Customer Reviews

Sanford Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencil Set, 48/Tin

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Easily blended, brilliantly colored, well crafted pencils. Good for any type of work. Very waxy; if you are heavy-handed, watch out for blooming. They are a little too soft for precision work; buy a few Verithin.

I have been doing illustration work for my personal enjoyment since the 1980s, and I have been using Prismacolor Premier colored pencils for nearly 15 years. This 48-pencil set was the one I started with, and it served me well. After using these pencils for a while I soon found that I wanted to expand my horizons and I invested in the 120 pencil set. Now you have the option of 72, 120, or 130+ pencil set. Enjoy!

I have to tell you that these pencils are a pleasure to work with. I use them mainly for doing biological and scientific illustration, but I use them for other things as well. I was introduced to them by a professional biological illustrator who's guidance was, use only the best. Of the colored pencils I've used over the years, these are the best I've found.

Prismacolor Premier colored pencils have a soft lead, so soft that you need to tread lightly as you apply them, or the lead is easily broken. On the other hand, the soft lead makes these colors much easier to blend once they are on the paper, and allow you to put down your colors layer by layer and produce the effects you are after.

I find that for my work a good companion investment for these colored pencils is an electric pencil sharpener, because a sharp lead allows you to put the color down onto paper with greater precision, and gives better results.

I have used these pencils on a variety of surfaces ranging from drafting velum to mat board to Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Board Pads - 14 x 17, Bristol Pad, 20 sheets, Vellum, and Canson Mitientes 122 Flannel Gray - 19x25 Inch Sheet which comes in many colors, as well as hot press and cold press board, 300 lb. water color paper, and a variety of other art boards. Of course, colored pencil works best on a surface that has at least a moderate tooth (paper surface roughness), because once the tooth is filled with lead it is extremely difficult to put down more color.

Word of warning: Make sure that you handle these pencils carefully, because if you drop them on a hard floor the lead can break inside of the pencil, ruining it.

5 stars all the way! You will enjoy these pencils as long as you realize that you can't power them onto the paper, and that the lead will wear down quickly because they are so soft. Enjoy!

Everyone who has used these pencils, and even those who research them, will know that the soft cores are prone to breakage usually from handling.

1) Check your packaging!
This item was sent to me by Amazon in a box that allowed too much movement inside, and packing
material only on the bottom.

2) Check your pencils!
I found that 2 of the pencils were not from the set I ordered. They had different foil stamps
and a few pencils were shorter ( which means they were Used).

Make sure you get what you ordered, (I didn't get any Artstix in my package) It's not a debate about the usability of Artstix --just give me what I paid for!

All in all, I felt like someone was trying to pull a fast one at my convenience. At least I only have to wait another week (even though I am a Prime member) and hopefully will get the right item packaged and shipped correctly, new and unused.

This was a fast and easy transaction. The Pencils are fine - but it does seem that if while sharpening them you break a point, it will continue the entire lenght of the pencil.....factory defect?

These are great pencils. I would purchase them again but not thru Amazon. The product title and review stated Sanford Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencil Set 48/Tin with Two Bonus Artstix. The item came without the two Artstix. I contacted the seller and never got a reply. They also didn't look uniform. They still work great though. I would just pay the extra and buy them from an art supply store.

These are very nice colored pencils. Of course with Amazon they came very quickly and were undamaged. I rated these as as 4 only because I find them to be a little too soft and smear or blend too easily. I am not a professional though, I only bought these to color coloring books and do some basic drawing with so the softness of the pencils maybe something that is sought after. I would say if you want pencils for detailed work and/or that do not smear easily to buy the Verithin line from Prismacolor as it is a harder core. I think I will end up going through these pencils faster than I would have hoped given the cost of them because of their softness.

