Drawing with Colored Pencils is Also Art

Many artists consider colored pencils to be children's tools for drawing. Nevertheless, the disregard of colored pencils has reasons. Previously, colored pencils were characterized by low resistance to fading; the set of colors was very scarce and did not include all important shades. But the main drawback of old color pencil models was the problems that arose when mixing colors.

The situation completely changed about 30 years ago, when colored pencils of a new generation appeared. Thus, it included natural pigments that were resistant to fading. The range of available shades has expanded significantly. Finally, it became possible to mix colors and get smooth color transitions, no worse than, at least, when using watercolor paints.

Naturally, professional color pencils are many times more expensive than graphite pencils. Nevertheless, it is still not recommended to use such pencils for beginners. The fact is that professional colored pencil sets have not only bettered characteristics but also are more difficult to use. Therefore, we recommend using professional artist pencils after you have learned the basics of pencil drawing.

However, the world of art is very conservative. Therefore, for such a short period, by the standards of painting, a powerful community of artists with lobbying resources has not formed so far. Meanwhile, critics have not yet determined the category to which the drawings made with new generation pencils belong. That is why drawings with colored pencils have not been so popular with prestigious exhibitions so far.