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Prismacolor Art Stix coloured pencils – a closer look

22 January 2020 by Louise

Pinterest image of Prismacolor Artstix colour wheel bar chart. Text says 'A closer look - Prismacolor Artstix - Pretty sticks of colour'. Read about it at Artnitso.com.
Pinterest image of Prismacolor Artstix colour wheel bar chart. Text says 'A closer look - Prismacolor Artstix - see what colours are in the range'. Read about it at Artnitso.com.
Pinterest image of Prismacolor Artstix colour wheel pie chart. Text says 'A closer look - Artstix - Prismacolor Premier without the timber'. Read about it at Artnitso.com.
Pinterest image of Prismacolor Artstix in the box. Text says 'A closer look - Prismacolor Artstix - 48 sticks of colour. Read about it at Artnitso.com.
Pinterest image of Prismacolor Artstix colour wheel pie chart. Text says 'A closer look - Prismacolor Artstix - Find their colour wheel families.'. Read about it at Artnitso.com.
Pinterest image of Prismacolor Artstix neutral colours pie chart. Text says 'A closer look - Prismacolor Artstix - just like Premier but a bit different'. Read about it at Artnitso.com.
Pinterest image of Prismacolor Artstix colour wheel pie chart. Text says 'A closer look - Prismacolor Artstix woodless pencils'. Read about it at Artnitso.com.
Pinterest image of Prismacolor Artstix colour wheel pie chart. Text says 'A closer look - Prismacolor Artstix'. Read about it at Artnitso.com.
Pinterest image of Prismacolor Artstix neutral colours pie chart. Text says 'A closer look - Artstix - 48 woodless Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils'. Read about it at Artnitso.com.
Pinterest image of Prismacolor Artstix colour wheel pie chart. Text says 'A closer look - Artstix - woodless Prismacolor Premier'. Read about it at Artnitso.com.

The discontinued range of Prismacolor’s woodless pencils – Art Stix – are great for laying colour quickly. Do you still have some in your stash that you need to use?

We have looked at the colours inside some ranges of wax-based, oil-based and water colour pencils. This post continues this thread by providing an analysis of the colours in the discontinued wax-based Prismacolor Art Stix range.

Interactive Colour Chart

Do you want to quickly search and sort the discontinued Art Stix range by name, number and lightfast rating? As well as seeing their colour swatches? Access the slim interactive colour chart here. Or, if you want to search and sort the 48 Art Stix by their colour wheel colour family and neutral groups, you can join our email list and access the expanded interactive colour chart by clicking the link below.

Art Stix Colour Chart for Free

Let’s start….

You can read this disclaimer to see how the analysis was undertaken.

This post will help you save time and energy in selecting the right colours for your project. Use this post together with our post on colour harmonies to help you choose the colours of your next artwork.

See an interactive colour chart for the discontinued Prismacolor Art Stix range below.

Prismacolor Premiers but without timber casings

The 48 Art Stix box notes that Art Stix are woodless coloured pencils. They have the same lead as Prismacolor Premier. As such, they are Prismacolor Premier pencils without timber casings.

The Art Stix box notes:

  • Same lead as Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils in a broad stroke medium;
  • Soft, thick leads for easy blending and shading; and
  • never needs sharpening.

User Warning

The Art Stix box of 48 notes that Art Stix conform with ASTM D-4236 (see warning advice image below). Outlinesart.com provides an explanation of ASTM D-4236 here.

As with using all coloured pencils (even with timber casings) please note any product warning advice. This may be on the product’s website or written on your coloured pencil boxes or sets. The warning below is written on the Prismacolor Art Stix 48 box.

The warning provided on the Prismacolor Artstix set of 48. AS1950 Gold Art Stix contain: COPPER
The warning provided on the Prismacolor Art Stix set of 48. AS1950 Gold Art Stix contain: COPPER

How to identify each Prismacolor Art Stix pencil?

As noted above, this discontinued range are woodless Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils. The colours available in the range totals 48, which is less than the Premier range of 150.

Like the Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils, the lightfast ratings are not listed on the woodless Art Stix pencils. This made identifying the lightfast ratings difficult. The lightfast ratings were identified by looking at the Prismacolor colour chart and listing these individually.

Also, identifying Art Stix colours was problematic. The Art Stix coloured pencils do not have any identifying features.

