Now I am kind of suprised NO ONE has written a review for Prismacolor Pencils (I guess there's no drawers on Epinions). So, I guess I'll take on the task, seeing how I use them constantly myself.

WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT PRISMACOLOR PENCILS
If you asked this question, then you have obviously never used a Prismacolor Pencil. Often people don't care what brand of pencil they buy as long as it works. So what's so great about Prismacolor? Why spend way more money for these pencils when you can buy some for cheap, like Crayola? These pencils are special soft thick lead pencils with a waxy-rich texture. These, folks, are professional color pencils. Yes, put down your Crayolas and bow down to the superior Prismas =) You can not get the same effects when coloring without these pencils. The blending is supreb and the color variations available are nothing but impressive. The quality seen in Prismacolor pencils are obvious and when you master them, you can pull off near-painting-like visual specticals.

HOW MUCH ARE THESE PENCILS AGAIN!!?
How much? Expensive, that's how much. The standard set which most buy (Both for price and number of pencils included) is the 48 color set. The price can range from anywhere between $40 - $50. What else is available? Sets of 12, 24, 48, 72, 96, and 120. Now personally, you don't need to go and buy a set of 120 pencils for over $100. You can always blend good enough with a 48 color set. I remember when I got to my art class in highschool, I was the only one with a Prismacolor set. After they found out how nice the drawings were coming out, almost half the class bought the 48 color set. That's got to show something about these pencils.

WAIT, I USED UP MY BLACK PENCIL IN MY SET, NOW WHAT
Unlike painting (where black should be avoided), Prismacolors MUST have black and you'll find yourself using it a lot. So don't buy a set of Prismas and take your art teacher's advise and throw away your black. That only applies to painting for the most part and old art teachers might not know that because Prismacolors don't get as much publicity as, say, oil paints. You cannot fake a rich black color by mixing other colors and instead you must use black and then mix it with another color for a rich black color. Now when drawing, the black color pencil is one of the first to go if your drawings are dark. This is a problem because you just bought an expensive set and now what good is it if it's missing one of the most important colors! Now as a newbie, some things might be going on in your mind. "What if I just use a cheap Crayola black and use it with my Prismas?" Sometimes ok, but usually a bad idea. The Prismacolors mix well with other Prismacolors and while you may not like this discrimination among your color pencils, it's just a simple fact that Crayola's won't mix well and will stand out due to it's different lead contents. Try to avoid mixing pencil brands. Now, you also might pull another thought like this one:"Do they even sell one black pencil anywhere?" Yes, they do. Guess how much one pencil is? About $1.10 For one pencil, feels like a rip. You won't really find a lot of good deals so best you get a hold of an art magazine and order a 12 box set of black for about $14 to save you time. Another pencil I find that goes almost as quick as black is white. White is like my blender color. You can also purchase a blending tool for Prismacolors, but you don't really need it. So store up your blacks and whites!

HEY, NOW I'M INTERESTED IN PRISMACOLORS!
Good for you. If you like to draw, this is the next step. If you used to just draw with a pencil and just in black and white, you need to grab this set and see what a difference color makes. If you didn't like how you had to set up your paints and clean up and want to try out these clean and easy to use color pencils, please do!

SOUNDS GOOD! ANYTHING BAD ABOUT PRISMACOLOR PENCILS?
Besides the price sometimes being an issue, the color pencils themselves have one minor flaw. After drawing on a big piece of paper with only Prismacolor Pencils, after a while you will probably notice a white waxy film on your art. Some rub their hand on it which makes it go away but it soon returns after a while. What is it? Some kind of waxy residue. But luckily for you, I've used these pencils for so long that I found out how to fix this problem just a couple months ago. All you need is a cotton ball. Just take the cotton ball and rub it on your drawing to take off all the waxy film. Make sure you get it all off. Press hard enough so you're not doing it too lightly. This won't mess up your drawing at all. Now I am not sure why this works, but it does. Something to do with the cotton texture and material and the friction, etc. After doing this, your drawing will have a nice shinny look, and no more annoying waxy film! =D

I CANT GET THE INTENSE WHITE I WANT! STUPID PENCILS!
Sometimes I notice I can't get an intense white with my pencils. Get creative! Go ghetto! Use whiteout. That's the best way to get that pure intense white you want for that highlight in the guitar or the shine in that motorcycle. Use it sparingly and perferably only with metal and shinny objects. Also, the whiteout pens have great control. And you can chip away at it if you want to change it's shape. Blend your Prismacolors over it if that will mak it look better. I've noticed it's best to keep your drawing just Prismacolor pencil usually. But whiteout sometimes will really improve your drawing if you lack that intense white highlight.

MY PRISMACOLORS GET USED UP TO QUICK!
Well duh, that's because you're busting out a newb move and you're sharpining your pencils with an electric sharpener! Use a handheld sharpener or even an exacto knife. You'll save a lot more lead that way. If you are going to use a color jsut to color up a large area, don't sharpen your pencil to a point. Shave it down manually and keep all the lead. It will be blunt but you don't need to do any details when coloring big areas. ;)

THE DAMN LEAD KEEPS BREAKING!
Ah, that's annoying. You just sharpned your pencil and as soon as you plant it down on paper it cracks off? You're drawing roughly and the leads snaps? Well, this WILL happen. They are just pencils. The soft lead doesn't help. Try to avoid dropping these pencils and try not to press VERY hard. If a large lead chunk cracks off, you can pick that piece up and use it a little if you're that cheap, lol.

MY PENCIL IS TOO SHORT TO USE BUT THERE'S SO MUCH LEAD LEFT!
Oh, don't throw them away! Just because they're like three inches long doesn't mean it's time to throw them in the dumpster. They have so much lead left. So what should you do? Here's THE best way. Get another pencil (preferably of the same color) and put the ends together and tape it. Clear tape...just keep taping around till it's secure. Now you can use the short pencil till it's three centimeters!

ALL THESE PENCIL SHAVINGS WHEN I DRAW!
When you use your pencil to draw a large area, you'll get all this excess pencil shavings. They're like waxy shards. Make sure you blow them off you drawing because they WILL stick to your paper. And that doesn't look professional, especially if you were planning on keeping the background white. And now it looks like rainbow connfetti.

WHAT ARE THESE OTHER TYPES OF PRISMACOLOR?
Verithin and Watercolor Prismas are also good brands you might have heard about. Verithin are harder versions of these soft Prismas. this way you can work in even more intricate details (Though Prismas are good enough). The watercolor Prismas are pencils that you draw with and add water to to get a watercolor look.
CONCLUSION
Okay, hopefully I didn't bore you with all this info on color pencils. These are great color pencils which blend wondefully and are very professional quality. The price is worth what you get out of them, especially if you get the 48 color set ;)

Recommended: Yes