Back to  Paintings and Drawings

Lightfastness of coloured pencils

These colours have been used on Canford black paper, framed under glass, and exposed in a window for a minimum of 2.5 years.
The centre of each sheet was covered with another piece of black paper to protect it from the light. The gradings represent the difference between the covered and exposed portions of the paper.
3 = no perceptible colour change or lightening
2 = barely perceptible lightening
1 = clearly perceptible lightening
0 = unacceptable colour change



C80
D21
C82
C81
D18
C51
D16
D15
D14
C60
C50
C30
C20
C10
C25
C11
C35
D57
D58
D62
C59
D69
C1?


0
1
1
2
1
2
3
0
2
0
1
0
2
1
3
3
3
3
3
2
1
1
3




C140
C260
D50
C225
C19
C18
C249
D48
C161
C159
D35
C260
C141
C140
C131
C120
C110
C111
C100
C90


0
0
3
2
3
3
3
2
2
2
0
1
3
1
0
0
2
0
1
0
2




C1+S445
D68

D35
S420

C159
C140

D29
C260

S445
C161

C141

S435
S520

S642
S565



1

1
1

0
0

0
3

1
2

1

1
2

1
1
 

F140
D1
D6
D4
F141
F139
F146
F144
F110
C49
C130
C91
C231
C240
C300
C350
D54
C211
C1
D72
S575
S645
S565

2
2
2
1
1
3
3
2
2
2
1
1
3
3
3
2
3
3
3
3
1
1
1
C100
D23
C110
C120
D25
F141
C130
F139

 0
0
0
1
0
1
1
3



In the table below, only Caran d'Ache pencils have their correct colour names so far. The rest are purely descriptive

Make
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C

C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
SS
SS
SS
SS
SS
SS
SS
SS
 No.
1
10
11
18
19
20
30
35
43
47
49
50
51
53
59
60
80
81
82
90
91
100
110
111
120
130
131
140
141
150
159
161
169
211
225
231
240
249
250
260
300
350
370
402
404
1
4
6
14
15
16
18
21
23
25
29
35
48
49
50
54
57
58
62
68
69
72
101
110
120
139
140
141
144
146
420
435
445
520
565
575
642
645
 Colour
white
yellow
pale yellow
olive grey
olive black
golden yellow
orange
ochre
brownish orange
bistre
umber
flame red
salmon
hazel
brown
vermilion
carmine
pink
rose pink
purple
light purple
purple violet
lilac
mauve
violet
royal blue
periwinkle blue
ultramarine
sky blue
sapphire blue
prussian blue
light blue
marine blue
jade green
moss green
lime green
lemon yellow
olive
canary yellow
blue
fast orange
purplish red
gentian blue
light beige
brownish beige
yellow
cream
yellow
red
red
pink
pink
red
mauve
mauve
blue
blue
green
green
green
brown
ochre
ochre
ochre
blue
grey
white
white
blue
blue
mauve
blue
mauve
blue
blue
blue
blue
blue
green
green
green
pink
red
 Grade
3
2
2
3
3
2
2
2
3
3
2
2
1
3
2
2
2
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
2
2
1
2
1
3
2
3
3
2
2
2
3
2
3
3
3
3
3
 
3
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
3
 my grade
3
1
3
3
3
2
0
3
 
 
2
1
2
 
1
0
0
2
1
2
1
0
0
1
1.5
1
0
0
1
 
0
2
 
3
3
3
3
2
3
3
3
2
 
 
 
2
1
2
2
0
3
1
1
0
0
0
1
2
 
2
3
3
3
2
1
1
3
 
2
 
3
2
1
2
3
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1

Caran d’Ache
Derwent
Faber Castell
Schwann Stabilo