Thankfully, the colours in the set are listed on the box. These pencils are Prismacolor Premier leads. By comparing the colour swatches of the Prismacolor Premier pencils, we could then identify colour names, colour numbers and lightfast ratings.

Prismacolor Artsix 48 colours Artnitso.com
The Art Stix colours available as listed on the back of the 48 set box.

The Art Stix pencils now sit in individual slots with a paper swatch listing its details. However, when used, this continues to cause issues. If the pencil used is not replaced into its specific slot, it cannot be identified. Each Art Stix pencil will soon have its details written on paper and wrapped around each pencil. This will identify it if even if not in its slotted place, and is mixed on a bench with other Art Stix pencils.

Prismacolor Artsix 48 Artnitso.com

This post has images that includes the colour name, lightfast rating together with a colour swatch for each pencil in the range.

Prismacolor Art Stix

When looking at the set as a whole, all colours (including the colour wheel family colours, neutrals and metallic) are shown clockwise in the chart below.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 All colours Pie Chart
This image shows a count of all the coloured pencils from the Art Stix range.

The chart represents a total of 48 woodless coloured pencils, of which 4 are neutral, 2 are metallic, and 42 are colours that belong to colour wheel families.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Bar Chart all colours
This bar chart shows a count of all the Art Stix coloured pencils from the range.

Now to get a closer look let’s separate these colours into two groups – the colour wheel colours, and the neutral (and metallic) colours.

The colour wheel colours

The 12 colour wheel family colours available in the set are shown below:

Clock Position Colour Family
12.00 Red
1.00 Red-Orange
2.00 Orange
3.00 Orange-Yellow
4.00 Yellow
5.00 Yellow-Green
6.00 Green
7.00 Green-Blue
8.00 Blue
9.00 Blue-Violet
10.00 Violet
11.00 Violet-Red
©2019-2023 Artnitso & Co®

Of the colour wheel colours, the make up of each colour family is outlined below. While the colours are of varying shades and tones, the predominant base colour belongs to the colour wheel family in which it has been placed.

Red – 12 o’clock

Starting with red at the 12:00 position, the image below shows that the coloured pencil set of 48 includes 2 red colour family pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Red
The colour numbers, colour names, lightfast ratings and white paper swatches of the two Prismacolor Art Stix coloured pencils that belong to the red colour wheel colour family.

Red-Orange – 1:00 o’clock

The next colour family group is red-orange at the 1:00 o’clock position. The image below shows that the coloured pencil set of 48 includes 6 red-orange colour wheel family pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Red-Orange
The colour numbers, colour names, lightfast ratings and white paper colour swatches of the 6 Art Stix coloured pencils that belong to the red-orange colour wheel colour family.

Orange – 2:00 o’clock

The next colour on the colour wheel is orange at 2:00 o’clock. The coloured pencil set of 48 includes 2 orange pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Orange
The colour numbers, colour names, lightfast ratings and white paper swatch of the two orange Prismacolor Art Stix coloured pencils.

Orange-Yellow – 3:00 o’clock

Orange-Yellow sits at the 3:00 o’clock position. The image below shows that the range includes 3 orange-yellow colour wheel family coloured pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Orange-Yellow
The colour numbers, colour names, lightfast ratings and white paper swatches of the 3 orange-yellow Art Stix pencils.

Yellow – 4:00 o’clock

Yellow sits at 4:00 o’clock on the colour wheel. The 48 range of Art Stix includes 4 yellow pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Yellow
The colour numbers, colour names, lightfast ratings and white paper swatches of the 4 yellow Art Stix pencils.

Yellow-Green – 5:00 o’clock

At the 5:00 o’clock position sits yellow-green. The image below shows that the coloured pencil set of 48 includes 3 yellow-green coloured pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Yellow-Green
The coloured pencil details and white paper colour swatches for the three yellow-green Art Stix coloured pencils.

Green – 6:00 o’clock

The colour wheel family of green sits at the 6:00 o’clock position. The Artstix set of 48 includes 3 green coloured pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Green
The coloured pencil details and white paper colour swatches for the three green Art Stix coloured pencils.

Green-blue – 7:00 o’clock

Green-blue sits at 7:00 o’clock on the colour wheel. The Art Stix set of 48 includes 2 green-blue coloured pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Green-Blue
The coloured pencil details and white paper colour swatches for the two green-blue Art Stix coloured pencils.

