Best Colored Pencils For Adult Coloring Books (2026 Updated)

These color pencils suck spent the money and every time you sharpen them the lead falls out and keep sharpening and sharpening till you have no pencil left first time using it!! Waste of money!! Will never buy this brand again!!.

Very reasonably priced for 136 colors. They lay down well, the cores are harder than prismacolors, but they blend well and they sharpen well, with no breakage (at least not so far). I am also very happy with the case which protects the pencils very well.

I am very happy to recommend them to other colorists, they make a very nice addition to your coloring arsenal.

My Wife just loves them, we’ve tried several brands including crayola, and they are all inferiore, a lesser quality than the Shuttle Art 136 colored pencils; Only One out of 136 was a bad egg, kept breaking and wouldn’t sharpen; So 135 is Good in our book***** Thanks.

These are great if you don’t want to use your high end colored pencils in your adult coloring books. There is a great selection of colors, but I would like another purple or two personally. They’re easy to get a light color with and build up to a richer color.

The box is annoying however. Prismacolor pencils usually have a box that turns into an easel or have trays in a tin you can remove. I ended up trashing the box and getting a wrap to hold them all.

In this high stress world we need a way to decompress. Personally I love adult coloring books. I will listen to music and color away as a form of meditation. This was created with both Crayola coloring pencils and glitter pens.

If you need a new way to relax, I highly recommend adult coloring books and Crayola pencils.

I’m a avid fan and colorist and I cannot say enough about these artlicious colored pencils. While not as pigmented as say Faber castell or Prismacolor these actually broke less than the prisma ones. I’ve bought many different sharpeners over the years and this little gem is a treasure!!.

I love these pencils, the colors are beautiful and this happens to be my 2nd set that I have ordered. They arrived on or before the date they were due and I have had no problems with these pencils, I highly recommend this product.

Not the hightest quality for artists, but pretty good. Awesome for kids! I am happy with the purchase for the price.

I have bought multiple things from arteza and typically am really impressed and love the quality of what I have bought and that’s why I’ve been a repeat customer for awhile. Especially their line of chalk markers as they are awesome.

But this order was a different story and I was for sure disappointed on quality control of the products I ordered. I ordered the 152 set of inkonic fineliners, the 120 set of the watercolor colored pencils, and 100 set of the twimarkers and it took some time with pandemic to open and swatch the sets but once I had the opportunity I found that every set had issues.

The inkonic set was missing one marker in bottom tray two had no tips so even cap is loose on them cuz of that and I had a double of another color so I inturn I didn’t have or couldn’t use 4 colors of the markers.

The twimarkers came with 4 markers that the tip was very dry. So couldn’t use them as it just ripped or scratched my notebook, and the watercolor set had a double green in it. So I was missing a color.

The sets aren’t the cheapest as I got the large sets so I expected perfection like I have always received from this company with other orders but didn’t receive it this time. I did give them a 3 as the products were great products to use with great color saturation but just disappointed that I didn’t receive full sets or their was quality issues with some.

So make sure you check your sets and swatch them all right away to make sure they all work or that what came in the sets corresponds with the color chart on the back to make sure you didn’t get any doubles.

So with my experience I can greatly recommend company as a whole but be cautious when it comes to these 3 products.

Ive always loved these pencils so much. I usually prefer a harder, more oil dominant pencil when making my own art, but i dont have enough money to use them every single time I want to do something like sketching, coloring in a coloring book etc.

These pencils are affordable and the quality for the price is outstanding. Theyre a wax dominant formula but they arent overly soft and can hold a point very well. I can still get quite a few layers before seeing any wax bloom which is easily removed anyway.

As a colored pencil lover I understand that breaking tips and leads is kind of just a part of what we signed up for with our medium of choice, but i find myself dealing with MUCH MUCH less breakage issues with my Artezas than with a few other more expensive brands.

And that in itself will help to drastically improve the use to price ratio. My next favorite thing about Artezas is their color range. I think they have a spectacular range, and even more so now that they have the Pastel tones set.

I do a lot of photorealism, portraits and more natural work and I love the tones in here for complexions, hair, eyes, fur, shadows, and browns for nature scenes. I dont think anyone could do better for the price.

I find them much less waxy than another brand that is in the exact same price bracket. These are soft and creamy and what comes off the pencil has pigment. The other brand that I tried in this mid-range was too soft, and had a lot of empty wax, so a lot of wax would come off while using them but there seemed to be a lot of empty wax layers with very little or no pigment at all.

