The Best Prismacolor Alternatives: I Put 7 Affordable Colored Pencil Sets to the Test!

Today, I’ve chosen 7 popular brands to go up against my set of Prismacolor Premier Soft-Core Colored Pencils to find the BEST affordable alternatives for beginners and for adult coloring books. All 7 brands are cheaper than Prismacolor, and a few were surprisingly good quality!

If you’re looking for some beginner or entry-level colored pencils for adult coloring, you’re in the right place!

Disclaimer and affiliation: This post contains Amazon affiliate links and I may earn a commission if you click them and make a purchase (at no cost to you). I am not affiliated in any other way with the brands mentioned in this video. I have purchased all of the pencils mentioned in this video, with the exception of the Black Widow Monarch Pencils that were provided to me by Black Widow to review. All opinions are my own.

What are the Best Affordable Colored Pencils for Adult Coloring Books?

I get a lot of questions about which colored pencils are the best for beginner artists or adult coloring books. And while I know we’d all love to splurge on a set of Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils, Faber-Castell Polychromos or even the more affordable Prismacolors – they aren’t always in the budget.

Prismacolors are a favorite set for many artists and colorists. They are quite affordable compared to other artist-grade pencils, and they still produce great results. They blend beautifully together because they have a soft, buttery wax-based core. The downside to the super soft core is that they also break very easily, which is something I discussed in my previous video.

So my goal today is to see if we can find something else that blends as well as the Prismacolor Premier Soft-Core Colored Pencils that still is that affordable range… and hopefully even a bit cheaper!

I’ve chosen 7 popular brands to go up against my Prismacolors to find the BEST affordable alternatives for adult coloring books.

With the help of Colour with Claire, who has herself reviewed quite a few of these brands and more, I put together a list of some of the more popular and affordable colored pencil brands. These are some of the favorites from our coloring groups and friends, and are ALL cheaper than Prismacolor (on Amazon US). This is by no means the full list of affordable coloring pencils available. There are hundreds of affordable pencils around, but these are the most popular and most recommended brands I’ve found.