Blue – 8:00 o’clock

Blue sits at the 8:00 o’clock position on the colour wheel. The Art Stix range holds 4 blue coloured pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Blue
The coloured pencil details and white paper colour swatches for the four blue Art Stix coloured pencils.

Blue-Violet – 9:00 o’clock

Blue-violet sits at the 9:00 o’clock position. The Art Stix range has 3 blue-violet coloured pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Blue-Violet
The coloured pencil details and white paper colour swatches for the three blue-violet Art Stix coloured pencils.

Violet – 10:00 o’clock

At the top end of the colour wheel sits violet. This is at the 10.:00 o’clock position. The Art Stix set has 5 violet pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Violet
The coloured pencil details and white paper colour swatches for the five violet Art Stix coloured pencils.

Violet-Red – 11:00 o’clock

Violet-red sits at the position of 11:00 o’clock. The Art Stix range has 5 violet-red coloured pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Violet-Red
The coloured pencil details and white paper colour swatches for the five violet Art Stix coloured pencils.

Colour wheel colour family – Summary

As you can see from the above images, the Prismacolor Art Stix range of woodless coloured pencils has colours in all colour wheel colours.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Bar Chart colour wheel colours
A bar chart showing a count of the Art Stix pencils that belong to colour wheel colour families.

Colour Wheel Colour Harmony Products
We have created products about Colour Wheel Colour Harmony. Use these products to help you create lists of your art and craft supplies sorted into colour families. Use it to create lists of your Prismacolor Art Stix. You can find information about the products here.

Neutral Colours

Of the Prismacolor Art Stix set of 48, 4 are neutral, and 2 are metallic. These are shown in the pie chart below.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Neutrals and Metallics Pie Chart
This pie chart shows a count of all the metallic and neutral pencils from the Prismacolor Art Stix coloured pencil range.

The breakdown of these pencils follows. First there are two metallic colours. Please note that 1950 Metallic gold contains copper and has a warning. See User Warning paragraph above.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Metallics
The details and white paper colour swatch of the two metallic colours in the Art Stix range.

The four neutral colours are shown in the image below.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Neutrals
The coloured pencil details and white paper colour swatches for the four neutral Art Stix coloured pencils.

The bar chart below shows another breakdown of the neutral and metallic Art Stix pencils.

Prismacolor Artstix 48 Neutrals and Metallics Bar Chart
This bar chart shows the breakdown of the neutrals and metaillic colours in the Art Stix range of coloured pencils.

As you can see, the discontinued Prismacolor Art Stix range of woodless coloured pencils is made up of a variety of colours and neutrals.

As noted above, the selection of colour is subjective and the reviewer has chosen colour by looking at the actual coloured pencil swatches. Nevertheless, you may find that particular colours belong in different groups or families.

Lightfastness

Of the 48 set of Art Stix coloured pencils, 12 have the lowest lightfast rating of V, 3 have the next lowest lightfast rating of IV, 9 have III, 9 have II and 15 have the highest lightfast rating of I.

Make your own colour chart

For your knowledge, it’s advisable to draw up your own colour chart so you can get to know the actual colours of your coloured pencils. You will then be able to see how your pencil performs on the papers you use in your drawings.

However, it takes a long time to make your own chart, and it usually is something that we don’t get around to doing.

If you’ve made your own charts – that’s great. But – as is practical, you might also have your charts in one physical place while you draw in another. You need to have access to the colours where you are – whether doing plein air sketching, or in the studio. Hopefully, wherever you are, you’ll have your mobile device and internet access.

Interactive Prismacolor Art Stix colour chart

To help you with this, the colour charts used in this post were rearranged by the colour wheel colour family above into a sortable and searchable format in an interactive colour chart. This should help you choose which of the Prismacolor Art Stix woodless coloured pencils to use. It will also help you get a better understanding of the colours available in this discontinued Art Stix range. Click on the button below and join our email list to access the interactive Art Stix colour chart.

Art Stix Colour Chart for Free

Do you like this post? Want to save it for later? Save it to your ‘Art Stix’ board on Pinterest.

Pinterest image of Prismacolor Artstix colour wheel pie chart. Text says'A closer look - Artstix - woodless Prismacolor Premier'. Read about it at Artnitso.com.

This post was originally published on 22 January 2020. It was updated on June 17, 2020 and on 16 August 2021. It was last updated on 6 May 2022.

Filed Under: Coloured Pencils, Drawing Tagged With: Prismacolor Artstix, Prismacolor Premier

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