Amy Shulke 5/17/25 Amy Shulke 5/17/25

Vanilla Beans: Colored Pencils in the Mist

I’m missing the shopping gene.

I like using art supplies, not buying art supplies.

Today, I’m channelling my inner Jane Goodall— trying to explain why I don’t love some of the things others mysteriously go ga-ga over.

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WHAT’S NEW ‘ROUND HERE?

The Weed Eaters will be 4 weeks old tomorrow and have tripled in size. You can see the start of feathers on their wings where the baby down has grown thin.

They’re still wet and muddy here, we were returning from the pond. They aren’t swimming yet. I wade to the top of my tall muck boots but they never do more than wet the undercarriage.

Shop for colored pencils and Copic Markers at DickBlick.com

I purchase most of my art supplies from Dick Blick. Shop using my affiliate link to support this free newsletter.

We’ve covered the Ten Tests of a Quality Colored Pencil,

Then last week, I talked about the ultimate rule: Do you reach for this brand of pencils?

Because if you don’t like working with them— it doesn’t matter how great they are, they’re not a good fit for you.

This week, let’s talk about stuff that doesn’t phase me a bit.

COLORED PENCILS IN THE MIST

A couple years ago, a bunch of my Copic friends rented an Airbnb for impromptu coloring retreat.

We visited every art store the city had to offer.

At first, they followed along behind me like ducklings goslings. If I went down the paint brush aisle, everyone went down the paintbrush aisle.

Since I was the only professional in the group, they must’ve thought I’d be a good tour guide, offering a full run-down of every product on every shelf.

But after the first store, I was all by myself.

Hello? Where did everyone go? Did they leave without me?

At which point I realized: I am zero fun to shop with.

I’m missing the shopping gene.

I’ll go if you make me, but I won’t enjoy it.

So when people get all giggly at the start of the glitter aisle? It’s like I’m watching the National Geographic Channel— a strange tribe of natives who dance when they find a clearance tag.

I like using art supplies, not buying art supplies.

Today, I’m channelling my inner Jane Goodall— trying to explain why I don’t love some of the things others mysteriously go ga-ga over.

Wood Boxes & Anniversary Sets

Maybe I have a heart of stone but wood display boxes and celebration sets don’t excite me.

Here’s my problem: wood boxes hold the exact number of pencils the company makes.

No. Extra. Space.

Which means my Prismacolor White, Stabilo White, and my DL Purple which I use all the freakin’ time…

Where do I put them???

Wooden sets also have nasty little plastic insert trays which lock the pencil tightly into place. Lock insure secure shipping but they’re annoying as heck when you’re trying to grab a pencil fast with your non-dominant hand.

As for anniversary sets, it feels like a scam— the same ol’ colors for twice the price? I don’t care if they’re stamped with gold or painted black. That actually makes it harder to find the color I want.

But I will admit, this Holbein set caught my eye.

I’m a tray fanatic and the nesting bevel here is genius. Mr. Amy will have to make some of these trays for me because the price on this set is crazy insane.

Oil or Wax

We talked about this back in Test #3 so I’ll make it quick.

I almost never check to see if a set of pencils is oil based or wax based.

It’s a marketing gimmick.

It means nothing.

Heavy Enamel

I once heard someone gush about the premium paint on a new brand colored pencil.

Even the body paint is artist grade now?

I’ve since heard the same gushing in reviews and not the kind of reviews done by airheads with two minutes of experience. They were serious people. Ugh!

If anything, glossy coated pencils are harder to hold than pencils with rougher paint jobs.

Trust me— my studio is an attic with no air conditioning. Talk to me in August about how much I love gripping a slick Holbein.

Now I’m not saying I have plans, but if I wanted to get rich selling cheap pencils for high prices, all it would take is to spend a few cents more on really thick paint job with a heavy coat of high gloss varnish.

Dipped Ends

There was once a popular YouTuber who ranted daily about how much she hated Prismacolor,

One of the arguments was “OMG, they don’t even dip the ends of their pencils!”

It’s kinda funny looking at all the cheap brands coming out of China now. Most of them are end coated.

Time disproved the rule— paint on the end isn’t a sign of quality. It’s just one of many ways to paint a pencil and what was once distinctive to a few select European brands is now ho-hum.

Prismacolor is one of the few brands who doesn’t do the dip.

It’s not even a cost cutting measure. Prismacolor has never been dipped. They’re just doing what they’ve always done. Side paint, no dallop of enamel over the end.

For the record, the best thing about end flashing is that it’s crystal clear which end goes into the pencil sharpener.

Folks may say end paint protects the core when dropped but I’m married to a failure analysis engineer and he just laughed.

Centered Cores

Want to know why Chinese pencils spend extra to dip the ends?

It hides their badly centered cores.

Off-center cores happen when the saw is slightly misaligned when cutting the wooden sandwich into individual pencils.

If you look at the cheap pencils here, you can see that both yellow pencils are wonky. Dipping the end means you’ll never notice. It’s cheaper to dip ‘em than toss thousands of pencils into the reject pile.

Now here’s the thing, I once mentioned in a class that centered cores were a sign of quality, which is totally true. But then my students were standing in the pencil aisle at Michael-Ann’s Lobby for hours, measuring pencil ends with a ruler, looking for perfectly centered cores.

It’s not worth the fuss.

Sure, if a core is too far off center, the pencil won’t sharpen correctly. You’ll get a point that’s partially covered by wood. So it’s not that centering doesn’t matter at all, you just don’t want something wildly off.

A little off is fine. Most pencils are a little off and you never notice. It’s not a big deal.

Splits

Here’s one last thing which most people notice but there’s always a few Norma Raes who want to storm the Caran D’ache or Prismacolor gates over it…

Meh.

Remember that “sandwich” and the video I linked to in the previous point about centered cores?

They use glue to hold the sandwich together. Sometimes, the two wood pieces leave a slight gap and the glue doesn’t totally fill the opening.

Then after the pencil is cut, painted, shipped, purchased, and used by you a few times… well, sometimes that gap kinda opens up. You may notice a thin crack running down the length of your pencil, it looks like the paint is separating but it’s not.

It’s called a split and it’s not worth hyperventilating over.

Now yes, in cheaper brands of pencils, that split can work it’s way across the entire pencil and you’ll end up with two wood halves and the core falling out. But that’s a total glue failure. My daughter had a set of Arteza in college which fell apart as each pencil got stubby.

Minor splits also happen occasionally in Prismacolor and Pablo.

But I’ve never had a Prisma or Pablo fall apart. Just the occasional paint crack.

It’s no coincidence that all three pencil brands use thinner paint rather than heavy enamel. Enamel would hide the split. My theory is splits happen all the time, with every brand— even the really expensive pencils. But since thick enamel doesn’t split, we never notice.

It’s not a big deal unless the pencil totally falls apart and even then, I don’t get worried until several pencils fall apart.

So that’s a list of the things which don’t rile me either way.

Maybe it’s because I’m jaded after doing this for so long? I just don’t have the energy to get excited, angry, or even interested in the discussion.

It’s piddly stuff.

Next week, we’ll talk about the worst colored pencil advice ever.