Origins: Eagle Pencil Company

The history of Prismacolor is intrinsically linked to the Eagle Pencil Company, founded in New York in 1856 by Daniel Berolzheimer. Eagle became a well-established manufacturer of pencils and other writing instruments before expanding into fine art materials.

In 1938, the Eagle Pencil Company introduced Eagle Prismacolor Colored Pencils, marking the official beginning of the Prismacolor brand. These original products eventually evolved into the soft-core and Verithin pencil families that define the brand today.1

Berol era

In 1969, Berol Ltd. acquired the Eagle Pencil Company. Following this acquisition, products were marketed as Berol Prismacolor Colored Pencils. During this period, the range expanded beyond coloured pencils to include additional dry-art media, such as graphite products.

A significant development occurred in 1984 when Berol introduced the Chisel/Fine Dual-Ended Art Marker. This innovation helped establish Prismacolor as a comprehensive art brand rather than solely a pencil manufacturer, strengthening its presence in commercial art and illustration.

Newell Brands

In 1995, Prismacolor was acquired by Newell Brands, under whose ownership the brand continued to develop as a premium fine-art label.1 Newell currently places Prismacolor within its Learning & Development segment, alongside brands such as Sharpie, Paper Mate, Elmer’s, and DYMO.

Although Prismacolor is most famous for its coloured pencils, its current portfolio encompasses several traditional art media. Official product categories include colored pencils, markers, graphite pencils, pastels, art sets, and accessories.1

Colored pencils

Colored pencils form the core of Prismacolor’s identity.

The most renowned line is Prismacolor Premier Soft Core, designed with a soft, creamy core that allows artists to blend, layer, shade, and build saturated areas of colour. Prismacolor describes these pencils as having rich pigments, smooth colour laydown, and leads engineered to resist cracking and chipping.1

The current range also includes:

• Premier Soft Core — soft, blendable colored pencils.
• Premier Verithin — harder, thinner cores intended for precise lines and details.
• Premier Col-Erase — erasable colored pencils useful for illustration and animation.
• Premier Water-Soluble — colored pencils designed to produce watercolor-like effects when activated with water.
• Scholar — a somewhat harder colored-pencil formulation aimed at developing artists and students.

Prismacolor currently offers Premier Soft Core sets in configurations ranging from small introductory kits to a comprehensive 150-color set, as well as individual pencils.1

Art markers

Prismacolor maintains a substantial marker portfolio.

Its Premier Dual-Ended Art Markers combine different tips, including Fine, Brush, and Chisel configurations, making them suitable for illustration, lettering, fashion, and design work. The brand’s history with dual-ended markers dates back to the 1980s.1

Prismacolor also produces Premier Illustration Markers, which are aimed at detailed illustration, outlining, lettering, and texture work.1

Graphite

The Prismacolor graphite range includes traditional drawing pencils such as Premier Turquoise and Premier Ebony, as well as graphite drawing sets. These products are intended for technical drawing, sketching, shading, and fine-art work.1

Pastels

Prismacolor’s pastel range includes Premier NuPastel Hard Pastels. These are semi-hard pastels suitable for detailed marks, broad coverage, blending, and shading. Their rectangular shape allows artists to utilise different edges of the stick for varied mark-making.1

Art sets and accessories

The company sells complete art sets containing combinations of pencils, markers, erasers, sharpeners, and other accessories. Some contemporary sets are organised around specific activities such as portrait drawing, landscape drawing, manga, hand lettering, and mixed media.1

Accessories include items such as:

• Pencil sharpeners
• Erasers
• Kneaded erasers
• Cases
• Blenders
• Other drawing accessories

Premier is arguably the most important product family within modern Prismacolor.

The Premier name covers multiple media rather than a single product type. Premier products include Soft Core and Verithin colored pencils, Col-Erase pencils, art markers, graphite products, NuPastel products, and various sets.

The Premier Soft Core Colored Pencil is particularly associated with Prismacolor’s reputation. Its soft wax-based core is designed to produce a smooth, creamy application, making it especially useful for layering, blending, gradients, portraits, shadows, and saturated color. Prismacolor distinguishes this formulation from its Scholar pencils, which use a harder wax component and are consequently less prone to breakage.1

Prismacolor products are generally designed around several key characteristics:

Saturated color

Prismacolor emphasises rich and saturated pigments, particularly in its Premier colored pencils. This makes the brand popular for artwork where strong colour intensity is essential.1

Smooth application

The soft-core Premier pencils are known for their relatively smooth application. Compared with harder colored pencils, they can deposit substantial amounts of pigment relatively quickly.1

Blending and layering

The soft core makes Premier pencils particularly suited to layering and blending. Artists can gradually build colours, mix optical colour effects, create transitions, and produce relatively painterly surfaces using only colored pencils.1

Detail and precision

Prismacolor’s product ecosystem is not limited to soft pencils. Verithin pencils provide harder, finer points for outlines and details, while Col-Erase pencils provide the ability to make corrections. This gives artists access to different pencil characteristics within the same brand.1

One characteristic that colored-pencil users sometimes encounter with Prismacolor Premier pencils is wax bloom.

