Caran d'Ache Swisscolor Review | Watercolor Pencils
Caran d'Ache Swisscolor Review | Watercolor Pencils
Caran d’Ache are a formidable name in the world of art but in particular to us colored pencil artist, the type of artists who go gaga over a wall of brightly colored wooden sticks, myself included. Caran d’Ache have an extensive range of pencil mediums and in particular their water soluble range is phenomenal.
I have often been asked by many of the wonderful subscribers and readers of The Art Gear Guide, to help them understand and categories the grade of various Caran d’Ache watercolor pencils. I have always had a fair idea of how they stack up, but as always, when I am answering a question for you guys, I always try to make sure the reply is straight from the horses mouth.
Caran d’Ache are very reluctant to pigeon hole their pencils into artist grade, student grade and kids etc, I think mainly because although the Museum Aquarelle are perhaps the finest watercolor pencils on the market at the minute, the Supracolor Soft and the amazing palette are equally impressive. So Caran d’Ache place both the Museum Aquarelle and Supracolor Soft in the Professional grade. The Prismalo would be slightly below the Supracolor Soft and more aimed towards the serious hobbiest, adult coloring book artists etc. After the Prismalo would be the Swisscolor and Fancolor, the Swisscolor hovers in between student grade and kids, whereas the Fancolor is very much marketed toward our up and coming younger artists.
Caran d’Ache Swisscolor Characteristics.
The Caran d’Ache Swisscolor appears at first glance like a Supracolor Soft pencil on a diet, weighing in with a catwalk like 2.8mm core and a slinky 6.8mm barrel. The barrel is hexagonal, so less of the curvy girth and more of the practical, preventing pencils from rolling of drawing tables.
Each barrel is painted the same color as the Swisscolor core and to be fair, when the Swisscolor are laid down dry, the barrel color and core colors are really quite similar, not that this is a very important factor. When I mentioned the Swisscolor being a more trim version of the Supracolor Soft, I was not just referring to the physical aspects but also the information available on the barrel.
Starting from the core and working back to the end of the pencil, the first item printed is the brand of pencil, which in this case is of course the “Swisscolor” aptly named given the wonderful origins of this prestigious company we all know and love so much; Caran d’Ache. following this is the paintbrush icon, indicating that the pencil is water-soluble. It might seem a bit strange needing an icon to indicating the pencil is water soluble, however what you have to consider is that, for a new comer to the Colored Pencil world, a pencil is a pencil, some people may not even know what a watercolor pencil is, so the icon is quite a good idea.
Next to the paintbrush icon, is the companies highly recognisable logo, “Caran d’Ache Swiss Made”. The end of the pencil is exposed, this always tends to be the case is student to low student and kids grade pencils; I think it is a cost thing to cap the end of the pencil, however it does leave the core exposed and therefore vulnerable to damage.
The overall weight of the pencil is very light in the hand and I know some people may ask, “How heavy could a pencil be?”, however this is not about weight in the sense of too heavy to lift, it is simply about comfort and balance. I personally prefer a slightly heftier pencil like the Luminance or Museum Aquarelle, but I know a lot of artists prefer the lighter barrelled pencils for all manner of reasons.
The wood of the barrel is Californian Cedar Wood and in true Caran d’Ache strict quality control, sharpening is a delight due to the high quality wood sourced.
Caran d’Ache Swisscolor Sets Available
Because the Swisscolor is aimed toward a slightly smaller demographic, students and school children, the overall palette can afford to be slightly smaller. The sets available in the Swisscolor range are a 12 set, 18 set, 30 set and 40 set.
For this review I purchased the 30 set and given that we are talking about watercolor pencils, providing you know your color theory, unlike me, with a set of 30 water soluble pigments, you can create many variations of the pigments provided and entirely new colors. If this is an exercise that is not too daunting for you, I highly recommend the Caran d’Ache Aquarelle Plastic Palette, I use it with every single water soluble pencil I use, it is such an amazingly versatile tool and one that completely transforms your set of water soluble pencils. I have provided links to my review of the palette and to the cheapest available Caran d’Ache Palette I could find on Amazon.
Caran d’Ache Swisscolor Performance.
One of the things that I did wrong when I reviewed the Caran d’Ache Prismalo, was compare them to the Supracolor Soft and Museum Aquarelle. This was a non starter right from the get go, they are worlds apart in so many ways, it was only when I started looking at the pencil as a stand a lone water soluble pencils and not another Caran d’Ache pencil, was I able to see the pencils and all the qualities it pocessed.
I knew not to make this mistake with the Swisscolor, I wanted to make sure that I was going to test, demonstrate and review the pencil on its own. I originally thought that due to the slim nature of the core and barrel that the core would be weak under a heavy hand, however this was absolutely not the case.
