Recently I’ve been exploring some new supplies for coloring. I bought a bunch of Copic markers (see my previous post), and recently over Black Friday I also purchased the full set of Prismacolor pencils (150 colors). I had not planned on getting colored pencils, but the deal was too good to pass. I am so glad I bought them!!

I fell in love with Copics as soon as I tried them – the blending is really easy, and the color looks so smooth! Since I love my Copics so much, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by the colored pencils, but still wanted to give them a try.

So last night I embarked in a side by side comparison of these two different coloring media. I used them to color the same stamp (by Mama Elephant) in the same color scheme. I started with Copics.

I had some initial trouble of the color bleeding outside the line (I think the issue is that I am still learning, and my markers are very juicy. I was using Copic-friendly paper – Neenah solar white,- so I believe it was user error, rather than a paper issue). Anyway, other than some initial issues the coloring went well. I had some trouble staying inside the lines (I am a bit impatient), but nothing major. Here is a closer look:

 

The coverage and smoothness of Copic markers just blows me away!

Then I proceeded to color the same image using Prismacolor pencils. I was surprised by how easily this worked too!

I found it much easier to stay inside the lines, but some of the smaller bits were harder to reach than with the marker. I found the blending to work very well here too.

For some reason, I was expecting it would take me much longer to color with pencils than with marker, but that was not the case. (I didn’t time myself because I am still learning so it wouldn’t be a true comparison, but I’d say it took me about the same time with both)

I found that the image colored with pencils has more vivid colors, but some marks due to the nature of pencils; the copic colored image is much smoother.

I am so excited to have these tools available! I haven’t tried using colored pencils on kraft cardstock, but I’ll be experimenting with that soon!