It can be a drag, trying to find the right colors for your artwork. The color of the pencil itself may not represent the color once it’s put to paper. To help yourself to the right color selection, you may consider swatching your pencils.

Swatching means you use a stencil that contains the color names and numbers, and the actual color as it appears on paper. Obviously, you’re the one doing the actual coloring thing, but many websites offer printable stencils. Most of them offer those stencils for sale. You pay a small amount and then you get to download the stencil.

Well, I don’t. 

Below you find the swatch stencils of most professional brands to download for free (simp[y click on the image to enlarge and then rightclick to download. And if your brand isn’t among these, simply download the blank stencil and fill in the names and numbers of the colors yourself! 

 

Bruynzeel

These are soft pastel pencils. The swatch covers all 48 colors.

Caran d'Ache

These are soft pastel pencils. The swatch covers 84 colors

Conté á Paris

These are pencils of medium hardness. The swatch covers all 48 colors

Cretacolor

These are medium to soft pencils. The swatch covers all 72 colors

Derwent

These are soft pastel pencils. The swatch covers all 72 colors

Faber Castell Pitt

These are hard pencils. The swatch covers all 60 colors.

Koh-i-Noor Gioconda

These are soft pastel pencils. The swatch covers over 48 colors (old and new ones) of two series mixed

Stabilo CarbOthello

These are soft to medium pencils. The swatch covers all 60 colors

Blank

No swatch to match your brand? Download this blank swatch stencil!