Prismacolor Pencil French Grey 10%

I'll start with i absolutely love all things art; but my newest obsession is colored pencil art. I have so many sets of colored pencils but I've been trying to add good professional quality supplies to my art collection. So i had a chance to get this set for free, and i am so excited by them! These colored pencils exceed my expectations. Comparing to my normal everyday colored pencils these are excellent quality. They go on smoother with less pressure as I'm drawing. The pigment is great; way better then my other everyday pencils that we all can get for a very cheap price. I will now only be buying this brand or even some that are at a high professional quality. I will not be buying cheaper pencils anymore. These are worth every penny! I highly recommend them!

Beautiful, creamy cores encased in seriously subpar casings

Wish I'd done more thorough research before investing in these...while the cores are still just as creamy and wonderful as ever, the wood casings have taken a huge hit in the area of quality control. Poorly centered cores, some pencils already showing cracks where they're splitting at the joins, blurry lettering that sometimes was stamped in so hard it seems to have cracked the wood beneath...it's a sad state of affairs for a pencil that was once the absolute standard! Fortunately as I said the cores themselves are still beautifully smooth and lay down color like a dream, so I don't see any reason to ask for a refund at this point. But hopefully Prismacolor will pull it together and bring the quality of the casings back up to the old standard!

Blicks is awesome, Prismacolor is NOT!

Bought the set of 150, which is a huge purchase for me. Blick is the absolute best place to order art supplies, hands down! As for the Prismacolor Premier Pencils, however...Pros: They layer and blend color beautifully.Cons: Everything else. Quality control is horrible. Over 50 of the 150 pencils in my set have badly off-center cores, which means they will break. One pencil was cracked the entire length of the pencil, and one had a badly shattered tip, which means the core is likely broken inside. I've tried contacting Prismacolor repeatedly over the past week and a half that I've owned these, and they have not responded to any of my inquiries.I also didn't receive 150 colors, since two of the lilac/lavender colors were recently discontinued and replaced, so in ... MoreBought the set of 150, which is a huge purchase for me. Blick is the absolute best place to order art supplies, hands down! As for the Prismacolor Premier Pencils, however...Pros: They layer and blend color beautifully.Cons: Everything else. Quality control is horrible. Over 50 of the 150 pencils in my set have badly off-center cores, which means they will break. One pencil was cracked the entire length of the pencil, and one had a badly shattered tip, which means the core is likely broken inside. I've tried contacting Prismacolor repeatedly over the past week and a half that I've owned these, and they have not responded to any of my inquiries.I also didn't receive 150 colors, since two of the lilac/lavender colors were recently discontinued and replaced, so in the meantime sets like mine come with a blender pencil and an extra white, which means I now have to pay extra (plus shipping) for the two missing pencils.Since these are all that I have right now, I'm using them until they die I guess, but I'm already researching other brands and will have to shell out more precious dollars for a different set.Utterly disappointing. People need to stop buying these until Prismacolor listens and improves.

I would certainly buy this again.

Oh my gosh, what a beautiful set of colored pencils! They really cover an excellent range of colors. There are so many shades and tints. I am so glad that I bought this because it will really increase the vivid quality of my drawings. I draw a lot of nature scenes and these colors make things certainly more realistic. One of the things I was missing was all of the different kinds of grays that they have available and with this set you get all of them. This brings a lot of versatility to my drawings. I have to say that I rarely if ever break a tip on any of my pencils even when going pretty hard, that speaks volumes to the quality of these pencils! I can't get enough of drawing with these! Hooked! #sweepstakes

Metal trays allow for organized access, lots of colors

I teach a summer day camp program on Pond biology to K to 3rd graders. I want the kids to observe carefully. When we catch frogs, toads or tree frogs, i supply a line drawing of the animal (because they are not old enough to manage to draw a frog's lumpy body) plus a wide assortment of greens, browns and "muddy" colored pencils. The Prismacolor boxed sets allow for lots of shades unlike standard kids coloring sets. That way I can encourage the kids to really see what shades the animal has, and to be able to put down that color instead of struggling with a single Kelly green pencil and a one standard brown.In addition,the metal boxed sets are great because I can reorganize the colors so I have trays of related colors. Plus the Prismacolors can be reliably sharpened ... MoreI teach a summer day camp program on Pond biology to K to 3rd graders. I want the kids to observe carefully. When we catch frogs, toads or tree frogs, i supply a line drawing of the animal (because they are not old enough to manage to draw a frog's lumpy body) plus a wide assortment of greens, browns and "muddy" colored pencils. The Prismacolor boxed sets allow for lots of shades unlike standard kids coloring sets. That way I can encourage the kids to really see what shades the animal has, and to be able to put down that color instead of struggling with a single Kelly green pencil and a one standard brown.In addition,the metal boxed sets are great because I can reorganize the colors so I have trays of related colors. Plus the Prismacolors can be reliably sharpened unlike cheap colored pencils made of cheap wood.

