Like or dislike? Like them, definitely. Compared to the Polychromos? Hmmm... Yes, I think I like them better than the Polychromos, but I am not tossing the Polychromos. I am getting accustomed to the creamy feeling of the Prismas. They feel a lot like an oil pastel, I would go on to say they are almost an oil pastel in a wooden case LOL.

I love the diversity of tones of the full Prismacolor catalogue. I can't wait to explore more tonal ranges. Just like last year, you'll be seeing a lot of colours from me. As usual, I will do black and white occasionally, but most of you know I am a colourful artist. The "Bath of Light" drawing was meant as a way to acquire experience with the medium. That objective is being achieved well. I just wish I could advance faster with the pencils. Too bad I have experiments to finish, a poster to make and papers to read. That leaves me about an hour to draw daily. I am still a newcomer to the colour pencil world, so I am trying things and learning. Hopefully I will start advancing faster in the next few days.

What, you haven't seen my "Bath of Light"? Head over to my scrapbook to see the WIPs I've got so far.

So far I have had a grand total of one (kind of) broken lead, just out of softness. That is after more than 100 sharpenings. I keep my blades sharp though. I have the same impression about the soft leads that I wrote about in my first journal on the subject.

A few notes on my findings. I have found that the weakest point of the Prismas is the black pencil. Not dark enough for me. Fortunately I have Polychromos. Also, the white Polychromos seems to be a better blender than the white Prismacolor. The white Prisma is a wonderful white, but it whitens whatever tone you have underneath. In other words, it's pretty opaque, unlike the white Polychromos which is much more transparent. That is not necessarily bad, indeed it is very good if you are looking to bleach the colours underneath. Well Prismacolor offers the colourless blender pencil. I have found that one should be careful when using it, and definitely one should be careful not to abuse it. One should not use it until the very last moment, when all the layers underneath are already in place. Also, one should not press too hard with it, because when I do, it clears out the tones a little and if you apply too much of it, it leaves a grainy texture that may result undesirable. Also, no further layers of pencil can be added, it ends up acting like a kind of varnish. But if you avoid that, the colourless blender pencil works alright. I have also found that the Prismas respond better than the Polychromos to being blended with a stump. And it is best when the layers to be blended make a good coverage of the paper.

I am still learning, so don't take my words as law. What I really recommend is for you to go in your own journey of exploration.

My pageview count is higher than 29,000. And it's been a while since the last time anyone got any drawing from me.

So here's the kiriban challenge, you have to send me a note with a screenshot of you getting the pageview 30,000 or the closest you get to it (say 29,999 or 30,001, send me your screenshot anyway as you may get a chance). The prize is a coloured pencil ATC drawn by me. You get to choose the subject. I will mail it to your place. Yes, any dA user in the world can participate. I have previously shipped stuff to Scotland, the Netherlands and Germany, so there.

Good luck!

Ariel

Here's my veredict on the Prismas...

Let's start with the (sort of) bad. Well it is true that the wood is cheap, it is no different than what they put in cheap coloured pencils. The presentation is nowhere near as elegant as, say, the Polychromos, which are so beautiful they make you think it's a freaking crime just to use them. You could say the Prismas are sort of "Spartan" in that sense. But then again, you don't draw with the wood, do you? I don't think so.

The leads... I have found the Prismas to have very soft leads. I read in the Blick website that "manual sharpening is recommended for these pencils". Yeah, well, I never use a proper sharpener, not even an electric one. I prefer to use a utility knife (this is the one I use: [link] but you can use another, they are all good) with replaceable blades so when it starts to get dull, I snap one piece and start with the next one and it's as good as new. And make sure your blade is always sharp, otherwise it is as bad as a regular sharpener. Yes I do take the time to do it like that. So my recommendation to all Prismacolor users there complaining about their leads breaking: sharpen manually with a knife like me. What I have found is that the lead in these pencils is so soft they get close to a pastel pencil. And you wouldn't sharpen a pastel pencil in a pencil sharpener, would you? (Hint: don't even try!) That would explain why when people insist on putting them in the sharpener, the leads break half of the time. What are you saying? Your set came with a sharpener? Toss it. Blame the executives at Newell Rubbermaid who never really understood the product they sell and tried to squeeze a little more money from you.