How To Draw A Minion With Prismacolor Pencils

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Learn how to sharpen (and take good care of) your Prismacolor colored pencils. — Acquire how to acuminate (and take good care of) your Prismacolor colored pencils.

Kelly Sikkema, via Unsplash

Prismacolors Crumble Easily

Prismacolor colored pencils (both Premier and Premier Lightfast) and Prismacolor watercolor pencils are all prone to internal breakage. Other brands of colored pencils can have this issue too. Some are worse than others, merely Prismacolors, the most common brand in the US, are the very worst.

What Is Internal Breakage?

Internal breakage occurs when the lead breaks inside the wooden butt and you can't tell the pencil is broken, or the lead is cracked and breaks when a sliver causes information technology to catch while beingness sharpened. Every artist who's ever used Prismacolors runs into trouble sharpening them—the point breaks off while sharpening, over and over and over. You pay over a dollar for ane pencil and what y'all become subsequently sharpening is a two-inch stub shorter than the color you just replaced. Ow.

How Tin Y'all Forestall Internal Breakage?

In this commodity I'll get into the two master ways to foreclose this problem:

How you sharpen your pencils
How you handle and shop them

Some Prismacolor pencils in need of sharpening.

Kelli Tungay, via Unsplash

What'southward the Best Sharpener for Prismacolor Pencils?

To sharpen your Prismacolor pencils, the options are:

Prismacolor sharpeners
Other hand sharpeners
Electric sharpeners
Sandpaper paddles or pocketknives

Prismacolor Premier Pencil Sharpener

Sanford Prismacolor has been working on the breakage trouble and has at to the lowest degree ane skillful solution in a specialized sharpener: the Prismacolor Premier Pencil Sharpener. This sharpener is the all-time hand sharpener to use with Prismacolors, and it'due south worth the money.

It costs a little more than normal pencil sharpeners, but information technology's in the price range of other good artists' pencil sharpeners—and information technology will pay for itself apace, considering the number of replacement pencils you lot won't need to buy. I have several of these sharpeners considering when I first tested them, I found I lost fewer points.

The concrete blueprint of the holder seems to guide the pencils in just right and keep them from wobbling or going at an bending. It'southward got a sleek design, and it is shaped similar a little black plastic cigar with a silver ring around the center. The bottom is the shavings receptacle and the summit just protects information technology from dirt and wet.

Other Mitt Sharpeners

Whatsoever brand-new pencil sharpener may do a decent job with Prismacolors. If you are using a normal i, endeavor the wide-hole side rather than the narrow hole y'all use for Verithins and normal pencils. It'southward a little gentler on the point and less likely to twist the core. I've had skillful results with brand new Alvin Brass Bullet sharpeners and the General's Little Red All-Art sharpener. The latter is also shaped like the wide side of a double-hole one, and it can handle over-wide pencils.

Electric Sharpeners

Another proficient solution is an electric sharpener. Some artists swear by them; others hate them and claim they can knock points off worse than hand sharpeners. I bought one and information technology's been a cracking convenience. In the studio, I adopt to utilise that, because the grinding mechanism is self-sharpening and I don't wind up having to stop and alter blades so often.

When using an electric sharpener (whether a battery, an Air conditioning, or a crank-handle grinding sharpener like the old-school ones), keep the shavings receptacle make clean so that it doesn't mash up into the grinder and choke the auto.

Remember: Make clean your sharpener every few times y'all use information technology by running a normal HB pencil into it. This pushes the viscid bits of Prismacolor core through, and the graphite lubricates the grinders.

Tips for Using Pencil Sharpeners

Have Spare Blades Handy

If you buy a make-new prepare of Prismacolor pencils, none of them are pre-sharpened. Be certain to accept an extra blade or 2 handy because if you lot got a big set, you may wear out the bract by sharpening the gear up just once. Always keep extra blades and sharpeners handy.

Test Your Blades Earlier Use

If you're not sure whether a sharpener has a dull blade, test it with a cheap normal pencil. Compare it to a new sharpener only out of its wrapper. If it takes more pressure to turn the normal pencil and acuminate it, the blade is dull and should not be used for soft-core artist-form colored pencils, as you may gamble losing a lot of money replacing them.

Replace Your Hand Sharpener Blades

The most of import affair to retrieve is a hand sharpener needs a sharp blade. Fifty-fifty if you lot buy the specialized Prismacolor colored pencil sharpener—which does accept an engineering solution to keep soft, waxy points from snagging and breaking off—once the blade dulls, it's going to exist as hard on them as any normal one. Pencil sharpener blades need to be replaced as often as razor blades, and for the same reasons. They slow—and they tin can still cut you when they're so dull that they would break the points off normal pencils. So as presently as that new sharpener starts giving whatsoever resistance while you're sharpening, replace the blade or stop using it for Prismacolors.

