It’s Time To Give Polychromos A Chance!

If you’re someone who uses colored pencils as an art medium, then you need to start using Faber-Castells’ Polychromos colored pencils A.S.A.P.! These are by far and large some of the best, high-end, colored pencils you can ever possibly get your hands on!

For starters, Polychromos’ contain oil-based lead which means they’ll blend beautifully and smoothly when layered, and they won’t develop wax-bloom! For those who don’t know, wax-bloom is what happens when the wax binder in the colored pencil starts to oxidize. The oxidation may not occur immediately; sometimes it can take about a week before the oxidation process occurs. Things such as the environment the artwork is left in, how many layers were applied, or even how much pressure you used when drawing can all determine whether or not you develop wax-bloom. And while there are ways to easily prevent and remove wax-bloom, the best solution is to use better quality colored pencil brands, such as Polychromos.

As mentioned earlier, Polychromos’ are oil-based, highly pigmented colored pencils. All of their 120 colored pencils are encased in cedarwood barrels bound together by Faber-Castells’ patented SV bonding (a technique where the lead is securely adhered to the wood by glue). Meaning that your lead won’t break, splinter, or chip inside the wooden case if you were to drop or over sharpen it!

Of course their formulation and design isn’t the only thing that makes Polychromos’ stand out from the crowd! Another benefit to these pencils relies on how they perform overall when compared to other top-quality brands. For example, Polychromos’ are permanent, lightfast, and acid-free! Now those might just sound like buzz words most brands use to try to make their product more appealing, but these phrases do matter, here’s why.

Let’s go over each phrase one at a time, starting with “permanent”. I’m sure most of us know what it means when something is permanent, it means that it can’t be removed. And that standard definition applies to the Polychromos colored pencils too; once you apply it to your paper it can’t be removed. While you can definitely erase any markings made with an eraser, you’ll still be able to see any previous markings or rather the pigment left behind on your paper. But fear not! In comparison to other colored pencil brands, Polychromos’ are relatively transparent. So while they are permanent in the sense that you won’t be able fully remove all the pigmentation from your paper, they’re still light enough that you can erase them and layer a different color on top.

As for the products’ lightfastness, each pencil will vary depending on factors such as pigments used. However, all of the Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils will be ranked as either “very good lightfastness (**)” or “maximum lightfastness (***)”. For those who don’t know, the term “lightfast” is used to refer to how quickly or how likely a product will fade and discolor over time under light. In our case, the Polychromos’ have an exceptionally high lightfastness so they won’t fade out over a short (or even long) period of time!

Now as for acid-free, this is also an incredibly important thing to note! Recall back to middle school for just a moment, when something is acid-free that means that it’s pH neutral. Now unfortunately, there is very little known about the importance of colored pencils being acid-free, but we can look at acid-free paper to give us some clues. When a paper is acid-free it typically means that it won’t yellow, fade, or deform due to natural aging. Though in the context of colored pencils, its acid-free properties could mean that it won’t discolor or fade over time.

Now you may be asking, “why does any of that matter?” well it matters to those who want their artwork to last, to stand against the passage of time! To reiterate, its lightfastness and acid-free factor means that it won’t greatly fade or discolor over time. Furthermore, its permanence means that it won’t be easily removed from your surface. And that’s not all, these colored pencils are also smudge proof and water-resistant! And again, these may just sound like buzz words to emphasize the quality of the products, but these are important things to note when choosing between brands!

With Faber-Castells’ Polychromos colored pencils, you’re truly getting quality over quantity. Depending on who you are, you may not even care if your artwork will last or not. But, to those who do care, taking the necessary precautions to prevent aging and deforming in your art can make a lasting impact. Picture this, you’ve just finished an incredibly painstaking colored pencil drawing. You’ve spent hours, if not days or even months, working on this art piece; putting in so much effort your hands start to cramp and ache. You put the now finished piece away and years go by before you find it again.

You remember the fun you had while working on this piece. You remember all the hours that you’ve put into blending, shading, color matching, etcetera, but you don’t remember this piece being so dull, so lackluster and devoid of color! Over the years your artwork has aged; it’s now faded and lost most of its vibrancy! To think, all of this could have been avoided had you used a higher quality colored pencil, oh woe is me!

Okay, okay, theatrics aside! That was obviously a more dramatized scenario, but it is one that can happen! It’s highly important to take the time to properly care for your art, and I’m not just talking about after you’ve finished it. If you’ve ever gotten frustrated over wax-bloom, or flaky build up in certain areas, or weird specks of discoloration while blending then you seriously need to invest in better quality pencils! Even if you don’t care about the longevity of your artwork, then you should care about your experience while working in a medium you love!

I can not emphasize enough about the quality of Polychromos’, they’re just so creamy, buttery, and smooth! I know we all have our staple favorites when it comes to colored pencil brands, but it’s about time we give brands like Polychromos a fair shot! Now I’m not telling you to toss and forget about all of the other colored pencil brands that you’ve used before, but that you should start incorporating higher quality brands like Polychromos into your workspace. And fun fact, you can mix oil and wax based colored pencils together! So what’s stopping you from grabbing a set or even a handful of select colors, and experimenting today?