Prismacolor Premiers vs. Faber Castell Polychromos

Which was colored with which?
Prismacolor Premiers vs. Faber Castell Polychromos
Tiger from the Beautiful Creatures grayscale coloring book

For a long time I've heard many wonderful things from the coloring community about both Prismacolor Premier colored pencils and Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils. I've had some Prismacolor Premiers for a while (which I love!) and recently was fortunate enough to also get a set of Faber Castell Polychromos pencils (which I also love!). Once I had both, I decided it was time to conduct a head to head test!!

In this post I will:

• walk you through the approach I took to coloring so I could make it as fair a comparison as possible
• reveal which picture was colored with which pencils
• provide a detailed summary of the differences I experienced & saw with the two sets of colored pencils.

Step 1: Selecting a picture to color

I wanted a picture that had small detailed spaces as well as large spaces for coloring so I could see how the pencils performed in both situations. Since I love to color over grayscale, the image also needed to have some interesting grayscale detail that I would want to enhance with the color. Finally, I wanted an image that would require at least a few different colors and some blending. I settled on the tiger from Beautiful Creatures.  

Step 2: Choosing my colors

There are many similar colors between the Prismacolors and the FC Polys (as they are affectionately known) but they are not exact. Therefore, I pulled out all colors that were in the color range that I was looking for and did my best to find the closest matches. Here are photos of the colors used.

The Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils

Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils

The Prismacolor Premier colored pencils

Prismacolor Premier colored pencils

Step 3: Coloring the tiger

When coloring I tried really hard to use the same colors in the same places as well as layer and blend the same amount for both. It was hard to be exact and keep track of everything so you'll notice some spots where I definitely messed up but I made an equal effort with both pictures and feel that I did a fair comparison.

​Here are the key things I was paying attention to when coloring:

• How easy was it to build layers?
• Did the colors blend nicely?
• How did the pencils perform when coloring large areas?
• How did they perform for the little details?
• How vibrant was the color?
• How easily did the pencils color lay down onto the paper?
• How did the lead hold up?

Step 4: The result

As a reminder, here are the final colored pictures.

Which one do you prefer?
Which was colored with which pencils?

Which is colored with which?
Prismacolor Premiers vs. Faber Castell Polychromos

The Answer

A = Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils
B = Prismacolor Premier colored pencils

​Were you right? If so, what gave it away? Did you prefer one over the other? If so, why? I'd love to get your feedback in the comments as well as let me know what your experience has been with either or both sets of pencils.

Summary of the differences

After going through this exercise, my personal preference was the Faber Castell Polychromos. I have always loved using my Prismas and really had no complaints except for the fact that they don't hold a point very well. I've always found them to give wonderful color, to be creamy and blend really nicely.

I had only just gotten my FC Polys so I really didn't know what to expect when I began this comparison. I was quite surprised to find how much the FC Polys won me over in this instance. Now, I may find that I'll feel less this way when coloring other pictures and perhaps when using other sets of colors. Time will tell!! For now, here is a summary of why I preferred the Polys when coloring the grayscale tiger. 

Here's why I preferred the Polys:

• The Polys kept a point and didn't need to be sharpened once but I kept having to sharpen the Prismas and had a hard time ever achieving a good point. 
  • The sharper point made the little details much easier with the Polys.
• The Polys layered and blended beautifully and more effortlessly, in my opinion. I could just lightly layer and layer until I got to the depth and blending that I wanted. With the Prismas, it seemed I needed to really work at it and sometimes to push hard to fill in certain areas while making sure not to over layer and cause wax bloom. If you look at these two pictures and click on them to get a really close look (Polys on the left, Prismas on the right) you'll notice that with the Prismas there are a few main issues:
  • Little white spots where the color didn't adhere to the paper (maybe this is a technique thing and I'm not coloring with them correctly). The Polys seemed to lay down easier and were less prone to the white spots, especially after a little layering.
  • Some wax bloom from too much layering and blending. Perhaps this could be avoided by a colorist with better colored pencil layering and blending skills.
  • You can see more of a divide between the two oranges for the Prismas. They didn't seem to blend as easily and nicely as the Polys did. Again, this could be a matter of technique.
  • It was harder to get the little details with the Prismas because they didn't hold a point well. The result was not getting a seamless transition between the black stripes and the orange. Instead there is a bit of uncolored/lightly colored area surrounding the stripes (look at the stripes to the left of the nose). I think this could easily be avoided by being aware of it and making a point (no pun intended!) to focus on those areas when using Prismas.

Colored with Faber Castell Polychromos

Colored with Prismacolor Premiers

• Although the Prisma colors seem a bit more vibrant, I found the color of the Polys to be deeper & richer without having to press hard to intensify the color. Instead, I just layered until it was right. I think the nice coverage of the paper (i.e. fewer white spots), the nice blending and the easy layering all contribute to this. I could layer the Prismas as well but I had to watch out for wax bloom if I layered too much &/or pressed too hard.

Two main things I preferred about the Prismas
​Preference #1
I prefer the cream colored pencil that Prismacolor provides versus the cream colored pencil that Faber Castell provides. ​I find the Faber Castell cream to be too yellow for me. In the future I will opt for their ivory colored pencil over the cream since it seems to provide the soft brightness I'm looking for. Take a look at the photo below. Hopefully you are able to see the difference between the two creams. 

​I love to use the cream color for highlighting as well as for blending. The Prisma cream gives a softer brightness in a way that isn't as sharp as white and that doesn't impact or detract from the other colors. However, with the Faber Castell cream that little bit more yellow in it provides brightness but not that same softness of the Prisma cream. I also find blending with the Prisma cream to work nicely for blending without changing the final color too much. With the FC cream, that extra yellow was just a bit too strong for me.

Preference #2
The white Prismacolor Premier pencil gave better, more vibrant white coverage over grayscale than the Faber Castell Polychromos white did.. ​This is really important to me, especially when coloring over grayscale. Take a look at the image below. The three teeth on the left were colored with the Poly white and the three teeth on the right were colored with the Prisma white. It isn't a huge difference but for me it's definitely enough that I will lean towards using the white Prisma when I need white over grayscale. Ironically, the white Prisma crumbled on me as I was coloring the middle tooth! I guess you have to take the good with ​the bad :-). 

There you have it! My personal experience with Prismas vs. Polys. I hope it was helpful. Please keep in mind that my comparison of the two kinds of pencils was specific to this picture, to grayscale coloring and to my coloring abilities. Both brands likely perform in different ways depending on the type of coloring project you are undertaking but I can only speak to this specific experience at this time.

As I mentioned above, I would love to get your feedback and hear about your experiences with one or both types of colored pencils as well as any other colored pencils. I'd also love to hear if and how you select your colored pencils based on the coloring project you are taking on. 

Happy Coloring!