Sunday 8 January 2012

The Favourite Coloured Pencil Awards! (2011 Brand Poll Results)

577 people voted during 2011 in the 2011 POLL: Which is the best brand of artist grade coloured pencil? to determine which is the best brand of artist grade coloured pencil on Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artist.

The results are as follows
  • The Favourite Coloured Pencil in 2011 - Faber Castell Polychromos
  • The Favourite Lightfast (6901) Coloured Pencil in 2011 - Caran d'Ache Luminance (this is a pencil which is accredited as being compliant with the standard ASTM D-6901 for testing Lightfastness in Coloured Pencils created by the American Society for Testing and Material.
  • The Favourite brand of Coloured Pencil Media in 2011 - Sanford Prismacolor
Which means "no change" from last year.  At the end I've got a table which show the changes between 2009 and 2011.

Below are the results of the poll.

Which is your current favourite brand of artist grade coloured pencil?
2011 Opinion Poll from Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists

577 artists voted in 2011 (compared to 760 artists in 2010 compared to 792 in 2009)

The emphasis of the poll is at looking at your CURRENT FAVOURITE coloured pencils.  This is on the basis that each year brands are upgraded, new products are introduced and coloured pencil artists try new pencils - and they can change their mind about which pencils they like to use best.

Below you can see how market share has changed in the last two years - according to those who respond to this poll

(Note - this poll/chart/table in now way suggests this is totally accurate about real market share - but the sample size is such it's very likely to a good indicator)

Indications of Coloured Pencil Manufacturer's market share according to 2011 Poll

Coloured Pencil Manufacturers                    (all brands) 2009 2010 2011 Increase / (decrease) 2009 to 2011
% % %
Sanford Prismacolor (all brands) 29.4 32.6 32.8 3.4
Faber Castell Polychromos 27.3 26.4 27.4 0.1
Derwent ( all brands) 22.5 21.3 17.7 -4.8
Caran d’Ache (all brands) 10.4 10.7 7.9 -2.5
Lyra Rembrandt 7.2 4.2 9.7 2.5
Royal Talens van Gogh 2.0 2.8 1.9 -0.1
Blick Studio Artists 0.0 2.0 2.4 2.4
Pantone 0.2 0.2
98.8 100.0 100.0 1.2

  • GAINERS: Sanford Prismacolor, Lyra Rembrandt and Blick
  • LOSS OF SHARE:  Derwent, Caran d'Ache and Talens van Gogh (latter is no longer available in the USA)

Both Faber Castell and Sanford Prismacolor are maintaining their position from last year, while Sanford has now established that the recovery in 2010 was no 'flash in the pan'.

Dick Blick is doing reasonable business with their new pencils - which are thought to be made by Koh-i-Noor

Caran d'Ache Luminance appears to be maintaining its popularity with those who want accredited lightfast coloured pencils - despite the price.  However the popularity of their Pablo pencils has diminished.

With Derwent, the Coloursoft brand is holding up well with the Artists and Studio Pencils (which have both been around for a very long time) losing some ground.

The probable explanation for the drop in the Talens Van Gogh drop is almost entirely accounted for by the fact they are no longer exported to the USA and hence are only available there is you order them from Europe.  For some reason they keep being described as "discontinued" in the USA (even on the CPSA website!).  There's a lot of difference between "discontinued" and "no longer available in the USA"!  I just did a very quick search online and found them on the iartsupplies website.



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