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Donna Marie
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My ds requested some nice colored pencils for his birthday. He is interested in something that will make nice color on the pages...he likes vibrancy. What can you recommend? I was looking for something that didn't have a fragile lead in case the baby decided to throw them 
TIA!
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Donna Marie from NJ
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Mackfam
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I'm following you around tonight, Donna Marie.
I have two options to suggest, with my preference for everyday color pencils being the first...
** I'm a HUGE fan of Prang color pencils! Love the set of 48! I just noticed that they offer a set of triangular barrel color pencils for smaller hands!!
** If you're looking for slightly more sophisticated with a higher quality, my oldest dd swears by her Derwent color pencils. They blend very nicely. We also have a set of Derwent watercolor pencils, but we never watercolor with them, we just use them as color pencils. We do like the smudgeability of the Derwents. If you go this route, I might suggest making use of the Michael's coupon. This is how I purchased our higher quality color pencils - with the coupon.
One other helpful tool for use with color pencils is a blending stump. It's a fun and inexpensive little tool which really softens and smudges colors nicely.
HTH!!!! Happy birthday to your little fella!! 
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guitarnan
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We learned to make stumps by tightly wrapping paper strips into a cone shape, but the stumps Jennifer suggests look much nicer!
We have several sets of colored pencils. Our initial buy was a big set of Crayola pencils. They have lasted a long time and served us well. As my son got more interested in drawing (particularly military vehicles) we got him specific Derwent watercolor pencils so he would have the exact colors he wanted. (Grey, khaki, etc.) We used Michael's coupons, too.
A good pencil sharpener is a must-have. We have gone through several - manual, battery, electric - and we usually bring the pencils and a small manual sharpener along on vacations. (I don't have a good sharpener recommendation - we seem to kill them all - but perhaps someone else will!)
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Erin
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Mackfam wrote:
One other helpful tool for use with color pencils is a blending stump. It's a fun and inexpensive little tool which really softens and smudges colors nicely.
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I have never heard of a blending stump!
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CatholicMommy
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I was able to get the Prismacolors on Ebay for very very inexpensive - brand new sets. One even came with a nice metal sharpener, which I really love! I really like them for vibrancy of color.
If I couldn't get those for the price I did, I had not decided which I would have gone with - Prang watercolor is great, but so is Derwent. For different reasons.
I'm sure that doesn't help though :)
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Donna Marie
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| Posted: Feb 27 2010 at 11:29am | IP Logged
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Thank you all for your help. I was planning on a coupon trip to Michael's tonight so I hope I can find them at a reasonable price. He was coloring some of Charlotte's coloring pages of angels and was frustrated because he could not make them seem 'heavenly' enough! 
thank you for the birthday greetings! I will pass them on!
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Donna Marie from NJ
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Donna Marie
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Erin wrote:
Mackfam wrote:
One other helpful tool for use with color pencils is a blending stump. It's a fun and inexpensive little tool which really softens and smudges colors nicely.
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I have never heard of a blending stump! |
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me either!
We always used our fingers, more or less 
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Christine
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I like Prang and Prismacolor. I purchased them from Michaels with a coupon. The Prang pencils were the only ones that I could find that included silver and gold.
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momtomany
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I love this sharpener:
color-combi sharpener
This is the best one I've found for the Prismacolor pencils.
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Thank you so much for the recommendations...ds was thrilled with what we got him...I picked up the metallic Derwent pencils and a set of 12 Primiscolor Scholar (the leads are supposed to be a bit more stable in those)
Thanks to 2 Michael's coupons, I think these were a hit!
I love seeing how he handles them with respect. I guess I did survive him being 3 and 4
....He grew when I wasn't looking..how did that happen??
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JennGM
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Mackfam wrote:
| ** If you're looking for slightly more sophisticated with a higher quality, my oldest dd swears by her Derwent color pencils. They blend very nicely. We also have a set of Derwent watercolor pencils, but we never watercolor with them, we just use them as color pencils. We do like the smudgeability of the Derwents. If you go this route, I might suggest making use of the Michael's coupon. This is how I purchased our higher quality color pencils - with the coupon. |
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Jen, did you like Prang better than Prismacolor pencils, or you never compared?
I think a while back I asked MaryM how to use watercolor pencils. I tried them in 3 different ways, and it was neat to see the difference in application. Just plain, dip the tip in water and then draw (really nice dark lines), and then draw and then paint a bit with water to blend the colors.
But what is the USUAL way to use watercolor pencils?
