Making a color chart for Prismacolor pencils

I don't guess you would actually call this a tutorial, I guess it's more like a tip. But it is something that I came up with to help me when I use my Prismacolor pencils when coloring. Of course, I alread knew what many colors looked like because I used them all of the time. However, many times I wanted to know if certain colors were the correct shade or color that I wanted for a project. Prior to this, I just colored a small amount on a piece of scrap paper to "try it out".

I thought there had to be an easier way. So I came up with the idea of making my own color chart with the actual color for each pencil. I decided to compose a color chart in Excel.

I had just recently received some pencils back from Sanford that they replaced for various reasons. I decided to include a column to identify any pencils that I had returned and one for pencils that I planned on returning.

I changed my colors around a little from the way they came in the box. However, if I had already checked out the shades of all my colors, I would have put some in different areas than where I had. (i.e. some blues look more purple than blue, etc.) I next typed all of the colors I had and made them into a grid for each tray. In the sample column I started from the right side with the darkest color of each pencil, then I took q-tips and used my gamsol to shade to the lightest color. (You can use one q-tip for several colors, as there isn't a large area to shade.)

Now, when you are coloring you know how dark and light the pencil will color in one layer. You also now know what the color really looks like, which can be helpful if you're trying to match papers.

I hope you find this useful. If you would like a copy of my chart (which is for the 132 set), please leave your email address in the comments, and I would be happy to send you the file. The file does not have the color in the box. This is left blank for you to color so you have the true color of your pencils.
dj1952