Fresh blades in pencil sharpeners are a good thought anyhow, because if they get besides tedious, they'll damage more than than just your delicate Prismacolors. A very erstwhile blade tin even crisis up the kind of HB pencil y'all get for free at the grocery or bank.

Where to Detect Replacement Blades

You can find replacement pencil sharpener blades at Blick now; they're almost 2 or three for a dollar and much cheaper than a new Prismacolor sharpener. Some artists save coin on replacement blades by stocking upwards on cheap children's sharpeners every year at the back-to-school sales in great quantity, and then breaking them open up and throwing out the case to put the bract into an expensive sharpener like the Prismacolor Premier Pencil Sharpener. It'due south sometimes cheaper than the replacement blades, merely I hate throwing away the actress plastic, so I order replacement blades.

Go on Your Blades Clean

Part of the problem with any pencil is that the blades in sharpeners can get gummed upwards with $.25 of the previous pencil's shavings. Even with a fresh bract, it's good to wipe it clean with a soft cloth and blow into it to knock out any loose shavings before sharpening.

How to Treat Your Prismacolors

You can also avoid internal breakage by making certain your pencils are properly stored and cared for.

Prismacolor Tins Aren't Condom

Prismacolor tins aren't very good for keeping your pencils safe unless you keep them absolutely flat on a shelf and never tilt them. This ways if you buy a set, bear it home flat. Don't let them put it on end in the pocketbook. Carry the handbag flat.

The lids come off easily, so record it shut or never let the tin keep an angle. When I open up any can of Prismacolors that's been on an angle, all the pencils have rolled to the bottom and banged into each other. This tin can crevice the leads in the casing. I love these and have used them for 30 years, and then I learned to carry the tins apartment and hope they were handled gently by the seller. Usually, the pencils in tins are non every bit damaged because the stores and certainly the online companies know to pack them flat with plenty of padding.

Quick Fix: Some other brands have taken measures to protect the delicate pencils like adding a thin layer of foam over the styrene tray within the tin. These are great. What works just as well is cutting a slice of flannel (preferably white) to fit inside the tin can over the pencils. Make sure to cut the flannel with pinking shears and so information technology doesn't unravel. You may need 2 layers—it depends on the tin. It should make full the infinite between the lid and the pencils and squish down when you record the lid shut.

Invest in a Pencil Case

What I plant more effective than the tin and nearly as user-friendly for Prismacolor storage, is to become a good permanent pencil instance like the Global Classic leather cases or the nylon easel cases made by Tran or other manufacturers. Prismacolors that get moved from their native can into cases alive a lot longer, and I've been able to use all the core instead of collecting a tray of broken points to mash into powder and spread with a brush.

Leather Cases: Personally, I like the Global Classic leather cases the best. Leather is tough, and it adds i more than layer of resilient padding around the whole set. Information technology likewise smells nice, and information technology feels a bit special to exist using something 18-carat and giving my art supplies the best intendance.
Leather Alternatives: If you accept an objection to using leather products, the Global Classic isn't your only option. The nylon and padding and cardboard cases like the Tran Deluxe or the ones at ASW practice work just also. ASW carries some inexpensive rubberband-band easel cases that are great. They price quite a lot less than the fancy leather ones and protect just every bit well with padding and elastic bands to keep them from banging into each other or anything else.
Stay Abroad From Mesh or Attachment Bags: I never store Prismacolors in loose mesh or attachment bags where they blindside into each other and other supplies. That volition cause internal breakage every time they rattle. I use those for pens and other drawing implements that aren't as delicate. They're fine for most graphite pencils, just the softer types of colored pencils are expensive and frail.

Home Storage Solutions

Once I get a Prismacolor set dwelling house, I will put the pencils into something a lot safer for them than a Prismacolor tin. The tins are prissy to go along on the shelf to store spares, stubs, and other loose pencils—they're pretty collectibles and I like them, but I don't await them to protect their contents if they're moved. And then they stay where they are and don't get moved often. For everyday use, there are several solutions:

In a studio, you can proceed them in cups equally many artists do. Don't let the cups driblet off your table.
Carousels are popular—vertical storage is handy. Only don't let your cat into the studio to knock it over.

Call up: Endeavor to avoid ever letting loose pencils autumn on a hard flooring. Carpet tin can sometimes protect dropped pencils from internal breakage, but not if they knock against each other.

What If You Need Replacement Prismacolors?

