Introduction
I’ve been an enthusiastic user of Derwent Drawing Pencils for many years. I like their soft, velvety quality and their larger barrels make them comfortable to hold for long drawing sessions. I have used them for many things including portraits, professional illustrations, and for fine art pieces. Based on their color range, I consider them specialty pencils. For most illustrations, I use old-school Prismacolors, Spectracolors, Lyra, and some Holbeins. Amidst these older colored pencils are some of the newer Prismacolor Premier pencils, which I don’t like as much. They lost something when they made the marketing shift, and I know this because I’ve been using Prismacolors for decades. My Spectracolors feel similar to the old Prismacolors, and I like them a great deal.
When I heard that Derwent had added some new colored pencils to their line I decided to find out if any where velvety like the Drawing Pencils, had larger barrels, and a larger color range. Here’s what I discovered.
Derwent Coloursoft Pencils
I’m not going to write this review the way amateur artists typically do. I’m a professional artist, and many of the parameters talked about on YouTube reviews are of little to no value for me. For instance, I create swatched pencil palettes in about two minutes and don’t linger on them. Their purpose is as color reference, nothing more.
The Derwent Coloursoft colored pencils in my set.
I have no interest in how the pencils perform on cheap paper. They must perform well on typical colored pencil papers such as Canson, Bristol, and Stonehenge. I rarely work on dark paper, but when I do, it’s likely to be Canson or Stonehenge.
If I am using colored pencils with markers, they must perform well on marker paper.
I don’t care about the crumbs left by the pencil after erasing. I do care about how well they sharpen; if the lead is strong enough to hold up to pressure; and whether they feel good in my hand. They must blend well with a soft touch, as I like to apply many light layers. I often prefer to work with softer leads. And I don’t care how long a pencil holds a point if I like other things about it.
I have heard good things about two of the Derwent lines: Chromaflow and Coloursoft. I decided to create a monochromatic portrait and chose a terracotta range, allowing me to test colors from chocolate brown to peach. I ordered a medium-sized set of the Coloursoft colored pencils and a few limited colors in the Chromoflow range.
Derwent Coloursoft and Derwent Chromaflow colored pencils used for this test.
Specifics
The image I used for reference is a 1930s glamor shot in black and white.
The pencils I used for this sample were: #C560 Peach, #C540 Pimento, #C610 Dark Terracotta, and #C160 Loganberry. The #1920 Redwood was the primary Chromaflow pencil I used.
I used 9” x 12” Canson Bristol paper for this piece’s surface.
Canson Bristol Paper
Handling
I immediately liked the Coloursoft pencils better than the Chromaflow. The colors laid down well in both lines, but the Coloursoft pencils have slightly thicker bodies and are significantly softer. When creating a monochrome piece value is of key importance. Sometimes you don’t want to go all the way down to the end of the scale for your darks when using colors other than black and gray. The mind sees those nearly blacks and accepts them as black. For this piece I used to Dark Terracotta and Redwood for my darkest darks applying them in thin layers to get the look of black but with no black.
The Verdict: Derwent Coloursoft Pencils
“The Dame”, 9: x 12″ Derwent Coloursoft pencils on Bristol paper. Copyright Sara Light-Waller, 2026. All Rights Reserved.
The Chromaflow was a nice pencil, but it wasn’t nice enough to add to my usual roster of colored pencils. The Coloroursoft was another story. Although I don’t like them as well as my Prismacolors, Spectracolors, or even my Derwent Drawing Pencils, I do like them. They feel good to use and lay down smoothly in both thin layers and with some pressure. They held a point moderately well.
I was nowhere near the saturation point for this paper, so there was no need to fix the piece. It might get a waxy bloom later; we’ll have to see.
I’m not too concerned about lightfastness as this is only a sample and I always store my pieces out of the sun, anyway. And this is not a piece destined for the show ring. If it were, I’d just put it behind UV glass.
In the end, I think the Coloursoft will make a nice addition to colored pencil roster. They will not replace my Prismacolors but they are fun and I suspect I’ll keep using them. I didn’t like the Chromaflow well enough to buy any more of them. They seem rather ordinary to me, and I already have enough colored pencils I like better.
Future Tests
In future tests, I’ll try the Coloursofts in a wider range of colors and see how they blend together.
Another test will be how they perform over alcohol markers, and that might be the next test.
I recently reviewed the Holbein Colored Pencils in a similar monochrome test. You can find that review here.
Exit to the Lucina Press Copy Room.