Thursday, June 1, 2017

PrismaColor Premier (Soft Core) Coloured Pencils Review (with CardCaptor Sakura)

For the first few shrinkies, i has been using Derwent Artists coloured pencils. Since there was only 36, it was seriously lacking in a lot of colours. For some reasons, all the colors were on the darker side so it seriously lacked lighter tones.
So what does a crazy crafter do? Yep, buy a larger set with all the colours of the rainbow because i didn't what colours/tones i would require in the future... so just buy them all 😊

PrismaColor offered the largest set with the widest range of tones. So i got the 150 piece Premier.



Comparison to Derwent
At first glance, the sheer amount of colours was amazing and the pencils look like any other pencil (im not really a pencil aficionado). Looks fine.
But on closer inspection, the pencils are of poorer quality when compared to my old Derwents (probably a big price difference between the two, but the Derwents are from way back).


The imprint alone along the length of the pencil is poorer on the PrismaColor. The stamping is uneven. The Derwent stamping is very even, aligned and complete.


Picking up the Prisma, the pencils are thinner and the colour core is proportionally less than the Derwent. Less pencil for less money.
A thicker barrel is easier to grip when in use.


Worst of all, it appears that the PrismaColors are manufactured with poor quality wood as there were several pencils that were split/cracked along the length of the pencil...


Even with the crappiness of the quality, the only saving grace for the PrismaColor Premier is the softer coloured core (apart from the awesome colour spectrum they produce). The colour draws out smoother and more pigmented (a side effect though is the excess "colour dust" that could easily smudge across your work if not careful) than the harder waxy Derwents.

First test with PrismColour on shrink plastic
The PrismaColors are so much easier to use on shrink plastic than the Derwents. The colours provide better coverage on plastic and its much easier to see where you have already coloured.
The pencils really glide smoothly across the plastic - feels almost as if you are 'painting' the plastic but with pencils.

CardCaptor Sakura - Sakura in Wonderland. Sakura as the white rabbit.
Unshrunk
After shrinking, both sides look pretty ok.

The "underside" - drawn side underneath
In contrast to Derwent on plastic, the drawn/coloured side actually looks much better and best used as the "top" or "right" side. the coverage is so great, its almost as though the image has been printed or painted on.

Viola!
This is the drawn side as the top side with a clear coat.


Verdict is as crappy as PrismaColour quality is, its like a match made in heaven for shrink plastic.