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JennGM wrote:
| Jen, did you like Prang better than Prismacolor pencils, or you never compared? |
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About a year ago we made a color palette using our Prang, Prismacolors, and Derwent, comparing the three trying to use similar colors (from each different brand) and then we blended and we watercolored with each of the pencils. We were looking for vibrancy of color, the way the pencil felt when applying to the paper, and the ease and look (blending, vibrancy, depth) of watercoloring with a watercolor pencil.
Our hands down favorite was Prang for basic coloring/sketching! It has a nice smooth feel when coloring and makes a clean, vibrant color.
For watercoloring with a color pencil we MUCH PREFERRED Derwent pencils to Prismacolor! I couldn't believe the difference when we experimented!! The color was richer and moved across the page much easier when water/brush were applied. When dipping the tip in water the color easily comes off the pencil in appropriate darknesses depending on the amount of force applied to the pencil. We love how lovely the Derwent pencil look when blended. The color responds to very slight nuances with a thin brush! The Prismacolor pencils, while nice, just did not respond with the same depth, nor did they blend nicely. We had to blunt force ours with a bigger brush to move the color around in a way that we were happy with, while the Derwent color immediately followed the thinnest, wispiest brush.
JennGM wrote:
| what is the USUAL way to use watercolor pencils? |
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Here's a neat site that explains a bit more about color pencil watercolor technique. If we use them for watercoloring (my kids prefer pan watercolors to pencil, but that's just a preference thing), we prefer to color, rough sketch, and then go over the paper with a brush to blend and achieve affect. Derwent offers some wonderful free resources on their site which, though developed for their pencils, could be used with any watercolor pencil. Check out their watercolor pencil demonstration sheet!! There are several more resources and helps on their site that are really great - it's worth clicking around on it!
After experimenting and working with several good quality pencils, Derwent color pencils are our hands down favorite! Prang was comparable to Prismacolor for non-watercolor sketching and are WAY less expensive!
Hope that helps!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mackfam
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Mackfam wrote:
| For watercoloring with a color pencil we MUCH PREFERRED Derwent pencils to Prismacolor! |
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I fear I was too harsh on Prismacolor pencils and I wanted to clarify! They're REALLY GREAT pencils. REALLY!!! I've had my set of Prismacolors for a few years, and it's possible that they're just old and don't behave as nicely as a newer set??? In any case, I didn't want to imply that all Prismacolors are bad!! They blend well and really do offer a beautiful depth of color and hue. I just know that we home educating moms are trying to squeeze everything we can out of our budget and I love letting people know what a frugal and quality option Prang color pencils (well, really all their art products) can be! And, I was just amazed that they looked just as great on paper as a Prismacolor. I know our little comparison above is pretty subjective and individual, but I thought I'd offer it in case it was helpful.
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re watercolor pencils, my favorites are Caran d'Ache (Swiss) and Albrecht Durer (Faber Castell). the Derwents are on my list of "try next time". thanks so much for the comparison, jen!
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guitarnan
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One thing we really like about the Derwents are the color shades/hues available for individual purchase. My son was looking for particular shades of several colors and Derwent had every hue available that he wanted.
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Donna Marie
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stefoodie wrote:
| re watercolor pencils, my favorites are Caran d'Ache (Swiss) and Albrecht Durer (Faber Castell). the Derwents are on my list of "try next time". thanks so much for the comparison, jen! |
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Oh wow! I forgot about the Caran d'Ache ones!
I got these yeaaars ago for my oldests when we first started homeschooling...
they did not break....
outlasted even the toughest kid...(I am still finding a few nubs of them here and there)
they had beautiful color...
and were just plain 'fun'
Where can I find them now??
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Where is the best place to find Prang? They didn't have them in Michaels...
Ladies,
Don't cha just LOVE it when Jennifer posts??!
Jennifer, my birthday (as I remember it, as is yours??) is coming up and I know what I want to ask for...
I always want something for school...LOL
...and then they ask..."Yes, but what do YOU want?" 'they' just don't understand me
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I believe Dick Blick carries them online.
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Jen, thank you for the side by side comparison. I love it!
We have struggled with Prismacolor pencils because the leads break so easily. I still haven't found a sharpener that doesn't wreck the tips. Any ideas?
I have to throw out a vote for Faber-Castell. Tough and beautiful.
We haven't tried Derwents. Maybe next time after that great review.
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CrunchyMom
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I got a prismacolor brand pencil sharpener, and it is super sharp and works well with all the colored pencils.
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4Real Forums : The Arts in the Everyday
Topic: Colored pencil question
