Artist Colored Pencils: Wax, Watercolor, and Pastel Pencil Choices
Choose traditional dry colored pencils for clean detail, adult coloring, and controlled layering. Choose watercolor pencils when you want the same pencil control plus water-activated washes. Choose pastel pencils when you want soft, blendable, dusty color for portraits, fur, skies, and expressive marks. Do not buy watercolor pencils or pastel pencils if what you really need is a tidy wax pencil for tiny coloring-book spaces.
Artist colored pencils are not one product category anymore.
A buyer searching for artist colored pencils may be choosing between three very different tools: dry colored pencils, watercolor pencils, and pastel pencils. They are all pencil-shaped. They all make color. But they do not solve the same problem.
This guide keeps the decision practical. It explains which pencil type to buy, which one to skip, which paper matters, and where Paul Rubens products fit honestly.
The Three Pencil Types Are Not Interchangeable
The mistake is buying the prettiest tin and hoping it handles every drawing style. That rarely works.
Dry colored pencils are built for pressure control, slow layering, sharp edges, and burnishing. Watercolor pencils are built for marks that can stay dry or dissolve with water. Pastel pencils are built for soft pigment that blends quickly but smudges more easily.
| Pencil type | Best for | Main weakness | Buy this if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional dry colored pencils | Coloring books, clean line work, tight detail, controlled portraits | Slow to cover large areas; blending takes patience | You want dry, tidy, portable color with minimal cleanup |
| Watercolor pencils | Sketching, botanical studies, travel work, mixed dry and wet effects | Can look streaky if activated unevenly | You want drawing control plus the option to paint with water |
| Pastel pencils | Soft portraits, animal fur, smoky backgrounds, expressive blending | Dusty, smudgeable, and less tidy than wax pencils | You want pastel softness with a sharper point than a pastel stick |
If you mainly color in small printed spaces, do not buy pastel pencils first. They are too dusty and smudgeable. Do not buy watercolor pencils first unless you plan to use water. A normal dry colored pencil set is often the better answer for neat coloring-book work.
When Watercolor Pencils Are the Best Choice
Watercolor pencils make sense when you want to draw first and paint second.
You can sketch a flower petal, shadow shape, tree branch, or small landscape with dry pencil. Then you touch selected areas with a damp brush and the color opens into a wash. That is the advantage: the pencil gives placement control before water makes the mark more painterly.
The Paul Rubens Watercolor Pencils Set is the cleanest PRS product route for this article. It is better for sketching, adult coloring with optional activation, small studies, and mixed-media pages than for pure dry colored-pencil realism.
Best watercolor pencil jobs
- Small botanical drawings where you want crisp veins and soft petal washes.
- Travel sketching when carrying pans, tubes, and a full palette feels like too much.
- Mixed-media pages where you want to add color without immediately flooding the paper.
- Beginner studies where pencil placement feels less scary than wet watercolor.
For technique, pair this guide with how to use watercolor pencils. That article handles activation order and beginner mistakes; this page handles the buying decision.
When Pastel Pencils Are the Better Artist Pencil
Pastel pencils are not a tidy colored pencil upgrade. They are a controlled pastel tool.
The pigment is softer and chalkier. It sits on the surface. It blends with a finger, blending stump, tissue, or soft brush. This is useful for portraits, fur, soft skies, feathers, and atmospheric backgrounds. It is less useful for clean coloring-book detail.
The Paul Rubens Pastel Pencils Set is best treated as a soft mark-making set, not as a replacement for wax colored pencils. Buy it when smudging and blending are part of the plan.
Best pastel pencil jobs
- Portrait accents where soft skin transitions matter more than hard outlines.
- Animal fur, feathers, clouds, and misty backgrounds.
- Quick color studies where you want a pastel look without holding a chunky stick.
- Layering over toned or toothy paper for richer shadows.
If surface grip is the bigger question, read soft pastel paper. Pastel pencils are pencil-shaped, but they still need a pastel-friendly surface.
Paper Changes the Pencil More Than Beginners Expect
Paper is not a background choice. It changes how the pencil behaves.
Dry colored pencils usually like smooth to lightly textured paper. Watercolor pencils need paper that can survive water if you activate them. Pastel pencils need tooth so the powder has somewhere to sit.
The Paul Rubens Portable Hot Press Watercolor Paper Pad is useful when you want a small paper format that can handle watercolor pencils, colored pencil sketching, markers, and light mixed media. For dry colored-pencil realism, hot press is easier than rough cold press because it keeps lines cleaner.