I had a 120 set and had used them up and had only aq 72 set for backup. These were out of stock for some time and I found my 72 set was even down to the nubs. I wrote to Customer Service and they responded immediately and let me know it was due to supply chain issues and that it wouldnt be much longer to wait.

About 2 weeks later at most they were back in stock. I chose to purchase through Artezas site rather than Amazon. My order was delivered like 2 days later. Everything was wonderful and there were no broken pencils at all.

But as I was pre-sharpening them all and making my new color chart I noticed that I was missing 2 shades but I had extras of 2 others. I wrote to the company and asked if I could send my extra 2 pencils back in exchange for the missing shades.

I wouldnt have bothered except one shade (earth red) is very unique and one that I use often. I was told that the shades I was missing werre not available open stock at the moment, but that it was ok, they were going to send me an entire new set of 120 pencils and that I didnt need to send anything back.

!!! Incredible service. I was amazed and grateful. My new set showed up 2 or 3 days later with every single pencil intact. That and the fact that none were broken along with their high quality anyway, I couldn’t imagine finding a better pencil for the price.

I have the Pastel color pencils and the 120 set of Watercolor pencils in the cart for the next time i have a little extra money. Im very happy with my pencils and the entire experience. I highly recommend.

High quality products and services, reliable, worth every cent, and looks and blends do beautifully. What more could I ask for?.

The pencils blend well sometimes using up to 5 layers to achieve the color I was aiming for. The colors are nice and vibrant. With a lot of coloring, blending, layering and burnishing not one tip broke.

The cores are strong and keep a point which is great for getting into those small spaces. No problems with sharpening. The barrel colors really match the core color. Great color selection in the 120 set.

I like that the color names, numbers and light fastness are printed on each pencil. There was a little bloom but not much and hardly any debris. I ordered another set because I plan on using these a lot for coloring.

I also like that if there is a color(s) that you use a lot you can order a three pack of that color. A little expensive at $9 a three pack (making them $3 a pencil) but better than having to purchase a whole set.

I actually like these better than Prismacolor Premier colored pencils for adult coloring books because the cores are stronger, they blend just as well, colors are just as vibrant and you can’t beat the price for the quality.

The pencils retain a point- don’t break easily. Colors are creamy. Blend and layer well. Excellent quality at unbeatable price. I got 120 pencils for $29. 99! No duplicate colors. One small thing- pencils are numbered but there is no color name on the pencil.

Another irritating thing- the pencils come in a beautiful array of colors and are nicely packaged but the swatch card that has the name and number of the pencils is in a different order. You really should swatch these pencils because the barrel of the pencil is not a perfect match with the actual color you get.

I find this is a common problem with wax pencils.

These are the same brand as watercolor pencils I bought, which didn’t have many colors, and I wanted more options. These are not watercolor pencils, however, so they didn’t blend the same. I tried these first on the watercolor postcards, that I purchased a while back.

They didn’t blend as well on that paper, but it was an interesting effect and I was pleased with the result. Another kind of paper was too slippery or something, and I wasn’t as happy with that. I haven’t found the “magic” combination of these pencils with paper yet for optimum blending, but I am enjoying playing with all the colors.

I can testify that they do not break (one of the chief reasons I was attracted to them). My floor is hardwood and I have butter fingers. I’ve used up pencils very quickly with just one drop because the lead doesn’t hold together inside.

but these do not break (from experience). No annoying crumbles of lead with sharpening. They last.

My initial reaction to my recently purchased set of Cezanne Colored Pencils was not completely positive. I felt that I had been seduced by the packaging of a 120-color set in its attractive tin case and the sale price which was quite reasonable.

In using the pencils, I found that they were difficult (if not impossible) to blend by “finger-smuding” like I could do with my pastel pencils. I was discouraged enough to contemplate returning the set for a refund pursuant to Jerry’s 100% guaranty, but decided to give the pencils 1 more try.

In prepping for a new trial for the pencils, it dawned on me that I was unfairly expecting the colored pencils to be just another set of pastel pencils instead of a completely different product, with its own uses, virtues and vices.

The big difference between these colored pencils and the pastel pencils I am more accustomed to using is the wax used to bind the pigment in the “leads” of the colored pencils. When you lay down color with the pencils, some of the wax binder transfers to your paper which makes it hard to layer another color over the first one.

Because the lead is harder than a pastel lead, you also scribe the paper with a fine line which becomes visible when a new clolor is appplied over the first. Depending on your subject matter of your work, this wax indentation can be used to leave a permanent undercoat when the second color is applied such that the first color survives intact from the overcoat.

