Collection: Colored Pencils

Colored Pencil Sets

Artist-grade pencils from two makers, at the top of what we carry for colour work. The sets run from around twenty-five dollars up to the large Irojiten dictionaries in the low seventies.

The Irojiten dictionaries from Tombow are the serious ones. Each set is three volumes with ten pencils in each, so thirty colours in total, and the lead is soft enough to lay down a rich, creamy texture that blends smoothly rather than scratching across the paper. The range covers vivid through to soft shades, with fluorescents included in some volumes, and the sets come in a desk cup as an option for anyone who wants them standing on a desk rather than in a box.

The Caran d'Ache Swisscolor sets are the Swiss ones. The permanent box of eighteen comes in a bright red metal tin decorated with white crosses, and there is a matching box of twelve water-soluble pencils alongside it. The water-soluble set can be used dry or brushed over with water afterwards, which gives you two mediums from one box, and the permanent set is the one for laying colour down and leaving it. They are proper art supplies rather than children's versions of them.

Both work on the same paper, including the colouring books, and if you are starting out the mixed media pads and sketchbooks in our art range take pencil without ghosting, which matters once you start layering.

If you are choosing between them, the Swisscolor is the better first set and the Irojiten is the one to graduate to. Anyone working at a desk will get more from either than from the cheaper tins.

We keep the range in stock. If there is a particular set or colour range you are looking for that you are not able to find on the website, reach out to us and we will be glad to help.