HISTORY
Caran d’Ache is a prestigious Swiss brand that has been producing art supplies for over 100 years. It was founded in Geneva in 1915 by Arnold Schweitzer, after finding the first natural sources of graphite in the mountains of Switzerland. From the beginning it used the most advanced and innovative skills, some of them extremely rare, such as the ancestral technique of Chinese lacquer. Caran d’Ache derives from the Russian word “karandash”, which means “pencil”. The word itself comes from the Turkish term “kara tash” which means “black stone”: the origins of graphite. It is not always an affordable brand for everyone, but nobody can deny its quality.
The Pablo series is the first line I tried from this brand, as I had read very good critics about it. It is also the second most expensive series of the brand for professional pencils after the Luminance series, considered as one of the best colour pencils in the world.
SPECIFICATIONS
Pablo pencils are hexagonal and have 3,7 mm leads. They are wax-based pencils (although they don’t feel so), light but robust, made of cedar wood with little scent and with barrels painted on a colour matching the lead. The top of the pencil is covered, so we cannot see the lead. On one side of the bar we can read the phrase “permanent colour”, the name of the series and the words “made in Switzerland”. On the other side they show the name of the colour in French and in English, the lightfast degree with stars, the number of the series (666) and the colour number.
The Pablo series have an acceptable lightfast degree. I couldn’t find lightfast information on the official colour chart, but I can speak for my 18 pencils set: 7 of them have the maximum gradation (***) and 11 of them have **. The lightfast degree seems to be better in darker colours.
In this image, I used one pink and one purple to check the blendability. The first sample shows the two colours alone, the second one has been blended with Derwent pencil blender and the third one with Derwent blender marker:
PERFORMANCE
Pablo pencils can be sharpened to a fine point without troubles, they don’t smudge nor spread crumbs when being pressed on the paper. The lead texture is somewhat hard, and obviously harder compared to the Luminance lead. It does not use up quickly when applied on the paper. The colours are rich and can be blended.
SETS AND PACKAGING
These pencils come in tins of 18, 30, 40, 80 and 120 units. The tins have hinges and are opened from the right side, possibly to keep the pencils closer to the paper. The pencils come arranged by colours and they are pre-sharpened. The tin is nice and easy to transport, but the plastic tray will not protect the pencils in case of an impact.
COLOUR CHART AND DEMO
The colour chart for my 18 pencils set is this one:
Lemon yellow 240 / Yellow 010 / Orange 030 / Scarlett 070 / Carmine 080 / Purple 090 / Violet 120 / Ultramarine 140 / Cobalt blue 160 / Turquoise 171 / Malachite green 180 / Grass green 220 / Light olive 245 / Burnt siena 069 / Raw umber 049 / Black 009 / Grey 006 / White 001
Here are a couple of illustration that I made with Pablo pencils:
It seems strange to me that the set has 18 colours instead of the standard 20 or 24. One downside is that the 18 colours tin doesn’t include any skin tone, all the pinks are too strong as to use them to colour skin, so, if you want to colour skin you have to use colours from other sets. In a set of 12 pencils you cannot expect much variety, but in a set of 18 you would think there is enough room to include a skin colour, instead of, for example, several blues or greens.
CONCLUSION
I am not an expert, but Pablo pencils don’t entirely convince me; at least not like Faber-Castell’s Polychromos or Prismacolor Premier. I am trying but, in spite of the good critics, I still cannot fall in love with them.
WHERE TO BUY
Pablo pencils can be bought in Amazon. The set of 18 pencils cost around 25 pounds, which is fair. These pencils can also be purchased individually.
All Pablo pencils in Amazon UK
PROS, CONS AND RATING
The best: the lead lasts long before having to sharpen it, and it is creamy in spite of its hardness. The colours blend well.
The worst: they are rather expensive and they don’t include any skin tone in the set of 18.
Rating: 8/10
MORE INFORMATION
Learning to draw 