For a deeper surface guide, use best paper for colored pencils. This article focuses on the tool choice; that one goes deeper on smooth versus textured paper.
A Simple Buying Rule
Start with the mark you want, not the product name.
| What you want the mark to do | Buy | Skip |
|---|---|---|
| Stay dry, sharp, and tidy | Traditional dry colored pencils | Pastel pencils and watercolor pencils used wet |
| Draw first, dissolve later | Watercolor pencils | Dry wax pencils if you expect painted washes |
| Blend softly and cover quickly | Pastel pencils | Slick paper and tiny coloring-book spaces |
| Make a compact mixed-media travel setup | Watercolor pencils plus a small hot press pad | A huge studio set that never leaves the desk |
Should You Buy a Set or Build a Small Kit?
A set is useful when you are learning the medium. A small kit is better when you already know the job.
For watercolor pencils, a 36 or 48 color set gives enough range for flowers, landscapes, portraits, and sketchbook work. For pastel pencils, a smaller set can still be useful because the marks blend quickly and you often use them as accents. For dry colored pencils, the set size depends on whether you need adult-coloring variety or artist-grade layering control.
If the budget only covers one upgrade, buy better paper before buying a huge pencil set. A small good pencil set on suitable paper usually teaches more than a giant set on copy paper.
Where the 52-Color Travel Set Fits
The Paul Rubens 52-Color Travel Watercolor Set includes a drawing pencil, but it is not a colored-pencil set. Its purpose is portable watercolor painting.
Buy it if your real goal is a compact watercolor kit with paint, paper, brush, sponge, and drawing tools in one case. Do not buy it if your real goal is colored-pencil layering. The included pencil is for drawing, not for building a full colored-pencil artwork.
How to Test a Pencil Before Committing to a Project
Do this on the same paper you plan to use. Five minutes of testing prevents a lot of ruined pages.
- Make a light-pressure patch. This shows whether the pencil can build soft tone without digging into the paper.
- Add a heavy-pressure patch. This reveals whether the color gets rich or just waxy, dusty, or shiny.
- Layer a second color over it. Good artist pencils should still accept another layer before the paper feels sealed.
- Blend one edge. Use water for watercolor pencils, a stump or tissue for pastel pencils, and a colorless blender or lighter pencil for dry colored pencils.
- Rub the dry mark gently. If it smears too easily, the finished work needs different paper, fixative, interleaving, or a different pencil type.
Recommended Paul Rubens Routes
Paul Rubens Watercolor Pencils Set
Best for artists who want pencil control with optional water activation. Not the first pick for dry-only adult coloring.
Paul Rubens Pastel Pencils Set
Best for soft drawing, blending, shading, and pastel effects with a sharper point. Too smudgeable for tiny printed spaces.
Paul Rubens Portable Hot Press Paper Pad
Best for testing pencil detail, watercolor pencil activation, markers, and small mixed-media studies.
Paul Rubens 52-Color Travel Watercolor Set
Best when the real goal is a compact watercolor setup. It is not a colored-pencil replacement.
Final Recommendation
If you want clean dry detail, buy traditional dry colored pencils from a brand that specializes in them and pair them with smooth heavyweight paper. If you want a flexible sketching tool that can become paint, choose watercolor pencils. If you want soft, blendable color for portraits or atmospheric drawing, choose pastel pencils.
The useful question is not "Which artist colored pencils are best?" It is "What kind of mark do I need, and what paper will let that mark behave?" Once that is clear, the buying decision gets much easier.
FAQ
Are watercolor pencils the same as colored pencils?
No. Watercolor pencils can be used dry, but their binder is designed to dissolve with water. Traditional colored pencils are usually wax or oil based and are meant to stay dry.
Are pastel pencils good for coloring books?
Usually no. Pastel pencils are soft and dusty, so they can smear on facing pages and fight tiny printed spaces. Dry colored pencils are better for coloring books.
What paper should I use for watercolor pencils?
Use watercolor paper if you plan to activate the pencil with water. Hot press paper gives cleaner pencil detail; cold press paper gives more texture and softer washes.
Can I use watercolor pencils without water?
Yes. They can work as dry colored pencils, but they usually feel different from dedicated wax or oil colored pencils. Buy them for the water option, not because they are the best dry-only pencil.
What should beginners buy first?
Beginners should buy based on the first project. Choose dry colored pencils for neat coloring, watercolor pencils for sketch-and-wash work, and pastel pencils for soft blending.