Markers Guild: CARAN D´ACHE luminance

ASTM D6901

The pencil

This Swiss made pencil are round and a bit thicker then most colored pencils. It has a 3,8 mm thick core in cedar wood.

All colored pencils can be a bit difficult to read since the pencil is so tiny (compare to say a marker) Luminance has small letters in reflective silver (like so many others) but they have the names cross over (instead of along with the pencil) so you have to turn the pencil to be able to read the full name. For me, this is the pencil that is most difficult to read.

Luminance has their color names very close to the end of the pencil, which is convenient when you use them a lot, because you might be able to read the names even when it is only a little stump left.

Caran D´Ache Luminance

Characteristic

They can feel a bit dry but when you layer them they become softer for each layer.

The paper is very important for all colored pencils, but for Luminance maybe a little bit more. With the wrong kind of paper the pencil crumble a lot, some colors (mostly earth color) can still crumble even on quality paper.

They are an excellent choice if you want to draw on a colored paper. Even on black paper they give (depending on the pigment of course) opaque vibrant colors.

Cassel earth with a lump of clay

Some colors are very scratchy, (as an example French greys) and sometimes I have even found small lumps of clay (I guess it is clay anyway) that actually are visible. This has happened twice in my Cassel earth pencils.

Wooden box heaven

Caran d´ache is a high quality company that I knew for expensive pens more than art supplies. Luminance isn’t an old product.

It is typical that a brand with a high quality target should offer a beautiful wooden case for their product. In the wooden box you get the full set of 76 Luminance 6901, four doubles (001, 009, 162, 661), two graphite pencils Grafwood (HB and 5B) and two blenders.

Luminace case

Color range

It isn’t the largest set you can get and sometimes there are colors I miss. Two kinds of colors comes in mind; a warm brown, because even though they have a lot of earth colors, they all tend to be drawn to the colder side. The closes thing to a warm brown is burnt sienna, but it isn’t warm enough. Another color I wish they had is a warm soft, light pink that isn’t so magenta, rather lean to an orange, warmer tone. Even if I miss these colors there are colors in this set that are I cannot live without. All the raw umbers, the burnt sienna (they are so good), manganese violet, violet grey and burnt ochre are a few of my addictions.

I also love the percent idea. Normally most brands can offer a percent from 10% and up in the greys, but Luminance offer percent in a lot of the earth colors. I have painted with oil colors since I was a young teenager so for me, all the names makes me feel right at home. There are ochre, sienna and umber in the earth colors, Prussian, cobalt and phthalo in the blues. You will instantly know what you get. Also they list all pigment numbers on their color charts, which few if any other brands do.

The first color that I had to replace where the sepia, cassel earth and burnt ochre 10%.

Lightfast

They are the only colored pencil that offers a set where all colors are lightfast. The CPSA give all (except one, that got two stars) three stars.