Okay pencils, not a great color selection

I use these mainly for coloring. They do lay down beautifully and blend well. The core is very soft and breakage is an issue. I recommend using a very high-quality sharpener to help mitigate this. Because these pencils are so soft, it's difficult to get sharp lines, so they're not great for very detailed work, such as fur. That doesn't bother me so much; I can use different pencils for that purpose. My main complaint is with the colors. When I swatched out my set, I realized that two shades of purple were missing and in their place an extra white pencil and a colorless blending pencil had been added. This set came with precious few purples to begin with, so I don't know why they would have done that. After some online searching, I found that four shades of purple ... MoreI use these mainly for coloring. They do lay down beautifully and blend well. The core is very soft and breakage is an issue. I recommend using a very high-quality sharpener to help mitigate this. Because these pencils are so soft, it's difficult to get sharp lines, so they're not great for very detailed work, such as fur. That doesn't bother me so much; I can use different pencils for that purpose. My main complaint is with the colors. When I swatched out my set, I realized that two shades of purple were missing and in their place an extra white pencil and a colorless blending pencil had been added. This set came with precious few purples to begin with, so I don't know why they would have done that. After some online searching, I found that four shades of purple were actually missing: Orchid, Amethyst, Lavender, and Lilac. I believe Lavender and Lilac have been discontinued. There are so many shades of gray (20, if you count the silver pencil, which I do). Who needs that many shades of gray? Not me. I would have preferred the missing purples and a few more greens instead.

Prismacolor are great pencils!

I have used Prismacolor pencils since I purchased my first set while in college in 1980 and have continued using them since. I still have and use many of the pencils from the original set and have supplemented as needed. Recently, I began hand-coloring photographic portraits and decided I would like the additional available colors. So, I purchased the full set of 150 pencils. The newer pencils have a softer core that makes them blend easier. They work well on all types of paper mediums and can be set with photo lacquer. I have sprayed pictures with matt textured lacquer to add "texture" that holds the colors very well. I wish they still came in the tins they were sold in for many years where the plastic trays will likely break after repeated use. Despite the trays, ... MoreI have used Prismacolor pencils since I purchased my first set while in college in 1980 and have continued using them since. I still have and use many of the pencils from the original set and have supplemented as needed. Recently, I began hand-coloring photographic portraits and decided I would like the additional available colors. So, I purchased the full set of 150 pencils. The newer pencils have a softer core that makes them blend easier. They work well on all types of paper mediums and can be set with photo lacquer. I have sprayed pictures with matt textured lacquer to add "texture" that holds the colors very well. I wish they still came in the tins they were sold in for many years where the plastic trays will likely break after repeated use. Despite the trays, they are still incredibly great to work with and work with other brands of pencils. I highly recommend them.

Prismacolors are unmatched

I am a working artist and a high school art teacher. I always tell students that if you touch this product, you will become a colored pencil snob. My son is an 8th grader and he uses all of my materials. He came back from art class the other day and said he realized how bad all other "regular colored pencils" are. Yes, the price is higher, but the quality and rich color pigment you get from Prismacolor colored pencils is unmatched by any brand. When applied with pressure, it has a similar blending capability as an oil pastel in a pencil form. I won a teacher award and I gave the certificate to my AP Studio class to decide what to do with it. It was a unanimous vote that we needed these in the classroom. I only wish we could get more for these awesome students to ... MoreI am a working artist and a high school art teacher. I always tell students that if you touch this product, you will become a colored pencil snob. My son is an 8th grader and he uses all of my materials. He came back from art class the other day and said he realized how bad all other "regular colored pencils" are. Yes, the price is higher, but the quality and rich color pigment you get from Prismacolor colored pencils is unmatched by any brand. When applied with pressure, it has a similar blending capability as an oil pastel in a pencil form. I won a teacher award and I gave the certificate to my AP Studio class to decide what to do with it. It was a unanimous vote that we needed these in the classroom. I only wish we could get more for these awesome students to work with. The metal container also makes my kids feel like rock stars when they get to touch "the good materials." Thanks for creating such a superior product!

Uniquely Useful for More Than Just Drawing - 100% Recommende

While most people use Prismacolor Premieres for art, we use them for editing and annotating print materials. We use the Metallic Gold for just what you'd think: the truly valuable content that needs to be highlighted. Since it's a darker gold rather than a yellow-orange, the color shows up on just about everything. If you're an artist, please don't gasp: a lot of our material comes in longhand and on canary yellow (keep that lunch down!) paper. And these show up perfectly. There's also something sort of motivational for the writers, rather than just my terrifying red sweet and gentle suggestions. Blick shipped them quickly and in excellent packaging as aways. Amazing pencils and great service as always from Blick, 100% recommended all around.

What a mistake. Garbage product. Shame on the company.

What a mistake I made purchasing Prismacolor. I used to use them all the time (years ago) and so bought three boxes of 12. When they arrived I noticed all the writing on the boxes were in Spanish and they were Made-in-Mexico. The wood shafts are garbage and cheap and all the leads -- ALL THE LEADS -- are off-center. As a draftsman who counts on his pencils to sharpen perfectly (or at the very least, adequately), these pencils -- EVERY ONE OF THEM -- are unusable. I searched online about this and there are literally HUNDREDS of posts about how terrible Prismacolor is today. Lesson learned for not researching it beforehand. Such a shame. AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!!!!!