Prismacolor Premier Marker Review

Prismacolor Premier Assorted Markers can be found on Amazon here, for about $13, which is approximately $1.87 per pen. This makes the most expensive pen compared to Sakura Micron, Art-n-Fly, and Staedtler Pigment Liners.  I have always thought of Prismacolor as the elite of the elite art supply, which is probably why this is my first and only art supply with that brand name. But I knew that I just had to review it. First off, this does have Archival ink, which is water proof and fade proof. I would expect nothing less from Prismacolor.

As you can see here, there are seven different tips that came in this set to include Chisel, Brush, .08, .05, .03, .01, and .005. This is a complete set and even offers one up, meaning the chisel tip, than the Sakura Microns in exchange for the .02 tip. One of the first things that I noticed when I opened this package is that these pens were a lot thinner than the others I have reviewed. They are also longer as I have pictured below next to the Sakura Pigma Micron.

The second thing I noticed was that these pens, just like those comparable to it, have the sizes of the tips printed on the caps as well as the side of the pen. I love that both are noted instead of having one or the other. However, a con right off the bat was the fact that it actually was difficult removing the cap from the pen. I am not sure if this will get better with time, or if it is the fact that the caps get thinner at the tip, which makes it hard to grasp with the clip running the same size the length of the cap. Of course, this is just my initial observations of the pen.

As you will notice, there is a B for Brush Tip and a C for Chisel Tip, in with these other sizes. And the size seems to be actually engraved into the tips. The only other pen I have reviewed that had this feature seemed to be the Staedtler Pigment Liners. To me, this says higher quality.

Writing with each of the tips was interesting. The chisel tip I decided to write with the smallest point of the tip and then underline with the wider point to show the variety of ways that it can be used. I am a fan of the Chisel Tip and I would like to have it in the set over the .02 that are in other sets.

The brush tip was way better than the Micron one in my opinion simply because there seemed to be more control in the tip of the marker. I still need a lot of practice using brush markers, but now that I have a few to play around with, I will have to work on that. The ink was really smooth though and I had no skips or angles which it skipped.

Each of the other tips .08 through .005, were equal to the Staedtler Pigment Liner tips. The longer metal guard seems to help easy my mind on the amount of pressure I am applying. It does seem to be a reoccurring theme that the smaller the tip requires the easier the pressure applied. Regardless of the pressure, the ink flowed extremely smooth and it was very comfortable to write with.

The bleed through actually surprised me. It seems to have the worse bleed through the thicker the tip, but then the smaller the tip, you can barely even see it coming through the paper. As a disclaimer, I am using the everyday printer paper for each of these reviews to level the playing field.

Final Thoughts:

After reviewing this product, I was both sad and happy. First off, I was happy that I finally took the time to compare this product to the others. It is my believe that the art supply doesn’t make the artist. This pen is a high quality pen that does live up to its name. The bleed through doesn’t bother me too bad as I only draw one-sided anyways. So keep this in mind when you are figuring out what paper you are using. I would recommend this product to artists out there.

If you have any tests you would like to see or if you would like for me to perform a specific test, please let me know in the comments below.