Review of Caran d'Ache Luminance Coloured Pencils by Michelle Woollaston
These soft, highly pigmented pencils feature a varnished round cedar casing with a coloured cap to match the core. The colour name and number are stamped on the end (in quite small print) and all of the 76 pencils are lightfast. Included in the box are 2 colourless blending sticks. The sturdy cardboard box has foam layers with a cradle for each pencil, so they can't move around or get damaged in transit.
The pencils are mainly oil-based (using hydrogenated oil apparently) and sound quite 'chalky', like a pastel pencil, when passed over paper, but they put down rich layers of pigment with ease. They work well on many types of paper, including (like Prismacolors, which are also heavily pigmanted) black and dark coloured paper. They are capable of fairly fine detail for a soft pencil and also give lovely out-of-focus effects on coarser papers.
The colour range features a good selection of browns, greys and neutrals, reasonable blues and greens and a smaller number of yellows, oranges, reds and purples. There is only one pink. I find the set useful for animal portraits and landscapes. The colours blend and layer easily, so it is not hard to create your own colours when needed.
Luminance pencils are quite expensive, but they are a delight to use and all the colours are lightfast, making them suitable for use in artwork that will be displayed. If you are a serious artist selling work to the public, they will be worth the cost.
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