고품질 색연필의 과학적 원리

### 전문가용 색연필에 숨겨진 예술과 과학
* 🎨 모든 색연필은 밝은 가루 안료로 시작하지만, 다채로운 색의 심으로 변모하는 과정에는 **전문가용 연필과 학생용 연필을 구분하는 비법**이 숨어 있습니다.
* 💰 전문가용 색연필(예: **파버카스텔 폴리크로모 120개 세트)은 약 350달러**로, 크레이올라 같은 저렴한 대체품보다 훨씬 비싸기 때문에 품질 차이가 극명하게 드러납니다.
* 🔬 고품질의 색연필을 생산하는 것은 정밀한 과학이며, 파버카스텔은 최적의 성능을 위해 **특정 입자 크기가 필요한 안료**를 사용하여 **연간 23억 개의 연필**을 생산하고 있습니다.
* 🧪 전문가용 펜슬에 사용되는 오일, 왁스, 필러의 독특한 조합으로 **각 컬러에 맞는 맞춤형 포뮬러**가 만들어져 일관된 질감과 생생한 발림성을 보장합니다.
* ✏ 이 연필은 코어로 성형된 후 엄격한 품질 테스트를 거쳐 내구성을 보장하며, **파버카스텔의 코어는 최소 3.3kg의 압력을 부러지지 않고 견딜 수 있도록 설계**되었습니다.
* 🌈 베서니 베레와 같은 아티스트는 사실적인 인물화를 그리기 위해 **전문가용 연필의 뛰어난 블렌딩 능력**에 의존하며, 저렴한 브랜드는 **왁스 블룸과 같은 바람직하지 않은 결과**를 초래하는 경우가 많다고 강조합니다.
* 📏 전문가용 펜슬의 다양한 색조로 미묘한 그라데이션과 사실적인 디테일을 표현할 수 있어 **오래 지속되는 고품질 작품**을 지향하는 아티스트에게 필수적입니다.
* 🌞 색상의 수명, 즉 내광성은 아티스트에게 매우 중요한 요소로, **파버카스텔의 별 3개 등급 색상은 시간이 지나도 변색을 최소화**하여 광범위한 연구와 개발로 인해 높은 가격을 정당화할 수 있습니다.

파버카스텔과 같은 전문가용 색연필은 높은 가격을 정당화할 만큼 뛰어난 품질과 성능을 제공합니다.

Narrator: Every colored pencil starts off like this: bright, powdery pigment. But it's the secret recipe for transforming these pigments into colorful cores that sets professional pencils apart from student-grade ones. Every ingredient, from pigments to waxes and oils and even the wood, is carefully chosen to make these pencils perform better on paper. And artists are often willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for this level of performance. A set of 120 Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils costs $350, 14 times as much as a similar box of Crayola colored pencils. And some brands price their sets at over $550. But professionals say that compared to cheaper alternatives like Crayola, the difference in quality is glaring. It's quite chalky and waxy in comparison to this, which has taken so many more layers. Narrator: Making high-quality colored pencils involves more science than art.

So, how did chemists and engineers perfect them? And why are they so expensive? At Faber-Castell's factory in Stein, Germany, workers churn out a whopping 2.3 billion pencils a year. Making them takes a surprising amount of precision, starting with these, the pigments. Just like people, the particles of each pigment have their own distinct personality and behavior. Some are rough and edgy and scratch across the paper, while others are smooth and silky. But size also matters, down to the micrometer. Faber-Castell says ideally, 90% of the pigment particles should have a diameter of less than 40 micrometers. It says this is perfect for creating a core with a consistent texture and vibrant color that applies smoothly. Narrator: Balancing the pigments' behavior requires adjusting the other ingredients. Unlike cheaper alternatives, professional colored pencils have a lot more pigment than filler, so it's important

that the balance of ingredients is just right. The ingredients are top secret, but Gerhard Lugert, a chemist at Faber-Castell, told Business Insider it's a specific combination of oils, waxes, and fillers that binds the pigments. The result is this mixture: dough-like clumps of color. But each color has a bespoke formula because not all pigments are created equal. Narrator: After the mysterious blend of waxes, oils, and fillers is mixed with the pigment, it's pushed through this high-pressure machine. The result: identical pencil-length cylindrical cores. Workers bake the cores in batches to harden them. Then, they dip the dry cores in a melted mixture of waxes and fatty acid derivatives. Faber-Castell's colored-pencil cores are 3.8 millimeters in diameter, making them less likely to break compared to Crayola's 3.3-millimeter cores.

