Personal experience is the best guide to finding the brands of colored pencils most 
useful to you. Another consideration is whether or not a particular brand is available in
 open stock as well as in sets. You may ultimately use a combination of brands. Here 
are some of the pencils now available.

A. Empire Berol Prismacolor (USA)
	Excellent smooth and buttery "lay-down"; superior hue saturation; soft, thick 
leads. This pencil is wax-based and not water soluble. Widely available.

B. Empire Berol Verithin (USA)
	Compared to A, leads are thinner and harder; hues less saturated; application
 less granular.

C. Rexel Cumberland Derwent Artists (Great Britian)
	Drier and harder than A; application less granular; wax bloom less likely. 
Spotty availability.

D. Rexel Cumberland Derwent Studio (Great Britian)
	Drier and harder than A. More widely available than C.

E. FaberCastell Design Spectracolor (USA)
	In many ways very similar to A.

F. Lyra Rembrant Polycolor (Germany)
	Silky lay-down with extremely soft leads that can be rubbed somewhat. 
Oil-based, so has no wax bloom problem.

G. Caran D'Ache Supracolor II Soft (Switzerland)
	Water soluble; velvety (not buttery) lay-down; colors more intense when used
 wet.

H. Rexel Cumberland Derwent Watercolour (Great Britain)
	Similar to G. Only pencil in this aquous group of four with named colors; 
other brands number only.

I. Lyra Rembrandt Aquarell (Germany)
	Gimilar to G but with less tinting strength.

J. Bruynzeel Aquarel (Holland)
	Very soft pencil. Similar to G.

K. Lyra Farb-Riese Color Giant (Germany)
	Hefty-sized pencil limited to 18 unnamed colors. Handles much like other 
wax-based pencils. Needs special oversized sharpener.

L. FaberCastell Col-erase (USA)
	Hard, thin lead; weak hue saturation.


Borgeson, Bet "The Colored Pencil: Key Concepts for Handling the Medium"
1995, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York