Very cool. I especially love the blending.  I went shopping a couple of days ago with the intention of picking up a package of Prismacolors. Well once I picked my jaw up off the floor after seeing the price of those puppies, I had to settle for a much cheaper brand (Artist Loft). And now I'm disappointed with my pencils as the colours are too dull for my liking and I have to sharpen them constantly so I don't think they'll last too long. I did spring for an almost $5 Prismacolor blending pencil and have been trying it with my yucky new pencils. I'm not sure if it's my lack of skill with it or the fault of my other pencils but I'm not getting anything resembling nice. There's probably a technique to it that I'm not aware of. Oh well, at least this neverending winter is giving me plenty of time to practice.

I picked up a set of artist's loft brand to keep in the car with my little clipboard and on the go coloring books.  I haven't used them much, but I do feel they are quite a hard lead and probably won't lend to blending very well.

If you are looking for a cheaper brand that will blend nicely, I would try crazee art or rose art.  They are both a softer lead.   The softer the lead, the better the blending/layering.   I actually find the prismacolor premier pencils to be a little too soft for most of the stuff I do.   I have pretty much started holding those back for areas that I want to blend.

An alternative to using a blender pencil is using a white colored pencil.  That might be a better option for the artist's loft since they have such hard lead.

If you keep an eye on amazon, they routinely have sales on prismacolor pencils.  I picked up my set of 48 for $40, I believe.  It was more than half price which is the only reason I got them.   $90 for 48 pencils is too rich for my blood when I'm just coloring in coloring books.

I love that you kept the background white, @Curious  These skulls intimidate me. I  love how you did this one!

7 minutes ago, Fascinated said:

I love that you kept the background white, @Curious  These skulls intimidate me. I  love how you did this one!

On the skull?  I always leave skulls white on the sugar skulls.  I recently saw a few from that fb coloring group I joined where the skull was actually colored in and they looked better than I thought a colored in skull would look.

I'm going to have to try coloring one in one of these days.  If I colored the skull, I think I would leave the background white to give some contrast.

17 hours ago, Curious said:

I picked up a set of artist's loft brand to keep in the car with my little clipboard and on the go coloring books.  I haven't used them much, but I do feel they are quite a hard lead and probably won't lend to blending very well.

If you are looking for a cheaper brand that will blend nicely, I would try crazee art or rose art.  They are both a softer lead.   The softer the lead, the better the blending/layering.   I actually find the prismacolor premier pencils to be a little too soft for most of the stuff I do.   I have pretty much started holding those back for areas that I want to blend.

An alternative to using a blender pencil is using a white colored pencil.  That might be a better option for the artist's loft since they have such hard lead.

If you keep an eye on amazon, they routinely have sales on prismacolor pencils.  I picked up my set of 48 for $40, I believe.  It was more than half price which is the only reason I got them.   $90 for 48 pencils is too rich for my blood when I'm just coloring in coloring books.

Thanks for the info. I had no idea about the hardness of the lead thing. Definitely explains my inability to blend. I'll try the white pencil to see how that works. And yeah, the price of the prismacolours was over $100 here in Canada. I haven't seen the other brands you mentioned but I'll keep my eyes on amazon though my husband might freak if I bring even more pencils into the house!!!

CraZ Art can be found in such high brown places as Wal Mart.