Umm — The Book Kit

Colored pencils, and what actually separates them

A set comes in the kit. It is good enough that you never have to think about this page — but every page in the book is drawn to be colored, and if you are going to spend months on it you may want to know what the money buys.

The one thing that matters

Pigment load. Everything else follows from it. A pencil is pigment held in a binder of wax or oil; cheap pencils are mostly binder with a little pigment and filler, which is why they look pale, need pressing hard, and burnish to a shine before the color arrives. Artist-grade pencils are the opposite, and they lay color down on the first pass.

Why it matters for these plates specifically: the ink is built from separated marks with paper showing between them. That is what makes a page colorable rather than just printed. Pressing hard with a cheap pencil closes those gaps and flattens the drawing you were coloring.

The tiers

Classroom, around $0.10 a pencilHigh filler, low pigment. Fine for a child's coloring book. Not fine here — they will make good plates look cheap, and that is the whole reason a set is in the kit rather than left to chance.

Student grade, around $0.50 a pencilThe step that actually matters. Enough pigment to cover in one pass, soft enough to blend. This is what ships in the kit. Most people should stop here.

Artist grade, $2–4 a pencilMore pigment, better lightfastness, and a much wider range. Worth it if you already draw, or if you find yourself doing every plate in color and enjoying it. Not worth it to start.

Wax or oil

Wax is softer, blends easily, and can bloom — a faint haze that appears weeks later and wipes off. Oil is harder, holds a point far longer, and suits line work and small areas. For these pages, oil-based is the better default, because the plates have a lot of small enclosed shapes and a pencil that keeps its point saves constant sharpening.

Lightfastness, and when to care

Sleeved in the Volume, in a closed book, in a dark cupboard, lightfastness barely matters — fading needs light. It matters for exactly one case: a plate you intend to frame and hang. If you plan to, buy an artist-grade set rated for it, and hang it out of direct sun anyway.

If you want the set that comes in the kit and nothing more, that is the expected answer and not a compromise.