If whatever pencils within a prepare are damaged, I find that out when I'm sharpening the prepare then contact Blick immediately. If I take to go on sharpening till the stub is half-mast on a brand new pencil, it's time to tell Blick or wherever I bought it that I demand one that isn't damaged. Blick will replace any pencil that'due south ruined or whatever pencil that is missing from the set in whatsoever set up. This isn't just Prismacolor––any brand of colored pencils. In a large set, you stand a hazard of getting ii Dark Brown and no Sepia, because the person packing the tin grabbed a like color and gave you a duplicate. Report that and you'll get the missing color from the seller out of open up stock.

Don't Purchase Your Replacement Pencils In-Store

I social club my replacement pencils online. The book of business that large companies like Dick Blick or Jerry'south Artarama do in replacement Prismacolors ways that they're not going to be handled very much between the fourth dimension the warehouse employee opens a box of a dozen Canary Yellow and the time ane of those gets grabbed to pack into your order.

In brick-and-mortar stores, nonetheless, the open up stock pencils go into displays and don't sell as fast. Someone's going to bump into the display and knock the whole matter over at fairly frequent intervals. Kids will pull the pencils out to play with them and driblet them, and a shop employee will pick them up and re-shelve them more or less past color. This means I current of air upward buying ane that'southward crumbled all the manner through considering I couldn't tell that the pencil had taken that damage. Almost every time I've bought replacements at a physical location, I've had at least one or ii that I had to return with my receipt to go a replacement. Sometimes I've had to go back two or three times.

It'due south probably less of a problem if y'all purchase replacements by the dozen. This may make sense for some colors, especially if you practise very large colored-pencil paintings. Merely at any given fourth dimension at that place are always some colors that you definitely need, but only for a little half-inch-wide expanse. So I seriously recommend buying replacements online, or if you're a regular at a local store, request someone to open a new box from the back for your pencil instead of just grabbing from what'due south in the rack and hoping it'southward still proficient.

Do Other Colored Pencils Break Similar This?

Derwent Drawing Pencils, Derwent Coloursoft, Derwent Inktense, Caran d'Ache Pablo, and other very soft colored pencils all may have this problem.
Prismacolor Verithin and Col-Erase colored pencils don't have this problem. They handle most like normal graphite pencils and you don't need to take special intendance with them. The softer the lead of your colored pencils is, the more likely internal breakage is a problem.
Oddly enough, woodless colored pencils similar Cretacolor Aqua Monolith, Derwent Aquatone, or Koh-I-Noor Progresso colored pencils are far less prone to breakage. The lacquered surface of woodless colored pencils is sturdy and tough.
Prismacolor Fine art Stix don't tend to break unless you deliberately break a stick to get a shorter bit to turn on its side like a pastel.

10 Tips for Using Your Prismacolor Colored Pencils

Julie on December 26, 2022:

I store my colored pencils in cleaned Talenti Gelato pint size ice cream containers. I line the bottoms with coiled 100 percentage cotton. It buffers them and keeps them happy.

charles on January 12, 2022:

when i intermission a tip off my prismacolors, i super glue information technology back on. it works well

suzie on April 03, 2022:

I did't have a trouble with breakage until recently. Personally I think quality control has gone way downwardly.

Michelle on Feb 24, 2022:

greattt, this is going to save me moola!!!!

color2paperfan from Las Vegas, NV on January xviii, 2022:

how-do-you-do, I would like to add something here. If yous put Prismacolor pencils into a microwave, the metal lettering may cause some sparking and ready burn to the forest casing. I would recommend using the oven. I did the oven method and was successful in stopping the breaking of 4 of my new pencils. Although information technology was never articulate with the oven method when to get-go the timing. It said to put the pencils into a cold oven on a cookie canvass.... then set the oven to 250.... for two-5 minutes. Well it took two minutes for my oven to achieve the proper temperature. so I left them in for another 2 minutes, I noticed the canary yellowish starting to bubble then I turned the oven off, removed the cookie sheet trying not to let the pencils ringlet around, set them down gently and waited for them to cool. it worked... Also I might add some other observation here. It is very cold here and the pencils tend to break more when information technology is common cold than when it is warmer outside. We go along the temperature in the firm at 68. this may exist another reason for my breakage... just a thought.

Owlideas from Colorado on November 22, 2022:

So helpful; thank you! Does microwaving the pencils touch on their color or consistency on paper?

Carol Shearn on October 26, 2022:

Great article! Every bit a new colored pencil artist, I accept been greatly annoyed with pencils breaking as I sharpened them. Cheers for info.

mateyjoan@yahoo.com on August 07, 2022:

What - this loooong article and not one mention of a "lead grabber' tool -leap loaded lead holder that grabs the cleaved leads and you lot just use em up- uncomplicated, no waste at all.

