How do you choose good colored pencils?

“What are good colored pencils?” is a question I get quite regularly. And sometimes “And which ones are the best?” These questions are so hard to answer. From a technical point of view, those questions cannot be answered properly. Of course, something can be said about the amount of pigment in the lead, the binder used, the type of wood and the way the lead is glued into the wood. But then brands like Caran d'Ache, Faber-Castell, Derwent and Cretacolor are not for each other. 

In my opinion, there are two important aspects when choosing a color pencil. First of all, what do you want to make with? And second, how much do you like to work with? The two drawings in the image accompanying this blog post were made with different pencils. The portrait is made with Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils. These pencils offer (for me) the ideal colours to take portraits. In addition, they are so soft (wax-based) that colour nuances and gradients are easier to achieve. However, the detailed drawing is mixed media and the inks I use don't work very well with the wax from the Luminance pencils. For those reasons I use Caran d'Ache Supracolor Soft pencils for that drawing. This pencil has - because it is a watercolor pencil - a water-soluble binder. And the lead is just a bit harder so I can easily apply details. 

I chose my pencils based on a lot of experience with crayons. You won't be able to do that if you're just starting out or looking to buy a quality colour pencil for the first time. Fortunately, there is a lot to say about the properties per colour pencil. 

What do you want to make with the colour pencil?