The color can also be controlled into fine details, making it great for high-resolution areas of your piece as well. One important note that is worth mentioning is that the variety of colors available is a bit polarized, as the Luminance collection focuses on bright colors. Because of that, you might have to look elsewhere if you are after some dull grays or subdued earth tones. Luminance 6901® colour palette has been expanded with 20 new colours – all with the same 100% lightfast guarantee – meaning the range now comprises 100 different shades. These new artistic colours, complementary to the existing colour chart, broaden the field of use and application of these exceptional lightfast colour pencils. I used Caran d'Ache's Luminance for the first time last summer. I was honestly hoping not to like them because they are very expensive pencils. After one use, I was hooked! There are SO many things that make these pencils worth every penny. The largest set these pencils come in is 76. I initially thought this was going to be an issue for me. I want as many colors as possible and that number didn’t seem like it would be enough. Once I got started I realized that I loved the colors the set did come with. While I would still like a few more colors, I was able to blend anything I really needed with the colors that came in the set. There were also a few colors that are not available in other pencils that I’ve tried. The violet grey and huge amount of cream, tan and grey colors is perfect for me given that most of my colored pencil work is either wildlife or portraits.

As an artist, I've found that many of my fellow artists appreciate the Caran d'Ache Luminance colored pencils for their exceptional performance and quality. Here's a brief overview of what artists, including myself, think about these pencils: Today We’re going to be comparing at two wax based colored pencils. Prismacolor Premier and Luminance from Caran d’Ache The build quality of Luminance pencils is also very good. The barrels protect the cores effectively, and the cores are not brittle, making these pencils break-resistant. Additionally, the ease of sharpening due to the soft wooden barrels is another advantage that I really like.The Derwent Lightfast color range is smaller, with 100 colors available, which is the same as the Luminance range. In terms of price, Derwent Lightfast pencils are generally comparable to Luminance pencils, with both falling on the higher end of the price spectrum. Before the release of the Derwent Lightfast, the Caran d’Ache Luminance had very little in the way of competition if any. The Faber Castell Polychromos are of course, without doubt a tremendous pencil for colored pencil artists, but they are a very different pencil to the Caran d’Ache Luminance. The release of the Derwent Lightfast was the first pencil really to directly compete with the Caran d’Ache Luminance.

Many people love the smooth blending and easy layering provided by Luminance colored pencils. In my experience, they are much easier to blend compared to other brands. The soft and creamy cores allow for seamless color transitions and the ability to create depth and dimension in your artwork. The second difference was that these did not seem to build up as much of a wax bloom as primsas which did allow for more layering. They sharpen to a MUCH finer point than the prismas can, and again with no breakage, which allows for more detail work. I wasn’t expecting to get the kind of detail with a wax based pencil as I was with these. The Caran D’ache brand, type, and color are stamped on the side in silver. All of this comes together for a style that we appreciate and we feel that you will as well. It also helps to make it easy to identify specific colors which are always nice. Cost – 3/5 Many colored pencil artists started out with Prismacolor as I did. If you’ve been using Prismacolor Premier for very long, you know how brittle that lead is. This can make getting a fine point on your pencils for detail work difficult (and frustrating). The lead on the Luminance pencils is stronger. I’ve not once had the lead break or crumble on me, making getting detail work quite easy in comparison to the Prismacolor Premier. I also found that I don’t get the wax bloom with the Luminance like I did with the Prismas. This allowed me to apply more layers with the Luminance than I was able to with the Prismas. That was a huge bonus for me. The range of 100 vibrant and natural colors offered by Luminance is appreciated, although some artists, like myself, wish there were more color options. It's worth noting that the pencils mix well, but some colors can be a bit transparent.Several years ago prismacolor changed where and how these were manufactured. Prismacolor has a very brittle lead. That has always been true. The problem however is that they started using poor quality wood for their casings and overall quality control became non existent. The wood casings now are regularly warped and the leads are off centered more often than not, and the wood is prone to splitting when sharpened. The big question everyone asks me is “are they really worth the cost”. I really think that they are. First, being lightfast is huge, but on top of that, they seem to last longer than the Prismacolor premiers. I found myself burning through Prismas like crazy. In part because of breaking leads and splitting wood casings, but in part because the lead is a bit softer. The Luminance pencils still had the great smooth blending that I expect from a wax-based pencil, but a smaller amount appears to go quite a bit further, so the cost per square inch of paper they can cover doesn’t seem to be that much higher than pencils like Prismacolor.