The Best Colored Pencils For Black Paper!

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There has been a recent spike in the popularity of using coloured pencils on black paper due to as number of viral photographs on Instagram showing just how good this type of artwork can look when done correctly. As with most things that go viral in the arts and crafts space, we have noticed more and more people reaching out and asking various questions about how they are able to get similar results when using their own coloured pencils on black paper.

As you may guess, the most important thing to get you the best possible results is to use the best tools possible so its not suprising that we have noticed so many people reaching out about the best colored pencils for black paper recently. Although you can technically use a wide range of different pencils for your artwork on black paper, their performance can be questionable with some pencils definitely performing better than others.

This is why we have decided to publish this article going over what we feel are the best colored pencils on the market for use with black paper. Our hope is that we will be able to help our readers get the best results possible without you having to break the bank as there really is no need to folk out for the more expensive pencil sets.

The Best Colored Pencils For Black Paper!

Although personal preference will come into play, we feel that the Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils are the best colored pencils on the market for use with black paper. They offer excellent performance with vibrant colors while being very budget friendly making them the obvious option for most people.

Coming from Prismacolor, you can rest assured that you are getting a high quality product that will offer excellent performance. On top of the reputation of the Prismacolor brand all around the world, their Premier range of colored pencils have one of the best reputations going amongst all of their products too.

The vibrant colors in the pencil set offer excellent performance on black paper too with minimal color fade when compared to some of the competing pencils, even ones at higher price points on the market. This is why we feel that they have to be our default recommendation to any of our readers who are looking for the best colored pencils for black paper.

Why Use Prismacolor Pencils On Black Paper!

Prismacolor have the well earned reputation of being one of the best pencil brands available right now and it is for good reason. Their products offer excellent performance but one of the key advantages is that their color holds well when used on black paper where as some of the other products from other brands can have problems.

In addition to this, the Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils allows you to switch back to white paper or paper or any other color without issue too. Some of the “specialist” pencils on the market that have been designed specifically for use with black paper do not offer this and will not perform as well on other colored paper.

We know that a large number of our readers are brand new to the arts and crafts space or are on a budget so getting the most versatility out of your equipment is important. This helps to score the Prismacolor range even more points as you can use them in pretty much anything you can think of and get excellent performance.

Are Other Brands Even Worth Considering?

Although the Prismacolor pencils are out primary recommendation to our readers looking for high quality colored pencils that they are able to use on black paper to get great results, there are other options. In our opinion, Arteza Colored Pencils are a close second, especially their wax based panicles but some people don’t like to use wax pencils.

The Arteza range has a very similar reputation to Prismacolor for offering excellent performance and versatility for the lowest possible price. If for whatever reason you choose not to go with the Prismacolor range, the Artexa range would be our second best recommendation to our readers.

Outside of these two though, performance does tend to drop off rapidly when the pencils are used on black paper. Some products are also more expensive than the Prismacolor and Arteza products that we have recommended while offering poor levels of performance. This just adds to the reasoning to stick with the two core brands if they are within budget but as the two recommended pencil sets are budget friendly, there shouldn’t be able problems.

Use A High-Quality Black Paper!

So many beginners make the mistake of using a low quality black paper for their arts and crafts sessions and then wonder why their results are not what they expected. A high quality black paper is usually only a few dollars more expensive than the cheapest option but offers considerably better performance.

One of the main issues that we see is that the cheaper, lower quality black paper usually has a surprisingly number of white or grey paper particles in it. This really can mess with the contrasting of the colored pencils that you use and take away from the over all drawing.

The higher quality black paper is usually only a little more expensive but is a solid black to help with the contrast of the colored pencils. This makes a suprising difference in the end result making the artwork pop and look much better than it otherwise would. Many beginners fail to realise this and you could be using the best colored pencils in the world but the actual paper you use them on could ruin your drawing so keep this in mind.

What Colors Work Best On Black Paper?

Provided that you have gone with a high quality colored pencil set that is suitable for use on black paper like the Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils then the majority of the colors will work well on black paper. This often surprises people as they only expect a small number of the colors to work but this is usually due to previous experiences with low quality pencils.

You can often get better performance out of vibrant colors with a high contrast to black as it helps the artwork pop more and catch the eye but the vast majority of the colors in the set will work. As we mentioned earlier though, if you do want the majority of the colors in your pencil set to work well on your black paper then using a high quality black paper is highly recommended too and will help the colors with less of a contrast to black pop too.

There are some specialist pencils on the market that are metallic and look particularly good on black paper that you could consider if you want. These pencils tend to be more expensive though and tend not to perform as well on white paper so we did not include them in our article as we feel the Prismacolor set are better overall.

Conclusion

That’s brings our article going over what we feel are the best colored pencils for black paper on the market right now. The two primary options that we have featured both offer excellent performance for most of the colors in the set when used on black paper but also offer excellent performance on other paper colors too. With their low price tag relative to their excellent performance, we feel that they are the best option for our readers and should definitely be considered.