When it comes to reviewing any product, if there is anything I don’t know about the product, I always go straight to the company and if they are unable to help, I explain why I am unable to 100% verify said information. With the Caran d’Ache reviews, I have the wonderful Caran d’Ache Workbook that was published 2018 or there about. In the book there is so much wonderful information, I have actually wrote a review of the book which you can find here. However, in the book there is a time line of when certain Caran d’Ache products were made, however, as of yet, the Swisscolor does not appear.
I have asked Caran d’Ache this question, but not been given an answer just yet, when I do receive the answer I will of course clarify. Caran d’Ache used to sell a set of Water Soluble pencils called the Classic Color, they came in a blue tin, very much like the Neocolor, but recently those sets have been on the decline and the Swisscolor has seemed to replace them. So I am not sure if Swisscolor is simply a rebranding of the Classic Color, so same pencils just different name and packaging, of if the Swisscolor is a brand new pencil and the Classic Color has simply stopped production. you can of course still find some Classic Color sets about if you are lucky and if I am able to get hold of a set, I will buy them and then compare both pencils.
I created a swatch on 140lb Hot Pressed Watercolor paper, first of dry, using a heavy hand in order to lay down an amble covering of pigment. Immediately it was crystal clear just how strong the pigment in the pencils was, even in their dry format. Ordinarily, with watercolor pencils, the magic really only starts once the soft bristles of the watercolor brush caresses the dry pigment. Given the demographic this pencil is aimed at and the price range of the pencil, I was not expecting such strong pigments.
I then activated each color with my gorgeous travel watercolor brushes, instantaneously the water touched the pigment, it was almost as if colored fairy lights had been turned on. The mark of a good quality water soluble pencil is that once activated with water, there are no pencil marks left. On the cheaper pencils, filled more with binder and filler than pigment, pencil stroke marks can still be seen, which ordinarily is not the desired effect.
On my YouTube review of the Caran d’Ache Swisscolor, I demonstrate the activating of the pigments and you can clearly see just how rich and vibrant they are. I have also created a painting with the Swisscolor, it was just a bird on a log however, I feel that the color scheme in the painting demonstrate the Swisscolor power beautifully.
Its important that you understand I am not comparing the Swisscolor to the Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle, so when I mention their powerful pigments etc, I am referring, in my head to other water soluble pencils within the same price range. I have plans for a lot of comparison videos, which I promise I will get around to completing, I am just so incredibly busy trying to get on top of the reviews and deal with my pain a little bit better.
Caran d’Ache Swisscolor Lightfast
Given the grade and price of the Swisscolor, there is no lightfast information, unfortunately, if as an artists you are selling your beautiful work and need lightfast materials, you are not going to find such materials in this price bracket.
Caran d’Ache Swisscolor Pricing
As always, prices I place here are from Amazon, there is no favouritism for Amazon or anything silly like that, it is simply an easier way of pricing the products globally due to the huge presence Amazon holds. I am unable to select local art stores around the world otherwise I would spend a week selecting links and gather prices.
UK Swisscolor Pricing
Here in the UK, to purchase the 12 Set of Caran d’Ache Swisscolor it will cost you £10.10, for the 18 Set of Swisscolor you will pay £15.84, for the 30 Set it will be approximately £28 and for the largest 40 Set, you will pay £38.86. These are the cheapest prices I could find on Amazon at the time of writing this review. I check the prices periodically and change them accordingly to ensure I am providing the very best deals.
USA Swisscolor Pricing
For whatever reason, after searching Amazon.com, Jerrys Artarama and Dick Blick in the US, I couldn’t find a single set of Caran d’Ache Swisscolor. However, I did find Fancolor, which would be the grade below the Swisscolor. Had I not of found the Fancolor, I might have concluded that Caran d’Ache just simply don’t export their hobby range to the US, but this is obviously not the case based on the Fancolor. I will continue to search or if any of you guys can find the Swisscolor, please let me know and I will amend the page.
EU Swisscolor Pricing
For you wonderful colored pencil artists in Europe, if you are interested in trying a set of the Caran d’Ache Swisscolor, this is the type of pricing you can expect. For the 12 Set of the Swisscolor you can expect to pay €11.49 For the 18 set of Caran d’Ache of Swisscolor you can expect to pay €14.70 the 30 Set of the Caran d’Ache Swisscolor will cost €25.54 and the largest set of 40 Swisscolor will cost you €30.91
Caran d’Ache Swisscolor Conclusion
I have to say that I was throughly impressed with the Caran d’Ache Swisscolor, I wish I had of taken the plunge and spent an extra £5 or £10 to get the 40 set. As I have already mentioned, a lot of my comments are based on the fact that the Caran d’Ache Swisscolor are a really inexpensive set of water soluble pencils, yet have the strength and vibrancy
Don’t forget, you can check out my YouTube video review of the Caran d’Ache Swisscolor and see some live time demonstration. As well as the YouTube review you can check out my speed drawing of the art work I created. Finally if you are not already following The Art Gear Guide on other social media platforms, you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter were I post WIP images of on going art work.