The company randomly tests cores from each batch to make sure they won't break under pressure. Quality testers apply pressure to the cores at a 60-degree angle. They shouldn't break until the force is at least 3.3 kilograms. The core's performance is also scrutinized with smear tests like this one. Narrator: Pencil cores made by different brands each have their own characteristics. The wax base of Caran d'Ache's Luminance pencils is soft, so the color melts into the paper. That makes them great for creating gradients. Faber-Castell's colored pencils, on the other hand, have a harder core, so they're best for fine lines and realistic details. Even the wood encasing the cores of professional-grade pencils is carefully considered. A pencil's wood determines how long the pencil will last and how well it will sharpen. Narrator: At the factory, the cedar is cut into planks,

which are stored for months until they're dry. Grooves are milled into the wood, and the cores are slotted into the planks. Another identical plank is glued on top, and they're pressed together before the next machine cuts them into perfect pencils. But the pencils shouldn't just perform well. They must also look and feel expensive. Workers mix dyes to the exact color of the cores to create a water-based varnish for the outside of the pencils. Another machine coats each pencil with this varnish. The pencils are then stamped with the company's branding, and the end caps are dipped again, rounding out the top of the pencil. Every step of the way, the pencils are checked for visual defects, like chips and varnish irregularities, and the faulty ones are removed. Bethany: My collection of pencils now is probably worth, I would say, about £600, £700. Narrator: That's Bethany Vere,

and she knows a thing or two about colored pencils. She has about 400 high-end ones, which she uses to make realistic animal portraits that can sell for up to $6,500. And each brand and each type of pencil works, and they complement each other so well. So I tend to use the Caran d'Ache Luminance because they're wax-based, so it creates a really lovely, smooth, buttery feel to the surface. And then over the top, I can go in with the Polychromos. You can sharpen them to a fine point. They're super great for detail. Narrator: Bethany has big expectations for these pricey brands when it comes to blendability. Blendability in the world of colored pencils means that the artist can layer colors over one another directly on the paper, creating gradients without sharp lines. The colors should transition smoothly. While some colored-pencil artists might use blending tools and solvents,

Bethany prefers to create a blending effect through layering. So, layering and creating the subtle changes, especially with an equestrian portrait, we think about the contours of a horse's face. There's no harsh lines, so the only way we can do that is by creating a lot of pigment on the paper. We do that through layering. Narrator: She says she can't accomplish the same look with cheaper colored pencils. These are Crayola colored pencils, which I think we used to have at school, and obviously I think you can pick these up from most supermarkets or local stationery stores. Narrator: She's demonstrating the difference with swatches. First up: Crayola. The one thing I'm really, really aware of is they're very kind of chalky. I'm quickly realizing whilst doing this, is that I'm having to use a lot of pressure and a lot of layers to really make this

a little bit more blendable. Narrator: Too many layers can create what's called a wax bloom, which Bethany doesn't want. Bethany: Eventually, when you press quite hard, you're not really going to be able to layer that much more pencil over the top. And already, it's becoming — it feels a little bit slippery underhand because I'm adding quite a lot of layers. Narrator: Slippery, waxy layers limit how much gradation Bethany can achieve. With expensive pencils, she doesn't have that problem. Bethany: And then, even despite the fact that I'm doing this, I can still go over with more layers. And if I was to take a little bit of black, whereas on here, where you can see how scratchy that is, if I use the same light pressure, it just blends so beautifully into whatever we've put down underneath. Narrator: Bethany's work on animal portraits

often requires her to blend several shades of the same hue, like varying browns in horsehair or dog fur. Compared to cheaper brands, manufacturers of professional-grade colored pencils offer a much wider variety of shades. Bethany: When we've got such vast color choices, it does make it easier to really flip between colors, and you get a lot of sort of subtle, different hues. Whereas a lot of the cheaper pencils, you only get your very box-standard colors. You might get a couple of different shades of a red, but they're all very vibrant. You don't get the neutral colors that you do with these pencils. Narrator: But for artists and their clients, all this effort from pencil producers is pointless if their work doesn't stand the test of time. Bethany: I need to — especially when we're looking at selling our work and selling it to the public and actually charging for the work,

