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A colored pencil is an art medium constructed of a narrow, pigmented core encased in a wooden cylindrical case. Unlike graphite and charcoal pencils, colored pencils’ cores are wax based and contain varying proportions of pigments and binding agents. Oil-based and water-soluble colored pencils are also offered.

Colored pencils can vary greatly in terms of quality and usability; concentration of pigments in the wax core, lightfastness of the pigments, durability of the colored pencil, softness of the lead, and range of colors are indicators of a brand’s quality and, consequently, its market price. Typically, water-soluble and oil-based colored pencils are considered to be a higher quality than their wax-based counterparts, but for many artists, these differences are a matter of preference.

Rising popularity of colored pencils as an art medium sparked the beginning of the Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA). According to its website, “[CPSA] was founded in 1990 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to artists over 18 years of age working with colored pencil” and it prides itself on “[providing] opportunities for colored pencil artists to network.” The CPSA not only promotes colored pencil art as fine art, but also strives to set lightfastness standards for colored pencil manufacturers.

History
The history of the colored pencil is not entirely clear. The use of wax based mediums in [crayons] is well documented, however, and can be traced back to the Greek Golden Age, and was later documented by Roman scholar, Pliny the Elder. Wax based materials have appealed to artists for centuries due to their resistance to decay, their color vividness and brilliancy, and their unique rendering qualities. Although colored pencils had been used for “checking and marking” for decades prior, it wasn’t until the early 20th century that artist quality colored pencils were produced. Manufacturers that began producing artist-grade colored pencils included A.W. Faber and Caran d’Ache in 1924, followed by Berol Prismacolor in 1938.(categories wax based) Other notable manufacturers are Derwent, Progresso, Lyra Rembrandt, Blick Studio, and Staedtler.