Using only the colored pencils from the Cezanne set (because of the wide choice of colors, there is rarely a need to borrow from another set), I have just finished my 1st work using only clored pencils with an acceptable result.

With more usage of the pencils, standing on their own rather than an adjunct to my pastels, I feel that these Cezanne pencils will be a much appreciated addition to my artistic media and well worth the purchase price.

It is very difficult to find truly excellent pastels pencils. After years of looking for truly excellent pastels with depth of color, I found Prismacolor Botanical Garden Set. What a joy it is to have colors of depth and ease of use in art works! Each pencil fits comfortably in the hand.

There is no dragging or forced pressing to bring really lovely colors to my pages. There are 12 sized pencils in shades of blue greens, pink, peach and yellow. With care these colorful pencils will go the distance.

No broken tips. The colors remain bright and with practice you can shade easily with these. A huge bonus for those of us who have struggled with adjusting intensity. The come packaged beautifully in a tin covered with a gorgeous floral art work.

I love them and highly recommend them for anyone who enjoys art.

This assortment of 36 is about all you need. The variety of colors covers makes color choice easy. It comes in a very nice tin which would be excellent for travelling. These pencils are described as soft, but I found them to work well for all my colored pencil work.

They blend well either by rubbing or with OMS. Prismacolor describes them as being primarily for blending and shading, but I was able to get very good sharp detail after some trying. I have not sharpened all of the colors but those that I did sharpened well with no breakage.

This would be an excellent assortment for beginners as it is easy to get overwhelmed with large color assortments when starting out. Plus they are very easy to use and produce outstanding results. The price is very reasonable and quite a good value.

One of my biggest pet peeves with cheap pencil-style crayons is the consistency of the “lead”. Lesser brands often have harder pieces that can tear paper and cause inconsistency in your drawing and coloring.

I have never had that problem with Prismacolor. Their quality is always choice, and in years of using them, have found that it’s easy to get the results you want out of your artwork with them. They are UV-resistant and I have been quite impressed with their ability to retain color in art for years even when exposed to the sun.

This set, in particular, has an excellent variety of nature-compatible hues and shades that add depth and realism to pictures. I found them to be well suited for a project that involves a depiction of classic cottage gardens.

I feel comfortable recommending them to anyone who has high standards for their materials.

I love these pencils. This set has a good variety of colors and tones. They are all at the quality you would expect from prisma pencils. I highly recommend these pencils if you are familiar with colored pencils? If not I would recommend a smaller cheaper set.

I can’t justify the price for beginners or anyone who usn’t certain they will regularly use it. Beyond that, it is a great set that should be able to supply most of your needs when coloring. P. s. if you aren’t familiar with prismatic, these pencils are wax based.

I feel they are better than most others in my experience. Even though I haven’t broken any I can see how someone may with too much pressure but for most people you will not be that ruff.

I have taken to adult colouring books. A great hobbies to have & very therapeutic. Have tried cheaper brands, but you really do get what you pay for Crayola really are the best. Slightly more expensive but worth it & the 50 pack are good value for money.

Fantastic array of vibrant colors. The brightness and bold colors really stand out. Suitable for all ages. Great way to compliment your art supplies.

These pencils be really good they came pre-sharpened and every colour that you possibly will need Im really impressed with the shipping it was pretty quick

I have purchased 2 of the 150 pencil sets, countless smaller sets, prismacolor graphite sets, prisma sharpeners and erasers, blenders, etc etc. I always buy the color pencil singles to replace pencils that I use up to keep my sets complete.

I do notice subtle differences in shades sometimes of the exact same color when using a new pencil, but nothing very noticeable if you know how to adjust pressure and move around the paper to disperse the changes, hiding them in shadow effects and highlights.

Buying multiple of the same color pencil that you know you will need for a certain piece can help out also. Just buy them all a once from the same vendor so it will be a better chance of them being made from the same batch released from the factory.

As for the quality, I have had my fair share of bad prismacolor pencils with major breakages like cores were shattered internally. But I would bet this is the fault of shipping and retailers tossing boxes around and dropping them on the ground.

If you drop a prismacolor pencil on the ground, it’s probably ruined. The cores break very easy. However, the quality you get from using prisma, makes up for their fragile cores. Are there better color pencils than prisma? Well, let me explain it like this.

