My Experience with Blick Studio Artists' Colored Pencils

 "Nature's Confetti" in Blick Studio Artists' Colored Pencils-

"Nature's Confetti" 8"x10" Blick Studio Artist's and Black Derwent Drawing Colored Pencils on Canson Mi Teintes (Pearl) Paper. My own reference photo. © Shana L Rowe Jackson 2016

Before reading- please note that I am in no way sponsored by Blick, nor did they ask me to review their product. This is just my personal experience with these colored pencils.

First Impressions:

• Pencils come in a tin case and are organized by color (They also offer a wooden cased set that costs a bit more.)
• Pencils have wood casing that are color coated to match lead
• Come pre-sharpened
• The butt end of the pencil is open which is great for checking if the lead is centered.
• Good range of blues, greens, grays and browns (These are the first colors I check for)
• Wax based
• 72 count set (largest set they offer at this time)

From Blick’s Website-

“Blick Artists’ Colored Pencils were specially developed utilizing feedback from Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA) artist members and teachers. The result is a professional-quality colored pencil at an affordable price that has been manufactured to Blick’s exacting standards. Use Blick Studio Artists’ Colored Pencils for fine art applications or wherever you need some color.”

          As far as I am concerned these pencils live up to their description, these are a great pencil for their price. I first decided to explore these pencils to find something comparable to Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils. Prismacolor was my first love when it comes to colored pencil, but with the quality control issues, and the shortage due to the coloring book craze I have been trying to supplement with other pencils. I had heard from other artists online that the Blick Studio Artists’ pencils were formulated to fit the needs of Prismacolor fans, and with the low price I could not resist. They have a large range of lightfast colors, and are not shy about sharing their light fast results (see link at the bottom of this blog to see light fast ratings.)

The first thing I did when I got these pencils was check the range of colors, since these pencils only offer a set of 72, I wanted to see exactly what I would have to work with. The first colors I check whenever I get a new set of pencils are the greens, browns and blues. It is very important to me to have some good sky blues in my pencils, and this set did not fail me, they also had a good range of greens and browns which is important because I do a lot of landscape work. The range of browns is also important for portraiture, however, I do feel that they could have a better range of portrait colors. I checked the grays next because I like to do monochromatic drawings in colored pencil. They have a pretty good range of grays, some warms and colds, all in all a pretty good variety for this sized set of colored pencils. I then checked over the rest of the pencils, there is a good range of warm colors as well. The other thing that I noticed about this set is that there are not many colors that I could see myself not ever using, and while they do not offer over 100 pencils in their set, the colors that they do offer are very valid colors.
Please note- Though these pencils came organized by color, I always reorganize my pencils in the way that is most comfortable to me.

How they feel-

These are a lightweight pencil, and fit well in the hand. The coating on the outside seems to be of high quality which is important so it does not ship over time and become uncomfortable to hold. The lead is not quite as soft as Prismacolor Premier, but not quite as hard as Verithin, I think they are closer to the feel of Faber-Castell Polychromos but waxier. These pencils are quite a bit more transparent then Prismacolor and require more layering. This has some advantages and some disadvantages; the advantage is you can get some rich color and shading combinations, the disadvantage is, with it being a wax based pencil, it fills the tooth quicker than other pencils.

Day 1, getting the feel

For this project I used Canson Mi-Tientes paper, this paper is a 98lb pastel paper that comes in a range of colors. This is a paper I am very familiar with and use often and it has a smooth side and a rough side. I used the rough side for this project, and it ended up being just right, especially for the kind of textures I needed in my drawing. The pencils glide across the papers smoothly, with no scratchy feel. If I had used the smooth side of the paper, the pencil would have filled the tooth too quickly. The color of the paper I used was pearl, this is very important to note because these pencils are not very opaque. It is important to pay special attention to the color of the paper you are using, because it will definitely affect the overall feeling of the drawing. These pencils blend and layer quite easily, I used a Prismacolor blending marker, and a Koh-I-Noor blending pencil and both worked quite well. I also tried using an Artist’s Studio brand blending marker but it lifted pigment instead of blending it so I would not recommend using this brand of blender with Blick. Always try blending a swatch of color on a scrap piece of paper before using it in your drawing, just in case.

Quality Control-

Before I began drawing the first thing I looked at was the end of the pencil to see if the leads were centered. I did not notice any off centered leads-I was off to a good start. The leads are pre-sharpened to a fine point, but upon re-sharpening the pencil, it is not as easy to get the fine point back. This made it more difficult to get fine details at times. (Note-I was using a handheld sharpener, it may be different with an electric sharpener.) As far as sharpening goes, I had far less breakage than with Prismacolor. The black pencil did have a lead break the first time I sharpened it, but other than that I did not have many problems. The wood casing also held up strong, with no splitting or splintering during sharpening. The leads in these pencils are far less crumbly than Prismacolor and I found a lot less debris on my drawing when using them.

The skinny on specific colors- 

In all I ended up using over 50 of the 72 pencils in my set for this drawing.

  Black- The most frustrating part in this drawing for me was the black. I could not get it dark enough, somewhere around day three of working on this drawing, I ended up having to add a bit of Derwent Drawing black to the darkest parts. The advantage to the Blick black being so light is that it is good for shading, so it does still have its uses. I tried layering it with other colors to get it as black as possible, but the other colors (Such as Prussian Blue) seemed to tint and overpower it. Layering it this way also began to cause wax bloom as it filled the tooth. This is why I ultimately decided to switch to my Derwent pencil. I still used the Blick Black elsewhere for shading. 

Day 3, Added Derwent Drawing Black

White- I was pleasantly surprised with the opacity of the white, especially after using the black. While it is not as opaque as Derwent Drawing (I have yet to find a white pencil that is). I think that it is quite comparable to Prismacolor premiers, and maybe even a bit better than Polychromos.

Yellow- Some of the yellows, especially just plain yellow, are surprisingly opaque and have an almost florescent feel to them.  This was an advantage in this piece where I was working on a tinted background, however at times the color seemed a bit too artificial for a natural themed piece.

Green- Grass green and Sap green were quite similar, if you look at the chart I made it is difficult to see much of a difference. The only thing I was not happy about with the greens is their dark green is not as rich and dark as Prismacolor, but it is still a good color.

Reds- There are a lot of fun reds, I had a bit of difficulty getting the colors in the leaves as rich as I would like, but when I added in some pinks it really made them pop. Vermillion and Scarlet red are also quite similar to each other.

Overall I am quite pleased with these pencils and I would recommend these to beginners and professionals alike. I will definitely be using these in conjunction with my other pencils in the future. I think next time I will use a white paper as their transparency would be perfect to reflect light, but I do think they work well on colored paper. I am very happy with the results I got, and think these are a great bargain. Professional quality at a student price. Can’t beat that!

Important links:

Blick Studio Artists' Colored Pencils   

Colors and Lightfast Ratings 

Canson Mi-Teintes Paper 

Derwent Drawing Black 

Nature's Confetti Prints and Products