Derwent Coloured Pencil Ranges Explained | Getting Started with Drawing

4 March 2022

Derwent Coloured Pencil Range

The Derwent Coloured Pencil selection is vast, and it can be overwhelming finding the range that is going to best suit your art style and needs. At Eckersley’s we’ve taken it upon ourselves to help make your decision easier, with information on each range so you can compare easily and choose with confidence!

There is a lot to consider when choosing which coloured pencils will be right to you, from how blendable the colours are to a range’s colour selection, and even how erasable the pencils are so you can correct mistakes or try new techniques! This article will cover all those things and more for you in each of Derwent’s Coloured Pencil offerings. Whatever your choice of surface or style, Derwent has something to offer!

Derwent Lightfast Range

Derwent Lightfast

The Derwent Lightfast Pencils are their first oil-based core, offering a creamy texture and the ability to mix the pencils on the page to create paint-like effects. With a huge 100 colours in the range, there’s sure to be a colour palette for everyone here, and each colour is vibrant and intense. As the name suggests, the pencils in this range are also 100% lightfast, with colours remaining the same for 100 years or more (when kept in museum conditions).

Derwent Procolour Range

Derwent Procolour

Derwent Procolour Pencils give artists smooth laydown, with a wax-based lead that glides like an oil across your surface. These pencils retain a sharp point, perfect for drawing fine detail and linework in your pieces with minimal chipping or dusting. This also helps keep your surface clean and free from smudges. At 72 colours, this range has a slightly more limited palette than the Lightfast range, however there are still a wealth of colour options for artists to choose from and their excellent blendability offers an almost endless spectrum.

Derwent Coloursoft Range

Derwent coloursoft

The Coloursoft range of coloured pencils from Derwent are a versatile choice, offering a soft lead that allows quick application of vibrant colours. They are extremely blendable, meaning the 72 colours in the range can be mixed and blended to create a vast palette for you to use in your artworks. Whether you specialise in portraiture, landscapes, fashion design, or abstract work, the Coloursoft Range is a brilliant option. They offer lower erasability than the Procolour Range, with a softer lead, but have excellent layering capability and 88% of colours in the range are lightfast.

Derwent Drawing Range

Derwent Drawing

The Drawing Pencil range on offer from Derwent have an extra thick 5mm core (compared to the standard 4mm of other ranges) which creates dense colour application when combined with their high pigmentation. The robust pencils are ideal for making expressive strokes and gestures in your art, and the 24 colours available give artists a range of tones to bring your drawings and sketches to life. This range is an excellent pairing to Derwent’s Graphite Pencils, and the colour palette lends itself well to landscape art.

Derwent Metallic Range

Derwent Metallic

This range of metallic coloured pencils gives artists the ability to blend shimmering tones into their work, with the metallic effects being particularly striking on darker toned papers. There are 20 metallic colours in this range, and the wax-based core gives a soft texture for easy lay-down and blending. The core is smaller than standard Derwent ranges at 3.5mm, but the point strength is still great and allows artists to lay down these sparkling colours with brilliant definition.

Derwent Pastel Range

Derwent Pastel

Derwent Pastel Pencils are quite different as they have a chalky texture, and the fine powder-based core provides beautiful laydown of soft colour. These pastel pencils are perfect for detailed drawings or sketch work and are very easy to blend. As pastel is a water-soluble medium, these pencils can be used with water to create light washes as well. The Derwent Pastel Pencil range has 72 colours which offers you a wide variety of palettes to work from. These highly pigmented pencils are also highly erasable with great colour intensity and layering ability, making them excellent for portraiture and life studies.

Derwent Artists Range

Derwent Artist

The Artists pencils from Derwent have the widest range of colours available, with 126 colours to choose from! They’re a versatile choice that have been a top choice for professional artists for decades thanks to their highly pigmented core the provides rich colour laydown. The wax-based core has a firm texture when illustrating, and the excellent point strength makes them perfect for layering and creating broad expressive strokes. Whether you’re looking to create striking landscape art or detailed illustrations, the Artists Range is a great choice.

Derwent Studio Range

Derwent Studio

If you’re looking for a pencil with a thinner core to get into the finer details of your illustrations, the Derwent Studio Pencils are a great option. Their 3.5mm core boasts excellent strength which is perfect for working on smaller details, with the hexagonal barrel giving you a firmer grip when working on tricky sections of your work. This range has 72 colours on offer, and though this is fewer than other ranges they are blendable so you can build a wider, customised palette with them, and all will give great colour intensity.

Derwent Chromaflow Range

Derwent Chromaflow

Derwent’s Chromaflow range has been designed to provide artists with a professional quality coloured pencil at a more accessible price point. The colours in this range are easy to blend and layer with their velvety smooth texture and rich pigmentation. With a strong 3.5mm core glued in place, Chromaflow pencils are resistant to breakage while in use and when being sharpened, making it a reliable choice for artists of every level! There are 24 colours in this range, however their blending properties allow artists to extend this colour palette further.

As you can see, all the coloured pencil ranges from Derwent are excellent quality, with subtle differences between the ranges lending some to more detailed work while others are great for bolder, expressive pieces of art. Regardless of the range you decide on, we’re certain you’ll have a fabulous creative experience using Derwent!

Derwent Pencil Rannges

Shop the full Derwent range with Eckersley’s online here, or visit your nearest store to see what they have on offer!