There may be a color pencil that has something better than prisma, but on the other side of that knife, prisma has something that they don’t. Anybody that says one certain brand of color pencil is the best, is only fooling their self.

But I will say, prismacolor is an all around great pencil that I always recommend to all people, not just artist, but the everyday commoner also. Listen, I could sit here and church up how prisma is the greatest of all times, but I think people would rather know the truth.

They aren’t the greatest but they are great, and definitely worthy of being on a list of top brands. I will continue to buy and recommend them as long as they continue to keep the quality they have. I do wish the price was more affordable, not only for me, but also for the people I try to push into the prisma world.

The average person sees the price and closes the book on trying them out. I understand that other top brands are even more expensive, but to the normal buyer, even prisma is out of reach for most people.

However, the ones that do jump in, never go back to a cheap color pencil ever again. I’m refusing to name drop on high end and low end brands here, because this review is about prismacolor pencils only, and an honest opinion about “them” is what people should hear.

If you have never used them before and you are a budding artist, new to the game, or maybe you know somebody that could use a nice set to up their skills, You should definitely give prismacolor a shot.

So, I bought several Prismacolor coloring pencils but a few of them were not what I wanted. Not to sound like a “Karen,” but i wanted Light Aqua but I got aquamarine. I wanted Deco Pink but I got light peach.

I wanted Pumpkin Orange but I just got orange. I’d return them but it’s too much of a hassle. I’m happy I got aquamarine because I wanted that one anyway. The shade of orange is extremely vibrant and pretty so I’ll keep that one.

Light peach though. I’m not too happy about at all but I guess I’ll use it. Couldn’t she or he have given me any other shade of pink? Whatever. I’m sure the person handling my order had a lot of orders coming in or whatever.

So, I can’t be too harsh. Still though any other shade of pink would have made my day! The light peach color aside, the other pencils I got are gorgeous! I think this is the last time I’m ordering from the website though.

I rather take the social anxiety than receive items that I didn’t pay for and makes me feel like an idiot (Like they were saying “Oh! She won’t notice the difference!”) the next day.

I love the color variations and how long they last between sharpening. The color saturation is very good. However, sometimes after you sharpen a pencil, the lead breaks off down in the wood of the pencil and falls out when you try to use it.

This can go on for the whole length of the pencil making that pencil unusable.

Ideal for drawing, illustrating, and coloring, these richly colored pencils feature brilliantly balanced shades for superior blending. Long lasting, thick 3. 8mm leads are encased in round, lacquered California cedar casings.

Available in sets of 12, 24, 36, 48 and 72 pencils.

These pencils are very very good. The colors are great for blending and they’re able to be sharpened for extra precision.

I love the Irojiten and have purchased many open stock replacements for pencils I have used down to the end. What I think is best is the fine line and detail you can get while not giving up other aspects.

So many of my really creamy pencils don’t seem to hold a fine point no matter how finely sharpened. While I have both Derwent and Prismas thin line and do use them, neither has the color range of these pencils.

In particular they are fabulous for coloring hair. There is enough range to get hair color that looks natural. Some of the pencils are so essential that they are never put away. An ashy blonde or strawberry blonde shade is possible as well as deep dark chestnuts and vibrant but natural red shades.

Honestly just the best. The set also has some beautiful light blue shades which can be difficult to find. I love the way they go down on the paper. The pencil feels good in your hand. I have never once had a break or splinter in the shaft.

The quality is just excellent. Perhaps must of all I use these with a set of Holbeins which are just too creamy to be effective on their own.

purchased the woodland set. for the price that irojiten pencils cost, it would be silly to expect them to be on par with caran d’ache pablo and faber-castell polychromos. i have found the quality of tombow’s irojiten pencils to be notably above student quality.

i would consider these pencils to be of an entry level professional artists grade. they blend with ease for me. i have found it effortless to achieve smooth gradients. the colors are gorgeous and i’m a big fan of how they are organized.

the packaging is cute, practical, and very VERY japanese in style. i have enjoyed the woodland set so much that i ordered the other two sets. my final verdict is that these color pencils are of adequate quality for professional work and their lower price point + unique colors make them worth investing in.

Some reviews I read about these said the lead was very hard. I have to agree BUT on the positive side. Yes, they are very firm but this allows you to have extreme control if the depth of color. You can have various shades of the same color without it feeling like too much within the same piece.

You can make it really light or you can do a couple passes and have a really nice, rich color. Takes a little longer but I appreciate the control it gives you. The firm lead also doesn’t break if you have to apply more pressure for the deeper colors.

