Crayola Colored Pencils
Price: $3.59 each / Available HERE
Age: 6+ years
Crayola is a great brand for students. They are well-known for providing bright, vibrant variety of colors. These pencils are non-toxic, easy to use, easily accessible and student friendly. Crayola recommends children six years and older to use these colored pencils. I agree that it would be more difficult to use with younger children because sharpening the pencils may become an issue. If you want to use colored pencils with younger students, I recommend the Crayola Color Sticks, available here. The color sticks are shaped like chalk pastels and eliminates the sharpening issue. The Crayola colored pencils are great for creating lines, shading, and coloring. Depending on the amount of pressure applied, students are able to experiment with color gradation.
Prismacolor Colored Pencils
Price: $15.99 each / Available HERE
Age: 6+ years
Prismacolor Colored Pencils are the most popular colored pencils amongst artists. These pencils have a thick, soft core that is highly pigmented. It draws and blends very smoothly and is rich and vibrant in color. These pencils come in a wide variety of colors and are recommended to be sharpened manually.
I recommend introducing Prismacolor Colored Pencils to older students that are ready to take their color penciling to the next level. I suggest older students for these pencils because these are more expensive and because Crayola Colored Pencils work just as well for students with less experience.
I tried to experiment with chalk pastel and colored pencils, but I did not get the greatest effects. The two can be used together but I think it would be best to maybe use chalk pastel as a background and draw overtop of it with colored pencil. I really like how the Prismacolor pencils are very vibrant against cardboard and colored paper. It looks like it has a creamy texture and it looks similar to pastel.