The Pencils That Changed What I Thought I Was Capable Of

I have been drawing and painting for most of my adult life. Not professionally — I work in architecture — but seriously, with genuine commitment and a studio practice I protect carefully. Watercolour pencils have been my primary medium for three years. I love the control they offer, the ability to work dry and then activate with water, the way you can build up layers and detail that pure watercolour doesn't easily allow.

What I didn't love was the results I was getting. Good, sometimes. Occasionally very good. But never quite what I could see in my head. The colours muddied when I added water. The leads broke under pressure during fine detail work. The pigment quality was inconsistent. I had attributed this to my technique. It was not my technique. It was my pencils.

The Moment I Understood the Problem

A friend who teaches illustration at art college watched me work for an afternoon. She picked up one of my pencils, examined it, and said: "These aren't going to do what you want them to do. You need Caran d'Ache."

I had heard of Caran d'Ache — the Swiss brand is legendary in professional art circles — but had always considered them an extravagance. My friend was unimpressed. "You're spending hours on work that your materials are limiting. That's not economical. That's just frustrating." She was right. I ordered the Prismalo 80-colour tin that evening.

Why I Chose the Caran d'Ache Prismalo 80-Colour Tin

I found the Caran d'Ache Prismalo Watercolor Pencils – 80 Assorted Colours Tin on ALTOE and the specification confirmed everything my friend had said.

Born in 1931 as the world's first water-soluble coloured pencils, the Prismalo are the original benchmark against which every other watercolour pencil is measured. Ninety-plus years of refinement in a single tin.

The hard 3mm core addressed my most persistent frustration directly — a hard core maintains a sharp point under pressure, allowing precise depiction and clean lines that survive the transition to wet technique without bleeding or losing definition.

The high-quality pigments with excellent water resistance were the promise I most needed. Pigment quality determines the vibrancy of the colour, the consistency of the wash, the way colours interact when wet. Caran d'Ache's pigment quality is, by professional consensus, exceptional.

The 80-colour range gave me a palette I could work with seriously — enough variety to mix and layer without gaps, enough range to handle the botanical and landscape subjects I work with most frequently.

The First Session

The tin arrived on a Thursday. I cleared Saturday morning for a proper first session — a botanical study of garden roses that had been sitting in a vase on my desk, waiting for the right moment.

The difference was apparent from the first mark. The pencils feel different — the hard core has a precision and responsiveness my previous pencils didn't have. The colour goes down cleanly, consistently, with a density I hadn't been achieving before. When I added water, the pigment activated beautifully — no muddying, no unexpected colour shifts, just a clean, vibrant wash that held the detail I'd laid down in the dry stage.

I worked for four hours. The roses were the best botanical study I'd produced in three years of working in the medium. Not because my technique had changed. Because the tools were finally doing what I needed them to do. I photographed the finished piece and sent it to my friend. She replied: "See?"

Six Months On

The Prismalo tin has been my primary medium for six months. My work has improved significantly — not because I've learned new techniques, but because I can now execute the techniques I already knew with the precision and colour quality they require. The gap between what I could see in my head and what appeared on the paper has narrowed considerably.

The pencils have held up beautifully. The hard core means I'm not losing leads to breakage. The pigment quality is consistent across all 80 colours. I've also discovered that the Prismalo's versatility is even greater than I'd anticipated — they work beautifully dry, beautifully wet, and in combination in ways that give me a range of effects I couldn't achieve before.

What I Love Most About Them

• The hard 3mm core: Precision under pressure. No more broken leads during fine detail work.
• The pigment quality: Vibrant, consistent, excellent water resistance. No muddying.
• The 80-colour range: A complete professional palette with no gaps or compromises.
• The versatility: Dry, wet, or combined. The Prismalo performs beautifully in every technique.
• The heritage: The world's original water-soluble coloured pencil, refined over ninety years.
• The results: My work is better. Not marginally — significantly. The tools were the limiting factor, and they no longer are.

Who Is This For?

Any serious artist working in watercolour pencil who has been producing results limited by their tools rather than their ability. Any illustrator, botanical artist, or fine artist who wants to work with the medium at its highest level. And anyone who has been putting off Caran d'Ache on grounds of cost: the cost of continuing to work with inferior tools, in time and frustration, is higher.

Get Yours

The Caran d'Ache Prismalo Watercolor Pencils – 80 Assorted Colours Tin is available now at ALTOE. Give your work the tools it deserves.

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— Sebastien Moreau-Blackwood, architect by day, watercolour pencil artist by weekend. Based in Edinburgh. The roses were the best thing he'd painted in three years.