I took a little break from painting and I made this color pencil portrait of my cat, Chiquis, when he was a kitten. He hasn't changed much, has he?

In all of my paintings I make sure I use quality materials. This drawing was not an exception. I used Strathmore Artagain black paper which is acid free. For the color pencils I used a combination of Prismacolor and Faber-Castell Polychromos. Before I started I only had my Prismacolors and eventhough I have always trusted this brand I did a search online to verify their lightfastness. To my surprise some of the colors I have are poor to fair in terms of lightfastness. See the table below. I checked all of my Prismacolors, one by one, and separated the ones that had fair or poor lightfastness. Then I did a search online for a better brand of color pencils. I came across Faber-Castell Polychromos. These color pencils had a lot of good reviews. I was hesitant about this brand because I remembered I had bought this brand of color pencils when I was in college thinking I could trust Faber-Castell (they were not Polychromos, I can't remember which ones they were but they were Faber-Castell for sure). I think they were even recomended by one of my college professors. Those old Faber-Castell were terrible. They were extremely hard and had no blendabilty. They felt like dollar store pencils which is surprising knowing that Faber-Castell is a reputable brand. In spite of that (and knowing that these were "polychromos" -whatever that means, lol- not my old hard ones), I trusted the reviews and also the description of these pencils on several websites and I placed my order. I am very pleased with them. They are super soft, easy to blend and they are made with high quality pigments which makes them very good in terms of lightfastness.

If you are wondering why lightfastness is so important, well, it pretty much refers to how well the color will stay true over time without fading. So if you are thinking about buying color pencils for you or your child, invest in a good brand. I teach children and I can attest to the beautiful artwork they produce so it would be very sad to see their work all faded in a few years. If you still think it's not a big deal and you won't see the difference, take a look at this color pencil below. I found this pencil among other pencils at my childhood home when I visited my mom in Mexico. These were actually color pencils that I used when I was a child. The tip of the color pencil in question looks grey, almost white, when it's supposed to be purple. After I scratched it with my nail its true color gets discovered. Not all the colors from my childhood present this problem, just a few of them. It has to do with the type of pigment they use for each particular color. For student quality color pencils I am guessing they use cheap pigments (which can also vary in terms of lightfastness).

I am not including links to the brands I mention (both brands are good) because I am not writing this just to get money from clicks! lol, I am truly sharing my experience, but if you feel like buying something why not shop right here! Take a look at my original paintings and prints!! If you want a portrait of your pet, send me a message for a quote.