These colored pencils are great! With these colored pencils, you can get really do some great drawings. If you like art, these colored pencils are just for you! When you finish a drawing with these colored pencils, your artwork doesn't get smudged if you spray water. Unlike Washable Markers, these colored pencils are not messy at all! They're easy to carry. If you are going traveling, you can easily just put them in a small box, or bag and don't leave marks on things. With paint, is really messy because it is easy to spill and stain clothes and things. But with these awesome colored pencils, you can take them anywhere, anytime without leaving a mess. They don't brake as easy as crayons, oil pastels, chalks, or charcoal. My favorite thing about Prisma Colors is that if you use them on a surface such as construcion paper, when you finish a drawing, it looks like paint! If you don't believe me, you should tell your art teacher or someone who has them, to let you try them on a surface such as construction paper. It can also be a surface that is a good absorbent of colored pencils. When I finished one of my drawings, everyone thought it was paint. They ran their fingers along my drawing and said, "Did you use paint or oil pastels?" I said, "no." They couldn't believe it when I told them I used colored pencils. They thought it was any other type of colored pencils but I said that they were special colored pencils called "Prisma Colors." They were really amazed. Prisma Colors have a soft lead that allows you to color patiently and softly (not like other brands of colored pencils that you have to press really hard just to color something.) Not only are these colored pencils have a soft lead, and waterproof but you can also make small details on a drawing. Not only that, you can easily blend colors, to give your drawing an effect of depth. Don't worry, when you buy Prisma Colors, many, diverse assorted colors come in the box. So, you can make almost any color you want! You will be amazed when you finish a drawing using Prisma Colors and see how colorful and 3-D it looks(only if you know how to blend colors and which colors to use.) You can easily blend and layer these colors on top of each other and you can create wonderful pieces that will seem as if you have just used paint. You also don't have to wait for your artwork to dry (unlike paint.) You also can't stain your clothes easily(unlike charcoal, paint,oil pastels,markers, and other mediums.) When you finish a drawing, the colors will remain brilliant and fresh just as they way it looked when you finished your drawing. If you take proper care of your drawing, it will last forever! These colored pencils are AMAZING! Everything is great about these colored pencils: The way they look when you're finished with a drawing (like paint or oil pastel), their potential to repel water and other substances, their brilliant, vivid color, their soft leads, their potential to be easily blended, and more! I highly recommend you to try these colored pencils. They're just superior to other mediums. These colored pencils have so many advantages over other mediums. Since I'am not good at using paint, I use Prisma Colors all the time. You can easily hold them and manipulate where you want for them to go. I don't like paint simply because the reason that is so hard to hold the brush and paint sharp edges. And the other thing about paint is that they're so messy. The paint can spill, and you have to keep washing the paintbrush to get another color. I prefer Prisma Colors a billion times more that paint or other mediums. They're just great. Is just as if you're using paint without the necessity of washing the paintbrush or mixing them in a pallet. Buy them, you really do need to try them! You won't regret it. If you take good care of them (you know,don't sharpen them with sharpeners that are "Wood Eaters" These colored pencils can last you for many years. One thing about these colored pencils is that they're really sensitive and vulnerable to sharpeners. So if you want to sharpen a Prisma Color, you should use a sharpener that is small, and that doesn't take away a big chunk of your colored pencil. These colored pencil also need to be stored in cool places because they lead may melt in really hot places. The lead doesn't "freeze" as other colored pencils. Before I bought these amazing colored pencils, the colored pencils I used had leads that woulnd't color properly and I had to put them for a few seconds on a microwave (funny.) They seemed to kind of "freeze." These colored pencil's lead remain fleshy, and fresh all the time ready for you to use them whenever you want to. If you are an artist, you should definately buy them. They can come in really handy. If you don't believe about all I'm saying, you should get a Prisma Color and a regular colored pencil and color something with each of them. You will be surprised at the BIG difference you will see between them. Well, anyways, these colored pencils are a little expensive, but it is worth buying them. In all the Art Contests I have entered, my medium is always Prisma Colors. They're outstanding. I wish I could have bought these colored pencils, a L O N G time ago. Now I'm a freshman in High School. I could have easily won some art contests in Junior High with Prisma Colors. I now regret it. I wish I could have given them more than 5 stars. I don't why these colored pencils were invented a long time ago. Maybe famous painters and artists such as Vincent Vang Gogh, Da Vinci..., would have prefered Prisma Colors instead of paint. You should buy them here, from Amazon, here is the best place to buy them. If you buy them, use them correctly on a surface that is a good absorbent of colored pencils, I guarantee you that at LEAST 1 person is gonna come up to you (amazed), see your artwork, and ask you (almost speechless), "Is that paint?"

Packaging different (the reason I bought this was because I thought it had different art from the one w/ the orange lady), no art stix or metal sharpener. Pencils look used and out of place. NOT happy. I have seen other reviews w/ the same problems: but I thought since it happened once, it wouldn't happen again.

Still, great pencils though.

I got the pencils on time, and compared the horror I went through ordering a different set of pencils, this was easy. However...

1) There were no "bonus artstixs" in the package.

2) Package allowed for way too much movement and breakage.

3) All of the pencils were sharpened and as much as half an inch was missing from the pencils. (2 pencil tips were broken off from what looked like the sharpening)

4) They looked used! There were small dents and tiny scratches in all of the pencils, whether this is from someone using or "testing" them or package movement, I'm not sure.

All in all still great pencils, still work, but it's extremely disappointing to have to deal with such low quality from amazon.

It took me a few years to actually realize the versatility of these pencils, and I'm honestly ashamed it too so long. They're strong, very easy to layer, and for the quality, remarkably inexpensive.