Colour matched to all other Faber Castell ranges - this is great if you want to use several different types of pencil in a single sketch but you want to ensure colour matches.
Oil based pencils so they are waterproof and smudgeproof
3.8mm lead with a round, comfortable barrel
lead is SV bonded (securely gluing the lead to the wood on both sides down the full length of the pencil) this helps prevent breakage and allows for better sharpening to produce a fine point.
High quality pigments with high levels of lightfastness across the whole range
Top tips from Faber Castell when using Polychromos
Blocks of rich colour To create blocks of intense colour, hold the pencil in an almost vertical position and press down hard on the paper.
Shading To colour an area evenly, hold the pencil at a very shallow angle, and only press down lightly on the paper. The structure of the paper will be visible, while individual strokes will not.
Hatching and cross-hatching Drawing many lines alongside each other will create an area of colour, which can be intensified by repeatedly overlaying lines at differenangles.
From light to darkLight colours are transparent, while dark colours provide coverage. Superimposing layers of colour increases the brilliance and vividness of the colours.
Brush painting To create even areas of colour, paint over the strokes made with Polychromos artists' colour pencils using a bristle brush and paraffin oil (baby oil). Oil paints also dissolve the artists' colour pencils, which is why they are often used to draw preparatory sketches for oil paintings. The lines subsequently dissolve when they are painted over.
Painting onto coloured backgrounds A coloured background can result in very attractive changes to the character of a colour.
Working on different surfaces Polychromos colour pencils adhere to many rough surfaces, such as paper, cardboard, wood, stone, leather and metal.
Fixing Polychromos artists' colour pencils are permanent, adhere firmly to their background, and do not require fixing. Fixing could cause lower layers of colour to bleed through to the surface.
