Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils could be so much fun!

For years, I have been drawing with pastels and charcoal but this winter I rediscovered color pencils when one of my art students requested me to teach her how to draw with color pencils. And wow had it open the doors to new adventures and recreations.

When I was a teen that was the art medium of my choice; however, as I went to college, I left it behind as I discovered other materials such as charcoal and pastels. The freedom and speed that pastel and charcoal provide me are really great but sometimes I wish I could use media that wasn’t so messy. Well, I think that I found it again early this winter when for the first time in years I started working with color pencils. I had forgotten how much fun they are. Like pastels, the Prismacolor Premier Colored pencils have a rich variety of vibrant colors. Easy to use, clean and most of them non toxic, Prismacolor Premier Colored pencil provide a great venue to create great art.

For instance, the giraffe on the picture was drawn with Prismacolor Premier Colored pencils. I started with an underline drawing. Then, I added a layer of light yellow color to the light section of the drawing and light blue color to the shadow areas. After that I layered the light shadows with oranges, creams, yellows browns and some light blue. On the dark shadows, I incorporated dark blues and purples and even some greens. Even the black areas like the eye have blue and yellow. Finally, I colored the background with a light blue and created some light white clouds on the top right to give the feeling that the background is the sky and not a plain blue background.

While working with color pencils isn't as fast as working with pastels, I really enjoyed the clean aspect of the material and the ability of creating really small details. I also enjoyed layering colors one of top of the other just like I do when I worked with acrylics. Color pencils are easy to carry around so you can take them with you when you travel. The only drawback about prismacolor pencils is price. Prismacolor pencils aren't cheap. You can buy them in boxes or individual. A box of 48 colors of Prismacolor Premier pencils cost you about $60.

Over all I am enjoying drawing with Prismacolor Premier Colored pencils. So if you like to draw and want to try a new material this summer, may be you might want to try color pencils.