Derwent Chromaflow Colouring Pencils certainly stand out from the crowd with their slim, matt, black barrels and gold lettering. They offer colour pencil enthusiasts a colouring tool with an exceptionally soft core that allows for easy layering and blending. We took a look at this new pencil range to see what they could bring to your artwork and how they compare to the rest of the Derwent pencil range.

Derwent Chromaflow Coloured Pencils are an ultra-slim, soft core colouring pencil and are the latest addition to the Derwent range. Their thin barrels have an ergonomic design that makes them comfortable to hold – even for long drawing sessions. Chromaflow have a wax base and offer a combination of smooth coverage and vibrant colour that packs a punch even on dark surfaces. They’re made to the same professional quality as other Derwent pencils, but the price is kept affordable to make them more accessible for beginners. You can use them with all kinds of drawing styles and techniques – so they’re equally suitable whether you’re a seasoned professional or a coloured pencil enthusiast!

What are Derwent Chromaflow Colouring Pencils?

Derwent Chromaflow Colouring Pencils are an affordable wax-based pencil that have working properties ideally suited to beginners. They have a slim barrel and soft, creamy core that makes it easy to apply and blend colour. They are suitable for most drawing and sketching techniques and are currently available in sets up to 24 colours.

Ultra Slim Barrel

Each Derwent Chromaflow has a stylish matt, black barrel finished with gold colour lettering. Like all other Derwent coloured pencils, they are finished with a diagonal flash of colour matched to the colour of the pencil core. This makes it very easy to identify the colour you need – very helpful if you have lots of pencils to sift through. Each pencil also features a colour name, followed by a colour code and the prestigious ‘Made in Britain’ stamp.

Smooth colour application

Chromaflow pencils have a soft, wax based core that makes it easy to apply and blend colour. Their highly blendable texture essentially puts a whole world of colour at your fingertips.

Vibrant colour even on dark surfaces

Chromaflow pencils are available in a broad range of colours. Each pencil has high pigmentation and delivers vibrant colour – even on dark surfaces! The colours available have astonishing vibrancy and have fantastic coverage.

Point Strength

Despite their softness, these pencils have excellent point strength. They have excellent resilience under pressure and, while they don’t offer the firmest of Derwent’s pencil cores, you can use them for work with reasonably fine details. Their strength also results in less chipping and breakages you won’t need to sharpen them as often.

Other specifications

Derwent test all their artists’ pencils using the Blue Wool test (ISO 105) to evaluate their lighfastness. Lightfastness records the chemical stability of an artists pigment after exposure to light for a long period. The test ranks colours from 1 to 8, with anything ranking higher than 6 officially consdered highly lightfast. If a colour is considered lightfast it is generally accepted that it will remain stable, under museum conditions for 100+ years. Chromaflow have fairly good results, with 60% of colours achieving a grade of 6 or above. This degree of lightfastness should certainly be fine for any artists working in sketchbooks, or using colour pencils as a hobby. If fade resistance is very important to you it may be better opting for a 100% lighfast range like Derwent Lightfast.

Derwent do list Chromaflow as vegan on their colour charts. However, they have no guarantees that the raw materials they use to make their pencils are not tested on animals.

Derwent make all their pencil using ingredients that comply with ASTMd-4236 standards and are therefore safe to use.

What type of work are Chromaflow best for?

Chromaflow are compatible with a broad range of drawing and sketching techniques. They’re highly blendable, so are ideal for colour pencil artists looking to create seamless gradations of colour. They’re also sure to please any artist looking to achieve super saturated, rich hues – especially if they’re working on tinted papers or card.

These pencils are compatible with most types of paper, but they perform at their best on smooth surface paper. Derwent Lightfast Paper Pads are made with a smooth surface, and bring out the best blending capabilities of colour pencils. Other smooth surfaces like cartridge paper, bristol board and hot press watercolour paper would also be suitable.

Chromaflow pencils are also erasable, making it easy to correct your drawings or to create highlights in your work. While most erasers will be suitable, they do work partocularly well with Derwent Specialist Artist Erasers, Multi-Use Erasers and their USB Rechargeable Eraser.

They should also fit most pencil sharpeners. Under testing, Derwent Battery Operated Twin Hole Sharpener, Derwent SuperPoint Manual Pencil Sharpener and the Derwent SuperPoint Mini Manual Pencil Sharpener gave this pencil a particularly fine point.

How do Chromaflow compare to other Derwent Pencils?

Chromaflow offer some similar working properties to other Derwent colour pencils, so it can be difficult to work out if they’re the right pencil for you. Here we’ve compared their performance to other Derwent pencils to help you determine which of the ranges would be best for you.

Chromaflow vs Procolour

Chromaflow have a much softer texture than Procolour and blend differently. While Chromaflow do have a strong point, Procolour’s is much firmer. This firmness brings added durability, making Procolour the pencil of choice for any pencil artist working in fine detail. Procolour also have a slightly wider core and are available in a broader colour range.

Chromaflow vs Coloursoft

Both Chromaflow and Coloursoft boast exceptionally soft cores, however the core of Coloursoft pencils is slightly softer and smoother. This affects the way each pencil lays down and blends. Overall the Chromaflow range offers better blending performance. This puts a broader mixing palette at your fingertips. Artists looking to cover large areas quickly may prefer Coloursoft due to their slightly wider core.

Chromaflow vs Lightfast

Chromaflow and Lightfast are quite different in that the former is wax-based and the latter is oil-based. The oil content of Lightfast does open up the possibility of working with solvents to achieve painterly effects – something that isn’t as effective with the Chromaflow range. Lightfast also have a much larger, stronger pencil core. The 100% lightfastness rating of Derwent Lightfast would probably make them a more suitable choice for professional artists over Chromaflow.

Derwent’s best professional colour pencil for hobbyists

Overall, Chromaflow are a valuable new addition to Derwent’s catalogue. They’d ideally suit any artist looking to explore creating coloured pencil artwork for the first time, or even for hobbyists looking for a pencil to use in a colouring book. There’s nothing stopping you from mixing Derwent pencils either! If you have a few different pencils from a number of ranges try mixing them together to see what kinds of effects you can create.

Buy your Derwent Chromaflow pencils now as loose stock or in various set sizes.