One of my favorite colored pencils are the Caran d’Ache Supracolors and the extra-posh Luminance pencils. I also love two-ended pencils. Caran d’Ache calls these BiColor and occasionally release sets of these little gems. For this winter, they released the Alpine Frost boxed set and who doesn’t love a boxed set! So, Caran d’Ache Alpine Frost Bicolor 9-Piece Colored Pencil Set (currently $34.31) was kind of a no-brainer for me.
Normally, the only BiColor pencils I can find from Caran d’Ache are the standard red/blue or red/graphite style which are part of their Graphicolor line. Caran d’Ache has many tiers of colored pencils. The Luminance line is their lightfast, museum-quality pencils. They also have the aforementioned Supracolors which are the artist-grade water solubles. They also make Pablos which are their artist-grade non-water soluble line. Then there’s the Swisscolor which are the student grade which are available in water soluble (a little paint brush printed on each pencil will help tell the water-soluble for the non-water soluble).
Unfortunately, I could not find any specific information as to whether this series of BiColor “Alpine Frost” pencils use the artist-grade or student-grade leads. Based on the price, I hope it was the Supracolor cores but at this point I am just going to experiment and see how they perform.
Several of the colors are particularly light in the cream, white, light blue and grey range as would be expected for a wintry theme. The set also include a metallic gold and silver (which interestingly enough are not on the same pencil). The silver has a green on the other end and the gold has a black/black-brown on the other end.
The set also includes a paint brush, my clue that this is a water soluble set.
Tested on Tomoe River paper, with water, the lighter colors disappear almost completely. I need to retest on a dark paper or layered in a larger project to see if they help create highlights and range.
On Col-o-ring paper, which has a bit more tooth and texture, the colors appear a bit more vibrant. The smoothness of TR paper makes it more difficult for colored pencil to adhere. Save colored pencils for toothier papers or dedicate a notebook with more textured paper to experiments with pencils.
I think the color assortment is lovely but the price point is a bit high. A set of 18 full-sized Supracolors is about $54. This set is 18 half-length colors plus a brush and originally retailed for $45. That said, these BiColors are good products from a good company but sheesh! Everything just continues to get more expensive. It is a pretty set and would make a good travel companion for travel or just going to the park.
In the end, I’d say if you are a collector or a sucker for packaged sets, grab this while you can since it was a seasonal collection and might not be around much longer. If you are curious about products like the Supracolors, I recommend finding a local art supply store like Blick where you may be able to buy individual pencils and be able to pick and choose a few colors and a few brands you might like. No one says you have to own ALL THE COLORS especially if you like to draw or color with just a few colors.
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