Its wider grip that regular lead holders - (kinda like those tools jewelers utilize to pick up diamonds- same principle) I just salvage all my broken colour $.25 in little baggies- if sharpening is disastrous --and just keep on coloring!

PersonalPencils on March 30, 2022:

I used cutter to sharpen my pencil.. its hard simply it works all the time..

penny on February 09, 2022:

Wish I knew this information before I bought my big tin can of 132 pencils. At present most of them are broke. Simply get-go time user. Thank you for the info.

afzal sfsdfsa on December 22, 2022:

I recognize your user image, and so I must've read something else of yours http://world wide web.forexinomen.info/ recently. I wish I'd known some of this before; I very recently ran through half a box of (albeit inexpensive) colours from them snapping all the way down. The trick of microwaving them is genius, only I already invested in a Derwent Wrap and some thicker cored Faber Castell pencils. I don't mind paying a little extra for the increased performance and lifespan... but perhaps some of this will permit me to exist less picky if I'thousand caught for choice!

Anyhow, in example I hadn't commented on whatever else of yours I've been reading, I idea I'd post and say I'1000 clearly finding your work useful! Thank y'all.

AFZAL SADFSAF on Dec 22, 2022:

so cool just dith to http://www.forexinomen.info/ right 1, 2 is so best.,.,

Simon on April 12, 2022:

I recognize your user image, then I must've read something else of yours recently. I wish I'd known some of this earlier; I very recently ran through half a box of (albeit cheap) colours from them snapping all the fashion down. The trick of microwaving them is genius, but I already invested in a Derwent Wrap and some thicker cored Faber Castell pencils. I don't heed paying a little extra for the increased operation and lifespan... simply perhaps some of this will let me to be less picky if I'thousand caught for choice!

Anyway, in case I hadn't commented on whatever else of yours I've been reading, I idea I'd post and say I'yard clearly finding your work useful! Thank you.

bicemama on January 26, 2022:

Hysterical, I but asked you a question about this at mmw and then did a google search and read this, then checked to see the author and it's you Robert! What serendipity!

Sarah on January 05, 2022:

That'due south Actually helpful Information you lot have here I'thousand new with my primsacolored pencils and am afraid of them breaking so I recollect I'll get some cups then and put them In It for now I got the 72 colored pencil set. Thank you!

jr on Dec 02, 2009:

Oestrus the colored pencil up a little with a lighter to soften it up and the sharpener will go though it like butter

robertsloan2 (writer) from San Francisco, CA on September 17, 2009:

I would love to read your commodity. I clicked on the link and it'south all code -- there'south some paragraphs of text with lots of code in between and no images, it sort of fabricated my head swim. Is there something weird going on at Blogger?

I'll try again later. Maybe a link to the specific blog post would piece of work meliorate.

I tried the microwave method on a Coloursoft and it worked with 25 seconds -- every microwave is different, then test with a pencil and step it upwards 5 seconds each endeavor till it's just hot enough to fuse the wax without burning the wood.

Baking the pencils in an oven would piece of work too and probably be slower and gentler. What temperature?

Of course if there IS no core in the pencil, that'due south i to just write dorsum to Blick and get a replacement, or have it to the store and show the manager. Never had that happen merely I can believe it!

Linda Mahoney on September 17, 2009:

Thanks for the articles on the colored and watercolor pencils. I had pencils that kept breaking and contacted Dick Blick. One of their reps sent me info on backing the pencils in the oven and I wrote about information technology in my blog here: http://artbylindamahoney.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/... I was trying to sharpen i of my new Verithins the other mean solar day and could never get a betoken. On closer exam, I realized there was no lead at all in the pencil! I could see straight through from ane end to the other....hmmmmm.

robertsloan2 (author) from San Francisco, CA on September 05, 2009:

Thanks! I've just discovered a new flim-flam from a friend at WetCanvas.com -- if there'south internal breakage, points keep coming off no affair what y'all do, attempt microwaving the pencil. I tried information technology at fifteen seconds and it didn't work, but at 25 seconds it was hot to the affect and the last point stayed on, and then I retrieve it's helped. Try for very short times at kickoff, trial and mistake working up considering burning information technology is non the point. Only to soften the wax enough that it fuses again.

Connie Foster on September 04, 2009:

Extraordinarily useful and comprehensive communication regarding the care of colored pencils!

Source: https://feltmagnet.com/drawing/How-to-Sharpen-Prismacolor-Pencils

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