If You Had £15ish to Spend On..

[LieselMeminger]

Some Nice Pencils. What would you go for?

Colouring in isn't something I thought I'd enjoy, and thought those adults books were a gimmick, but dd got a few for Christmas and one afternoon over the holidays we sat and coloured for hours.

Its much more relaxing than I imagined and my anxiety definitely goes down and she finds calming, so I thought with her sats coming up, we'd make it a regular thing to do together, she likes the look of other completed images on google where pencils are used, we've watched some videos on shading and wants to give it a go, so I was wondering if there's anyone who could a suitable pencil set for about £15-£20. Or could maybe tell me what type to look for, I see there's dry, watercolour, charcoal etc etc.The ones we have are Poundland ones and don't produce anywhere near the same type of finish.

Thank you :)

Caran d'Ache make nice watercolour pencils that you can use wet or dry.

You don't want charcoal (black and messy); graphite (shades of grey); or pastel pencils (messy).

Watercolour/water-soluble are nice but probably unnecessary for colouring-in. They can be used dry like normal pencils but if you paint over them with water you'll buckle the paper (unless it's thick), and if the picture has very small areas they won't benefit from wetting the pencil marks afterwards. However, if you manage to find a set that's similar in price to non-watercolour then I would get it, as it will give you the opportunity to use them as watersoluble at least sometimes. If you get the hang of them you can also do colour mixing (thus increasing the colours available to you from a limited number of pencils) and shading too.

Normal coloured pencils (ie non-watersoluble) - not much to say! Some are supposed to be more blendable than others but frankly I think you just need a decent set with as many colours for your money.

'Proper' brands to look out for: Derwent; Faber Castell; Caran D'ache. They do different levels of quality: 'artists' quality' (the most expensive) and then cheaper students' or children's versions. Reeves and Lyra are mainly aimed at children I think.

Definitely have a look around online as some shops regularly sell below the recommended retail price. Two I know of are Jackson's Art and Cass Art. Not sure I would actually buy pencils via mail order (too delicate for the post) but it will give you an idea of prices and you might find similar in a local art supply shop.

Some examples:

www.jacksonsart.com/derwent-academy-watercolour-36-tin/?___SID=U

www.cassart.co.uk/drawing/pencils/coloured_pencils/faber-castell_grip_2001_pencil_tin_set_of_24_assorted_colours.htm

Marco they're the same type as prismacolour as in they're oil based rather than graphite and they're wonderful to colour with so smooth to use.

www.amazon.co.uk/Marco-Raffine-Professional-Colouring-Drawing/dp/B014W286PC

You can see from the reviews that they're well loved.