Great product. Would buy again.

These colored pencils are strong and the colors are brilliant. Especially nice is the exterior, which normally is round. These are flat sided and don’t roll off the desk and are so much easier to grip and hold for a long time.

The feel of them is outstanding.

These pencils are fantastic. Their triangular shape is very comfortable, and out of the dozen or so brands I use, these are the ones that give me the least issues when it comes to sharpening, and there is minimal lead breakage.

The colours are also wonderful. Most are vibrant, and really stand out. Perfect for colouring books, sketches, and art. The drawings I was able to create with these really showcase the vibrancy of the colours.

The only issue- there is no light-fast information so I would classify these as scholastic (these perform too good to be considered student grade), however you can always sell the prints of work created using these pencils.

Since the overall quality and durability is above average, I definitely recommend these Staedtler Ergo soft pencils, and have become one of my favourites to use (top 3).

The EC is an arts-based program for artists with developmental disabilities, the EC Artists love colored pencils, it’s the resource we most run low on. While searching for a wider variety of colors for sketches before the final projects, we ran into this set, based on reviews on youtube we decided to try them out.

We are so happy we tried these out, the EC Artists love them, the amount of colors for the price is unbeatable especially for artists wanting to have more control of their color palette when selecting colors for a final piece.

#sweepstakes.

These watercolor pencils create a nice effect to your drawing. Treat them similar to any ordinary colored pencils, but once you’re finished, use a little water to help blend the colors. Normally I like to keep drawings dry, but this is something you need to try for yourself.

I usually buy Prismacolor pencils, but I am also a fan of Staedtler pens so I decided to give these a try. They are definitely cheaper than Prismacolor’s and for this price point they aren’t that bad.

I do like the shape of the pencils and the durable lead, but I find the overall color to be a bit dull. That being said my kids loved them and the fact that when they color hard the leads don’t break easily.

Good product for beginners and casual hobbyist, and excellent choice for younger kids and classroom settings.

Used prismacolor colored pencils before. I tossed them recently because they were dry and the tips kept snapping. Also had to sharpen some pencils over and over cause the would was so brittle all sharpening did was eat the pencil.

Anyway, I tried a new brand amd it was great! Then I purchased a large array of color from Prismacolor. Even brand new the wood of the pencils is so dry they are again just being chewed up. Now again I have 100 plus Prismacolor pencils that will eventually irritate the otherwise relaxing hobby of coloring.

Then I will toss them again.

I’m an amateur when it comes to art supplies. I had no idea how to determine what might be good or not. I bought a set of Staedtler colored pencils because I thought that was a name that denoted quality.

The pencils worked but required a lot of pressure and multiple applications to give a color that was decent. I bought these Prismacolor soft core pencils hoping that they would be easier to use. The difference is astonishing.

With only one application and minimal pressure, it’s easy to achieve a much more vibrant color. I only wish Sam’s had a similar deal on the 150 pencil set!.

Prismacolor pencils are probably the best wax cored pencils on the market. They lay down vibrant pigment and are extremely easy to blend, especially if you use a bit of solvent. I like that they are able to be replaced individually in most large chain crafting stores.

I have asked for a larger set for my next birthday because I find myself using these on my projects every single day. No matter what other medium I am using or whatever other set of pencils I am using, I always reach for certain colors from my Prismacolors because the colors are true and they do not leave a heavy waxy buildup even with lots of layering.

My only 2 negative comment is 1. I wish there were more browns. I imagine the larger sets have more options. Like I said, I can buy individual colors at will, with Prismacolor pencils, so it works itself out.

2. Because these are softcore pencils the leads will break easily so I suggest having a mat under your work station because breaking them does happen. and a mat helps to cushion the blow more than you would think.

I will purchase these again in the future with no hesitation.

I really enjoy these pencils for faces or landscapes. I’m sure they would be great for animals as well. They are beautiful to use as they feel solid and smooth. They blend nicely. I will be supplementing my set with a couple of Caran d’ache Luminance colors though.

This set is so subtle in color that it is a bit too limiting. I’ll add a green for sure and maybe a sky blue.

I was introduced to these pencils because the Chinese White is supposed to be far superior to other white colored pencils. After trying the white I ended up getting the full set. Excellent pencils in a lovey limited neutral palette perfect for drawing nature scenes.

There are colors that I don’t have in other sets so it compliments my Polychromos and Lightfast by adding new shades. I also love these for doing backgrounds the thick cores lay down fast.