils.
Inspect the pencil ends before you buy. It takes about two seconds to spot which ones are wonky. No one is forcing you to buy off-center pencils.
If the wonky pencil came in a box set, return the pencil by calling the Prismacolor consumer hotline.
Update 2019: I used to give the hotline phone number here but it’s easier to link you to their contact page. I recommend calling one of these phone numbers IN ADDITION to leaving an email. It’s all too easy to ignore an email, so double up with a phone call too.
3. Wood splits or loose cores
Pencils are made like a sandwich.
If you look down the end of any pencil, the bottom half of the wood has a channel down the length. The colorful core is placed into the channel and then the second wood layer goes on top. Glue holds the wood halves together. The glue also keeps the core from sliding out as you color.
If the glue fails, your pencil falls apart.
I can't recall having a pencil split.
I had one core dislodge while filming a class a few years ago. The pencil was about 3 inches long when it happened, so I’d gotten a ton of use out of it before it failed. I put a dab of crazy glue on the end and continued working.
No big loss. I won’t head up to a bell tower to express my anguish over a loose core.
4. Shattered cores
When you shop for apples, you pick the prettiest fruit and drop them into a plastic bag, right?
But that’s not how we buy eggs... or do you toss them in a bag too?
All colored pencils are fragile.
Do not manhandle any brand of colored pencil.
And psssttt... if your pencil has "Soft Core" right in the name, maybe they’re telling you to treat it with care?
Seriously folks, I do not understand this complaint.
Do you want Prismacolor to make a firmer core that's less likely to break? They do. It’s called a Verithin. Go buy that and leave my precious soft cores alone!
I want the soft buttery pencil lead and I’m willing to deal with occasional breakage to get it. It’s worth it.
Perhaps Prismacolor has changed the way they ship cargo palettes. Poor handling practices could be contributing to the breakage problem. You can’t bounce a crate of soft pencils around and expect them all to survive.
However, I’ve got two more guilty parties we need to look at…
How about the stores which allow customers to fondle the pencils?
Many Prismacolor displays are totally open to grabby hands with no staff supervision.
If you are buying Prismas from a store like that, you deserve a broken pencil. I'm looking at you right now, all you 40% off Michael Ann's Lobby shoppers.
Next, let's look at the colorists who let their pencils rattle around loose in a shoebox.
And how about the people who let their pencils roll off the desk?
These people are asking for breakage!
You bought fragile pencils and you’re not taking care of them. How is this Prismacolor’s fault?
Now there are tips on the internet which claim that heating a pencil can heal the broken core. “Stick it in the microwave”, “wrap it in a heating pad”, “bake ‘em in a low oven”, and even setting them out in the sun. But here’s the deal, I don’t know if these methods work because I’ve never had to try them. I haven’t had a pencil with multiple internal breaks in recent memory.
You can’t buy Prismacolor pencils from CraftyMart and toss them loose into a desk drawer.
And if you do, don’t whine about breakage on the internet.
5. Prismacolors don’t erase well
Go away. Just go away.
They’re not supposed to erase easily. If you want an erasable pencil, buy an erasable brand.
6. Wax-based pencils turn foggy
If you get that white wax coating called "bloom", well... there's no nice way to say this:
You’re doing it wrong.
Bloom happens when you apply too many layers of heavy pencil, when you burnish like a mad banshee, or when you fail to seal your finished project.
If you must burnish... and I do not, but that's a discussion for another day... but if you are a burnisher, then a simple spray coat of fixative or sealant will prevent blooming.
And don't use hairspray! Hairspray is not fixative.
But here's the real kicker and it’s something most people never think about when they do it—
When you use a colorless blending pencil, you are actively encouraging bloom!
You don’t get to complain about wax bloom when you coat everything with extra wax! But again, fixative easily solves this problem.
If your project does bloom, a light rubbing with a facial tissue or microfiber cloth will remove the buildup. Then spray it with fixative.
Fixative prevents blooming.
Getting the idea that fixative is important? I hope so.
And by the way, the popular oil based pencil which folks keep recommending online as “super-duper awesome because it's not wax based”?
Uhmmmm, it has wax in it. All colored pencils contain wax. They just don’t mention it on the box.
7. “They’re the worst pencils, ever!”
This is the most popular Prisma complaint on the internet— completely unspecific with hints of inevitable doom.
Prismacolor did a dumb thing- the name “Prismacolor” once stood for something high-level and artist grade, but then Prismacolor added it to all the other pencils they crank out.
Verithins became “Prismacolor Verithins”.
Col-Erase became Prismacolor Col-Erase.
Scholars are now Prismacolor Scholars.
Then they started over-using the word Premier. So now the word premier is associated with all their student grade brands too.
My students are getting confused, something that never happened a decade ago.
The name thing is a serious problem.
A lot of my students are accidentally buying the wrong product, no matter how specific I make my lists.
I had one online student using Verithins for a year and she never understood why I kept calling my pencils buttery because hers were hard and brittle. Once she got her hands on a real Soft Core, months of my classes suddenly made sense.
I have students who were enticed by the eraser on the ends of the Col-Erase pencils. Erasers have a special appeal to beginners.
And there are always a few students who learn they’ve got the wrong Prismacolor but refuse to upgrade until they've gotten their money’s worth from the bad pencils.
So please, before you accept an internet opinion about terrible, horrible, Black Plague inducing Prismacolor pencils… find out which Prismas they're referring to.
They could be talking about Scholars. If that's the case, then KraftyKassie95 is completely right. Scholars are terrible!
Let me put it simply:
Yes, Prismacolor has some quality control issues but I honestly have not experienced enough of them to get my britches in a bunch.
Either I'm living in Shangra-la or the internet has exaggerated the problem.
And I'm near Detroit. This ain't Shangra-la.
I totally understand why professionals have switched from Prismas to other brands— I did too. But I started using more lightfast pencils for professional projects long before the Prisma problems popped up.
Despite the internet scuttlebutt, I do not think that students need to buy ultra premium pencils immediately.
In fact...
It is unwise for beginners to purchase super-premium pencils at the start.
No artist uses every pencil in the set. We all have a core group of about 20 to 40 frequently used colors. And we all have pencils that we’ve used only once— to swatch ‘em.
It’s a waste of money for a beginner to invest in a full set of top tier expensive pencils.
You don’t yet know what your most used colors will be.
Additionally, as a beginner, you simply don’t know enough about colored pencils to make a smart purchase.
You don’t know if you’ll do lots of landscapes or specialize in florals, wildlife, or portraits.
You don’t know what size project you’ll enjoy doing most.
You don't know if you'll be a fine detail person or work in loose strokes.
There is not one best brand of colored pencil that works for every genre and every technique at every scale.
Wait to make a premium purchase until you know what you're doing.
Heck, at least wait until you know you're going to stick with colored pencils long enough to justify the investment!
This is why I teach with Prismacolor Premier Soft Core pencils.
They’re an entry level, artist grade pencil which facilitates learning while allowing you to explore different genres and scales. They are chameleon pencils and they’re financially accessible.
This is why I disagree with KraftyKassie95 from Facebook
This is why I recommend Prismacolor Premier Soft Core pencils to my beginner and hobby level students.
Internet experts be damned.
