Sanford Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils, Pack of 72, Multi-Colour

These are the most expensive pencils that I have and I couldn't be happier with them. They lay down great, shade and blend very well, and have a nice soft lead. I have had no problems so far with breakage - all the tips were intact when my tin arrived, and having sharpened a few of them a number of times, I've had no problems so far.The thing to remember is that because they're soft pencils, you will need to sharpen them often and you won't get the super sharp points that you can get on harder pencils (if you try to do this, you will end up breaking the tips off while colouring because soft + thin = easily breakable), but they look great combined with fineliner pens - so you can colour bigger areas with the pencils, and colour the really intricate bits with fineliners or gel pens, or even a different brand of pencils, if you have some to hand.The 72 set has a great range of colours with multiple shades, so you can really go to work with shading and blending and your work will turn out great - if you have areas that need a bit of help to blend further, then you can use a blender pencil (I find that some paper has a lot of hills and valleys, so to save my pencils, I use a blender to push the pigment of the first layer of colour down into the paper for smoother colouring with the rest of the layers). You can also use the blender to gently pull darker colours into lighter colours for a more controlled blending option.I am not a professional - I am but a humble beginner, but so far, I can't find a fault with these pencils.

I first came across prismacolors when watching a youtube video of someone drawing a portrait and was stunned by the rich colours and smooth blending they could achieve with these pencils. I decided to try them for myself and started with a small pack of 24. How different could these be to my normal colouring pencils?The answer was 'delightfully different'! As soon as you put pencil to paper you could feel the difference, and I shared these with some other artist friends who all agreed with me and were just as stunned. These pencils feel very soft and waxy, almost like a blend of pencil and crayon, and if you run your finger across a finished artwork it feels waxy and solid and doesn't smudge. You have to use quite a bit of pressure if you want to achieve the solid waxy colour though and it can be quite tiring and can leavr your hands aching after a while but for me it's so worth it; I thoroughly enjoyed using these pencils for blending, and with a colourless blender (bought on ebay) I could more easily smooth the colours out further.One problem with a small set of prismacolours is that if you're going to press heavily and attempt to create solid waxy patches of colour each time then you're going to need more colours in order for the colours to blend. I mean, its hard to blend a light blue with a yellow undertone into a darker blue with a violet undertone... Hence i decided to buy this larger set of colours and i am definately satisfied now. The range of colours in this set is beautiful and pretty much has everything i need to make the blends i want.I've seen in the reviews that people often have trouble with the leads breaking in these pencils and i have some advice to give - only use special colouring pencil sharpeners for these, dont use standard pencil sharpeners for pencils! Strange as it sounds, sharpeners made for standard pencils broke the lead of my pencil almost every time. I was using a double ended Faber castell sharpener and after i got tired of the leads constantly breaking in the "universal" end i decided to try the other end of the sharpener which read "colour grip"... And from then on i never had a problem with prismacolor leads breaking ever again. So avoid using universal sharpeners aimed at normal pencils and see if that helps.

These pencils really do divide opinion and, looking at other reviews, frequently come under attack for being sub standard, or even fake!However, I'm certain the set I received are absolutely genuine, and seem to be of good quality, with no split shafts or broken cores. Having said that, the tin itself had a few hefty bashes, which left me a little concerned that the pencils would be in pieces.In use the pencils lay down really smoothly, allowing easy blending and layering, building up a nice layer of pigment with smooth transitions from once colour to the next.They are easily blended with zest it, turpenoid, blending stumps or even your finger at a push.Any fears that sharpening them will end in broken cores or torn wood around the shaft were unfounded - using my faber castell sharpener, these sharpened up absolutely perfectly.I've enjoyed using these, but they are a little pricey. My favoured pencils are Polychromos, simply because prefer the way those ones layer and blend, although that is just a personal preference.The only way to find out if these are for you is to try them so, if you're tempted, get a small set to try them out.

Love these pencils.because of the nature of these pencils their breakages are quite high.so I was surprised when they were thrown through the door that they had no protective packaging, I'm now hoping that when I sharpen them they don't break.

Love these. Got set of 72. Nice quality pencils, comfortable to use and blend well. Reasonable price for quality pencils.