Staedtler vs Prismacolor

A Colored Pencil Review

Should you pay five times as much for a high quality colored pencil? It depends.

It might seem like higher quality pencils will get you a higher quality picture, but that’s not a give in. A lot of factors come into play when drawing and materials is only one of them. A talented artist can make a masterpiece out of found items. That being said, I decided to test some basic criteria of each pencil and rate them against each other.

Affordability

Staedtler automatically takes this win as the more affordable brand. They are $6.88 for a pack of 12 pencils, which is 57 cents each. Prismacolor Premiere on the other hand is $14.97 for 12 pencils or $1.25 per pencil. That is a stark difference when you’re on a tight budget.

Creaminess

Prismacolor Premiere has a much creamier formula for their cores. In fact, there was residue on the inside of the packaging because the movement of the pencils in the package was a enough to deposit some color on the inside of the package. Staedtler has harder interior cores, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Color

I give them a tie on color. Both pencils had vibrant colors in their complimentary colors. I will say that this can be subjective as everyone can not see the same amount of colors. My next remarks are based more on being very sensitive to color differences and may not effect everyone. The reds, no name for Staedtler and Crimson Red for Prismacolor, were different. The Staedtler red was bright and only one or two steps away from red orange. The prismacolor red was darker. Viewed separately most wouldn’t notice but neither were specifically primary red on paper. The yellows were both nice and indistinguishable from each other. The blues, no name for Staedtler and Ultramarine for Prismacolor, were very close, but the Staedtler blue was just a hint more true blue and the Prismacolor blue was ever so slightly toward the violet blue side.

Blending Ability

I give them a tie on this one. The Prismacolor pencils blended a lot easier with the stump stick. However, it was much easier to gauge for, and get a truer version of, orange with the Staedtler pencils. If you prefer to blend with a stump stick Prismacolor is better for blending that way. If you prefer layering colors and not blending, I had better luck with the Staedtler.

Use with Water

The Prismacolor works much better with water and there is a definite ability to use them with water to blend. The Staedtlers don’t really work that way, but you can get some color to move with water.

Misc

Staedtler is triangular, which keeps it from rolling away. Unfortunately, this feature also makes them harder to sharpen, and due to their harder wood exterior and core, I broke the lead a couple of times when sharpening them. The Prismacolor pencils had soft, smooth wood for their exterior and were very easy to sharpen and their core didn’t break.

So Which Is Better?

Both are solid pencils. If you don’t like stump sticks, the Staedtlers lay color down evenly over surfaces better without help. If blending is evenly and getting uniform color with a stump stick is your preference, Prismacolor wins out hands down. If you want to use them with markers or other media, that will depend if you want the pencil to be altered with the wet media (water, markers, paint). Staedtler is going to stay put, and Prismacolor Premiere is going to be maleable with those mediums.