Crayola Colored Pencils

Pros:

Many Different Color set Options

Decent Intensity

Great Price

Cons:

Poor Blending

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Crayola Colored Pencils Review

Updated by Brandon F. on March 22, 2023

A good introduction medium for those getting started with colored pencils.  And it doesn’t hurt that just about everybody will recognize the trusted Crayola name.  The Crayola Colored Pencils have a decent color application, but some of the colors don’t put down their advertised color. 

Also, some more advanced methods like blending and mixing are going to be somewhat difficult with these.  However, for the great price, you can’t be too picky.  They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and special colors and can be purchased from sets of 8 up to 50 (now 100).

Visual Appeal – 3/5

A surprisingly good range of colors exists between the various Crayola set sizes.  From their metallic package to their “eXtreme colors” package and up to the largest 50-count package, most of your fundamental color needs should be fulfilled.  As of this year, they have a new 100 pencil package that they have dubbed “The Big 100”.  This further increases the color selection, but we did notice that this larger set is particularly heavy on the blues and greens.

Smaller sets will still be somewhat limited in color choices but the color gaps aren’t too noticeable.  We do recommend going with one of the larger sets, however.  The hard wax that these pencils have means that laying down a thick pass of color on a single sweep might be difficult, but they can be sharpened to be quite good at intricate areas.  For the price, they produce pretty vivid colors as well.  The reds, yellows, and oranges seem to “pop” the most and are great for works depicting flowers and fruits.

Usability and Durability – 3/5

Laydown is quite smooth due to the hard wax core and sharpening them to a fine point is a breeze.  Intense blending and color mixing is going to be very difficult and potentially frustrating with these, however.  The budget cores used here simply don’t have the level of control that you will find in more expensive brands.  Simply put, hard wax cores typically don’t blend as well as softer wax cores.  Crayola decided to go with a round shape instead of a hexagonal which is more comfortable with the potential cost of pencil control.

However, again, we think when looking at their target market this was probably a wise choice.  A tough barrel with easy grips is a top priority here rather than maximizing user control.  They are also plenty tough and can handle being dropped on or stepped on which will likely happen in a classroom setting.

Packaging and Presentation – 1.5/5

As with most of Crayola’s offerings, the Crayola Colored Pencils come in a cardboard case.  It can be somewhat flimsy and it is not the best for protection purposes but the relative strength of the pencils themselves will hopefully alleviate this flaw.  The pencils’ outside is the application color and the color and brand are stamped on the outside.  We are glad that they decided to provide some color information on the barrel to help with identification.

These are fairly boring in design and not going to “wow” you.  But most people who are going to buy these pencils aren’t concerned with how they look so this is likely not a big deal.  This is particularly true if you are putting these in a classroom setting where packing will probably experience more wear and tear.

Cost – 4/5

These are some of the cheapest pencils on the market, so they are an excellent bargain for what you are getting.  There will be slight variations in cost per pencil depending on the quantity purchased, and some of Crayola’s more off-the-wall color sets might fetch a slight premium, but overall you can build a pretty nice color range for relatively cheap.  

And Crayola easily has one of the most recognizable names in the art supplies world so we are relieved to see that they don’t charge a premium just for that.  Finally, we noticed that you will usually get a bit of a “bulk” discount in cost per pencil so springing for one of the larger sets ends up being more economical.

Overall Ranking – 3/5

Sometimes the “big guys” get a bad rap when it comes to the quality of their product but Crayola Colored Pencils provide a relatively high-quality pencil at an affordable price.  Some of the more advanced techniques as well as some color combinations will not be possible with just these pencils (or will be extremely difficult to achieve) and there are some lacking areas in some of the colors but overall it is a great starter set for anybody, young or old. 

And with the recent addition of the 100-piece set, color options are expanded further.  However, anybody that is looking to advance their colored pencil skills will likely grow out of this set rather quickly.