We need to be ensuring that that work is going to last for years to come, and it's not going to discolor, it's not going to fade. It's going to stay as vibrant as the day when we drew it or the day that we completed that portrait. You see, it's super colorful, and I really, really aimed, I wanted to show you this piece because of all the blending that went into it. But you can still see, about five years on, how vibrant the colors are. So obviously, using the professional-grade pencils, even if this was in direct sunlight all the time, it wouldn't fade at all. Is that your portrait? Narrator: The longevity of a color is known as its lightfastness. Faber-Castell uses a star rating where three stars means the color will be preserved with little or no fading for 100 years in museum-like conditions. Almost all of the colored pencils the company offers

in its professional lines are three stars. Each color receives a rating through a specialized lightfastness test. Narrator: Faber-Castell says perfecting texture, durability, and lightfastness for its Polychromos line costs five times more than producing its student-grade pencils. All this R&D translates to a higher price tag, but according to Faber-Castell, the extra effort is worth it. Narrator: Bethany appreciates this attention to detail because it allows her to create the realistic portraits she's built a business on. That's why she'll never go back to cheaper alternatives. Bethany: If you were to just do what I did and bought a couple of pencils at the start, then, obviously, I think that can keep the cost down. However, as my collection has grown and as I've got more confident with the medium, obviously, that's naturally led for me to expand the collection,

which is now, as I said, worth a fair few hundred. And to me and the work I create now, I couldn't be without the entirety of my collection.

Why Professional Colored Pencils Are So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider

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전문가용 색연필은 엄선된 안료, 왁스, 오일을 혼합하여 만들어지기 때문에 학생용과 가격 차이가 큽니다.

파버카스텔의 독일 공장에서는 정밀한 입자 크기와 독특한 재료 배합을 통해 일관된 질감과 생생한 색상을 구현하기 위해 연간 23억 개의 연필을 생산하고 있습니다.

생산 공정에는 고압, 베이킹, 특수 왁스 담그기 등이 포함되며, 전문가용 연필은 심이 커서 파손을 줄입니다.

이 회사는 연필심 내구성을 테스트하기 위해 60도 각도로 압력을 가하고 최소 3.

3킬로그램의 힘을 가하여 연필심이 부러지는지 확인합니다.

브랜드마다 고유한 심의 특성을 가지고 있는데, 그라데이션에는 부드러운 왁스 베이스가, 잔주름에는 더 단단한 심이 사용되는 Caran d'Ache와 Faber-Castell이 대표적입니다.

연필 제작 과정에는 삼나무를 엄선하여 건조하고, 홈을 다듬고, 판자를 붙이고, 수성 바니시를 발라 고급스러운 마감 처리를 하는 동시에 철저한 검사를 통해 시각적 품질을 보장하는 과정이 포함됩니다.

베서니의 블렌딩을 위한 레이어링 기법

베서니는 승마 초상화의 미묘한 변화에 초점을 맞춰 레이어링을 통해 블렌딩 효과를 연출합니다.

그녀는 크레욜라 같은 저렴한 색연필을 사용하면 과도한 압력을 가하고 겹겹이 칠해야 하기 때문에 번짐 현상이 일어납니다.

반면 고가의 색연필은 매끄러운 레이어링과 부드러운 블렌딩이 가능하여 동물 초상화에서 원하는 그라데이션을 얻을 수 있습니다.

색연필의 다양한 색조와 내광성의 중요성

전문가용 색연필은 더 다양한 색조를 제공하므로 아티스트가 미묘한 색조를 더 쉽게 표현할 수 있습니다.

저렴한 색연필은 중성 색상이 부족하고 선명한 색조만 제공하는 경우가 많습니다.

색상의 지속력 또는 내광성은 아티스트에게 매우 중요한데, Faber-Castell은 별점 시스템을 사용하여 시간이 지나도 색상의 생동감이 얼마나 잘 보존되는지 표시합니다.

파버카스텔의 폴리크로모스 연필 라인은 특수 내광성 테스트를 거치며 학생용 연필보다 생산 비용이 5배 더 비쌉니다.

연구 개발에 대한 회사의 투자는 더 높은 가격표로 이어지며, 이는 정당하다고 생각합니다.

아티스트인 베서니는 사실적인 초상화 작업을 위해 폴리크로모스 연필의 품질과 일관성을 중요하게 생각하며 점차 컬렉션을 확장하여 작업에 없어서는 안 될 필수품으로 자리 잡았습니다.