History of Colored Pencils
Color pencils are type of pencils that have a color pigment core, usually wrapped in wood. While the standard pencils have the core made of graphite and clay, the core of most colored pencils is made of wax, pigments, additives and binding agents.
Here, Jason Allen Greig, a colored pencil artist from Carson City, Nevada, shares a piece of history of colored pencils. Greig graduated at the University of Nevada with Summa Cum Laude honors. He holds Bachelor Degree with major in Fine Arts and minor in History of arts.
Allen Greig, has tried different mediums, over the course of his career, before discovering colored pencils.
Origin of Color Pencils
The early history of colored pencils is not very well documented. It is known that the ancient Greeks used writing tools similar to our waxes and there are proofs that the Romans also used colored waxes. Allen Greig points out that the first wooden-covered colored pencils appeared in the 19th century and were used for “checking and marking”.
Inventor of the Color Pencil
Staedtler, a German company owned by Johann Sebastian Staedtler, invented the oil pencil in 1834. The production of colored pencils for artistic purposes began at the dawn of the 20th century. The talented colored pencil artist, Allen Greig specifies that the first artistic colored pencils were invented and produced in 1924 by Faber-Castell and Caran d’Ache. Berol began manufacturing his range of pencils in 1938.
Other major brands that also created colored pencils in the late 1930s and early 1940s were Derwent, Progresso, Lyra Rembrandt, and Blick Studio. Few manufacturers claim to have invented the first watercolor pencil, a type of pencil with a water-soluble core whose origin remains uncertain.
For the creation of his paintings, the talented colored pencil artist, Jason Allen Greig uses the following brands of colored pencils for his paintings: Stabilo, Prismacolor, Faber Castell, Staedtler, Derwent, Color’Peps.
In the end, once have tested these brands, YOU WILL DECIDE which is the best brand for you, the one that makes you feel more comfortable when working.
