(Part 2) Best products from r/Coloring

> I do hope I'll get something I can use on skin though!

I think it will really depend on how much depth/complexity you want in your skin tones. The Polychromos set does have colors that work for skin tones, but Prismacolor just has a much greater range of colors in that area.

The Polychromos set just doesn't really have as many choices when it comes to neutral tints/tones/shades (like browns/beige). But this can be easily supplemented with the Prismacolor 24-color Portrait set, which pretty much comes with all of the colors you would want or need for creating more complex skin tones. (And, depending on which Prismacolor set you already have, you might already have all of those colors.) It looks like the Koh-I-Noor only goes up to 72 colors, but it looks like it has some good skin tones colors in there (from what I can tell from the image on the product page).

All in all, though, I think you'll enjoy using oil-based colored pencils. I found the oil-based ones seem to handle layering a lot better and can be built up a lot more without just starting to smear (like with the Prismacolor and other wax-based). The oil-based pencils also have a harder core, which can be good and bad: it's good when you are doing finer details and layering, and also because you're less likely to have to sharpen the pencil nearly as often. The downside is it can make filling in larger sections with a single color (like in backgrounds) more tedious... in which case I will often revert to my Prismacolors to lay in the base layers of color.

So there will be a little bit of a learning curve as you start to familiarize yourself with the oil-based pencils and learn the different strengths/weaknesses of them, but it shouldn't really take very long. I'm guessing you'll probably prefer using the oil-based for most things but will still occasionally pull out the Prismacolor for certain things, as I have.

So once you've gotten them and have had a chance to use them for a bit, you'll have to let me know what you think!

I have and love the following that you might also enjoy.

• The Beauty of Horror: I really dig the art style in this book, and it does a really great job at making disgusting things look pretty. And it's super fun to colour.
  
  
• I Hate Fairyland: This is one of my favourite comics of the last several years, but it's still great even if you haven't read it. The elevator pitch is that Gert wished to visit Fairyland when she was a little girl, but she's still there 30 years later (and hasn't aged physically at all) and fucking hates it. The fantasy elements are really great and there's plenty of gore to colour.
  
  
• Call of Cthulhu: If you're a fan of Lovecraft, this one is really great.
  
  
• Dragon Wings and Wild Things: The paper in this one isn't the greatest, but I really do love the dragon illustrations

Gorgeous.

My wife was coloring for a while but had pretty much stopped. I heard her mention to a friend that she wasn't happy with her markers because the colors didn't match the caps and weren't vibrant enough. I asked her to take a look at the grid layout of /r/coloring on imgur ( http://imgur.com/r/Coloring ) and pick a couple of images whose palates and hues she liked. She went right for yours. So she's getting this:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C6RHBW/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

She said she'd be perfectly happy with pencils, so I'm looking forward to having fresh coloring around the house again. :)
Anyway, this is a roundabout way of saying thanks for your post; I'd probably never have settled on Polychromos without it, given the bewildering array of options out there.

Hope you find something you like. :)

I just realized I forgot a couple of things, and Amazon is working again, yay!

Krylon setting spray - it's the only setting spray I've ever used, but it sets well, as long as you don't try to change it - quite easy to edit imo (you can look at my recent post, Greyscale portrait, to see that it didn't stop me from editing at all -- and that picture was months old.

Also, I got this lapdesk when I had surgery but still been pretty useful when I want to go outside or color in bed.

My top recs would BV electric eraser and the blending pencils, but I've included everything I consider worth having. :)

No problem, my pleasure!

This is the set I have from Staedtler. I don't know them to have bigger sets for the metallic ones.


There's also this set of fineliners from Staedtler, but they have such a tiny point, they're only god for small details honestly.


And for Posca there's also this huge set, but I honestly think this is an overkill.

Depending on where you are from, I think you can also go to a local library and see f they have an open stock for any of these markers and just buy whatever you like after testing them...


You can also try the even more expensive sets, but honestly, I don't think they're worth it.


Copic markers

Another too expensive set of markers: Chameleon


Some of my friends bought these too: Tombow dualbrush


Posca and Staedtler have the most affordable and awesome markers though.

Honestly I get mine everywhere. Even the cheap ones from places like big lots and amazon are pretty good I read a lot of reveiws when picking the online though. I get this one pack on Amazon for about 20 bucks for 100 pens. Smart Color Art
They are really nice my only issue with them is if you reorder because you run out of one of the colors. You might never see that same color again. The tones seem to be different each time you order. So I ordered a couple and have tons of Gelpens now.

Before I project I pick out the colors I want and put them in a case in the order I want to use them.

Which brings me to the the reason why I started to buy random sets from places like big lots and such, mainly for the cases. Some are nice others are just for some more temporary storage, but they work pretty nicely.

If you're not sure if you want to use Gelpens I'd recommend buying a smaller set of 30 or so from the store or online. They usually still come with a pretty nice color palette.

Hello! First of all thank you so much you are a sweetheart. So full disclosure - yes I did do shading and blending mainly for flower here - but this is originally a grey-scale drawing so that helps a lot as a lot of the shading is already there, and I make it pop with the blending I then do with the markers.

These are the markers I use
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OZMSYC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_yeH-zbZW4X6P7

They are relatively easy to blend if you test the colors beforehand. Obviously you can't blend all of them. I recommend working in small circles when you blend. And you should totally try out these markers, they're pretty cheap and give some great effects!

Pens dry out eventually. That can cause the uneven coverage.

The pens look kinda like [pentel color pens ](Pentel Color Pen, Set of 36, Assorted (S360-36) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E6F108/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ZFAEybC30B4EV). They come in different sized sets depending on how many colors you want. I have a set that is 10 years old and stored properly still works great. I Store my pens laying down flat (not standing up in a cup) and in a plastic bin with a lid.


I have recommended these to many people for a first marker set. Everyone has been happy so far.

The have bright vibrant colors and fine tips for getting good detail.

I have both a Faber-Castell Trio Sharpener (http://amzn.com/B0009WFNY2) and a Stad T'Gaal Pencil Sharpener (http://amzn.com/B006CQW2LQ) that I like a lot.
The Trio is great if you have any large diameter pencils. I prefer the T'Gaal, personally, because it allows me to sharpen my pencils to varying lengths depending on the softness of the brand. I tend to sharpen my Derwent Colorsofts to a shorter point (usually a 2 or a 3), and my Polychromos to a 4 or 5 since they are pretty strong and hold the point well. The 8mm diameter pencils fit exactly, albeit a bit snugly. Both sharpeners have other colors available, so if color doesn't matter, you may be able to find them cheaper than the specific one I linked.

Definitely not a stupid question, by the way!

There is this set of Prismacolors for portraits.

As for other color suggestions, go on dickblick.com and see what is available that you don't already have.