Colored pencils

**Oaty** · December 27th, 2004, 05:07 PM

Just starting out and for christmas I got 12 prismacolor color pencils as a full set is expensive. I was at officemax today and saw a set of 72 colored pencils made by Rosecolor for 10 dollars. Now as I am starting out quality is not too much of a concern right now. What I am wondering since 12 colors is'nt a whole lot to work with, will these colored pencils be good enough to let me get the basics down and then upgrade to a fullset of colored pencils(art quality). Or would the quality of these pencils be too low to learn colored pencil art.

**imager777** · December 27th, 2004, 05:15 PM

All you really need are the primary colors, and maybe black and white. Anything else is just nice to have.

Prismacolor is fine. Many professionals use Prismacolor. You have all the tools you need to do top quality colored pencil illustrations. Now all you need is the skill to pull it off.

**Oaty** · December 27th, 2004, 05:41 PM

Thanks for the reply Image. Well another question would be would it be ok to practice with the rosecolor pencils until I have some experience as to save the high quality pencils for better work.

I guess what I should have done was read the box. From my understanding 1 of the biggest concerns with colored pencils would be thier wax content. A high wax content in these pencils would probably make them near worthless for pencil art due to the fact not all techniques would work correctly.

So I guess the easy question would be if I bought these would I only be hurting myself?

**imager777** · December 27th, 2004, 06:39 PM

You just got a pack of free pencils; use 'em. I'm sure whoever got them for you, didn't get them to just sit there while you wait for your skills to reach some magical level. They got them so you could use them; and won't be happy unless you do. Don't let them down. Besides, you'd be surprised at just how long a pack of colored pencils will last.

As far as wax content. Some people like waxier pencils more than others. I personally don't like mine waxy. I don't use solivents(sp? ). So, I don't know what effect they have. As long as there's enough pigment to produce a nice color, that all that really matters. Blending and hatching should be relatively the same. The bottom line is that your technique won't be dramatically changed by switching brands. It's not like going from oils to watercolor.