Wax bloom is a natural oxidation process associated with wax-based colored-pencil materials. It can appear as a cloudy or whitish film on the surface of artwork after substantial layering. Prismacolor recommends wiping the surface with a clean, dry cloth and using an appropriate fixative when necessary. The company notes that wax bloom can be particularly noticeable in warmer climates or when artists apply significant pressure.1

This phenomenon is not unique to Prismacolor; it is a characteristic associated with wax-based colored pencils generally.

Color selection is one of Prismacolor’s major selling points.

The brand’s Premier Soft Core system has historically been associated with a 150-color palette, and the current official store continues to offer a 150-pencil set.1

Prismacolor also sells individual pencils, allowing artists to replace frequently used colours or build customised palettes rather than purchasing an entire set.1

The brand occasionally changes individual colors. For example, Prismacolor discontinued Lilac (956) and Lavender (934) following a raw-material discontinuation and introduced Amethyst (1104) and Orchid (1105) as replacement colours.1

Prismacolor occupies a relatively broad position in the art-supply market.

Its products are used by:

• Professional artists
• Illustrators
• Graphic and commercial designers
• Art students
• Teachers
• Hobby artists
• Adult coloring enthusiasts
• Beginning artists

Newell specifically describes Prismacolor as serving art students, teachers, and design professionals, while the brand itself markets products across different skill levels.1

Prismacolor’s reputation is strongly associated with premium colored pencils, especially the Premier Soft Core line.

Its appeal stems from the combination of:

1. High pigment saturation
2. Soft, creamy application
3. Strong blending capability
4. Large color selection
5. Individual-color availability
6. A broad ecosystem of complementary art media

The brand therefore occupies a position between traditional student art supplies and specialist professional materials. Its products are accessible enough for hobbyists and students while offering characteristics that are attractive to professional illustrators and designers. Newell describes the brand as a leader in professional art supplies with more than 70 years of history.

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• 1856 — Eagle Pencil Company founded in New York.
• 1938 — Eagle launches Eagle Prismacolor Colored Pencils.
• 1969 — Eagle becomes part of Berol; the pencils become known as Berol Prismacolor.
• 1984 — Berol introduces its Chisel/Fine Dual-Ended Art Marker.
• 1995 — Prismacolor is acquired by Newell Brands.
• 2007 — Prismacolor introduces Fine Line Illustration Markers.
• 2011 — The Premier Soft Core range expands to 150 colors.
• 2012 — Brush/Fine Dual-Ended Art Markers are introduced in a large color range.
• 2013 — Prismacolor celebrates its 75th anniversary.

Prismacolor is currently part of Newell Brands, a major consumer-products company whose portfolio includes brands such as Sharpie, Paper Mate, Elmer’s, Rubbermaid, and Graco. Newell identifies Prismacolor as part of its Learning & Development portfolio.

The ownership history can be summarised as:

Eagle Pencil Company → Berol → Newell Brands

It is important to distinguish that 1856 is the founding year of Eagle Pencil Company, while 1938 is the founding/introduction year of the Prismacolor brand itself.1

Prismacolor has become particularly recognisable in the colored-pencil community because its Premier Soft Core pencils allow artists to approach colored pencil drawing almost like painting. Rather than relying solely on thin, hard lines, artists can build large areas of opaque or semi-opaque colour through repeated layers.

This makes Prismacolor especially associated with:

• Realistic portraits
• Animal drawings
• Botanical illustration
• Still life
• Fan art
• Character illustration
• Adult coloring
• Fashion illustration
• Concept and commercial illustration

Its extensive colour system and availability as individual pencils have also encouraged artists to develop highly customised palettes.

Strengths

• Rich, saturated colors
• Very smooth application
• Excellent blending and layering potential
• Large range of colors
• Individual pencils available
• Multiple hardness/formulation options
• Broad range of complementary art media
• Long-established brand history

Limitations

The same softness that makes Premier pencils attractive for blending can also make them less ideal for extremely fine details unless paired with a harder pencil such as Verithin. Soft wax-based pencils can also experience wax bloom, particularly after heavy layering.1

In addition, the Premier Soft Core range is positioned above basic student-grade colored pencils in price, reflecting its premium positioning.

Prismacolor is one of the best-known American art-supply brands specializing in colored pencils and related traditional media. Although its corporate roots extend back to the Eagle Pencil Company of 1856, Prismacolor itself dates to 1938, when Eagle introduced Eagle Prismacolor Colored Pencils. After passing through Berol, the brand became part of Newell Brands in 1995.1

Today, Prismacolor’s identity is centred on rich pigment, smooth application, blending, layering, and a broad range of artistic tools. Its Premier Soft Core colored pencils are the brand’s signature product, while Verithin, Col-Erase, Scholar, Water-Soluble, markers, graphite, and NuPastel products extend the brand into different artistic techniques.1

In simple terms, Prismacolor can be thought of as a long-established, premium-oriented colored-pencil and traditional-art brand whose defining characteristic is highly blendable, saturated color.

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