Cutie Boots and I are always looking for comparable colored pencil brands that are similar to Prismacolor colored pencils. We think we found some in Derwent Coloursoft colored pencils. For those who want to try out these colored pencils for themselves, I have included my Amazon and Blick Art Materials affiliate links down below.
Cutie Boots was deciding which art supplies we should review and he picked the Derwent Coloursoft colored pencils.
I wanted to test out a small set first, so I just bought the 24 pencil set. This set retails for around $39 on Blick Art Materials. There are sets of 6, 12, 24, 36, and 72. Coloursoft colored pencils are also available open stock for $1.61 a piece on Blick Art Materials.
On the back all the colors in the set are shown with some information about these pencils.
When you open the tin there is some more information on the lid and the pencils in a plastic tray.
The 24 set has a nice spread of colors and works well for a beginner's set. It has shades of red, orange, yellow, blue, purple, green, brown, and grey.
The pencils have a number and color names on them. The colors are vivid and bright. These pencils are wax based with soft cores and they blend well.
"Seashell"
by Ellie Taylor
I did a picture a seashell using the yellow and brown colors. I threw in some blue and purple for the shadows. I was really impressed with how smoothly the colors blended and the smooth feeling when the colors were applied. These are definitely comparable to Prismacolors! I can't tell the difference in softness and the colors are just as vivid. The Derwent Coloursoft pencils are either lightfast or light resistant and close to Prismacolors and Polychromos in lightfast quality.
I liked my 24 set of Coloursoft pencils so much that I bought the rest of the colors open stock on Blick Art Materials! There are 72 colors in total with more shades of purple, brown, yellow, green, and blue.
In conclusion I would say that we found some pencils comparable to Prismacolors in smoothness, softness, and quality!