Design Spectracolor Colored Pencils

I got a pad of Bristol paper and a bag of colored and drawing pencils for $3 at the swap meet this past weekend. Before purchasing, I took a quick look into the bag and saw a few Prismacolor pencils that on sale are $1.50 each, so I knew that it was a good deal. 



It actually turned out to be a great deal. The bag also contained Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils, Stabilo Carbothello charcoal pencils and a discontinued and much sought after (I discovered) brand called Design Spectracolor pencils. 

Spectracolors

Spectracolors were first made by the Venus Pencil Company, formerly the American Pencil Company. These pencils had colored labels and sold in blue boxes. Venus was bought by Faber-Castell in 1973 and in turn by Berol in 1994. With the Faber Castell label, the range of colors was expanded to 96. Spectracolors were discontinued around 1999. Sets of 96 colors are most rare. The Faber Castell pencils were black in color as were the ones made by Berol but the Berol version was renamed Design Spectracolor.

After Berol bought the North American Venus labels from Eberhard Faber, the colors and names of the two labels were very similar in North America. For example, both the Spectracolor and Prismacolor labels of the 1990’s shared many color names such as green bice, scarlett lake red, warm grey dark, cold grey light among others. Spectracolors are in demand by artists since they are said to blend extremely well.

I swatched all of the pencils. The Spectracolors are buttery smooth and have a nice feeling to them, and they probably deserve to be used by a much more talented artist than me. But I'll keep practicing, and maybe someday I'll be able to do them justice.