Lightfastness – Popular Pencils Tested – Black Widow Results

This summer, I tested all Black Widow Coloured Pencil Collection to find out how those lovely pencils resist to fading, when exposed to sunlight.

To test light resistance, I colour a chart and place it on a sunny window for 30 days. I also colour another page that is not exposed to the sun. The second page is the control, used to compare tonalities and validate the test. 

I’ve tested the following sets:

• Black Widow – 24 pencils
• Cobra– 24 pencils
• Scorpion– 24 pencils
• Skin Tones Dark -12 pencils
• Skin Tones Light – 12 pencils
• Monarch – 48 pencils
• Dragon – 36 pencils

Cobra, Black Widow and Scorpion: Those 3 sets performed very well in my lightfastness test. Observing all 3 sets together, only a few pencils showed change in colour.  Two colours were erased by the sunlight and a few were changed, check out BW10, BW46, BW03 and BW10. The colours that were altered by light are mostly pinks and purples. Those are the most affected tonalities in the student’s sets, as I noticed in my first tests. Click here to learn more.

Cobra, Black Widow and Scorpion have, in average, good lightfastness for the price. We need to keep in mind that they are student pencils and are budget friendly. Many pinks, purples and reds kept their colours after sun exposure, only a few changed. Most colours did not show any alteration, including greens, browns, yellows and most blues.

Skin Tones Light and Dark: The Set Skin Tones Dark did great in this test, but there is noticeable change in some colours of the Skin Tones Light. No colour was erased but the salmon tones became yellowish and one of the pinks became really light, please take a look at SL02, SL03 and SL09.

Monarch – This set did well, many colours did not change at all. Monarch had problems with a few pinks and purples, take a look at MN039, MN073, MN086, MN106 and MN123. Those colours were altered by the sunlight, two were erased. Most other colours in this set performed well and don’t show changes from being exposed to sunlight.

Dragon – Dragon is the set that had more problems in this test. Five colours disappeared after being exposed to sunlight: DG162, DG135, DG155, DG136 and DG159. A few other tones changed noticeably, as DG160, DG158 and DG127. Greens, blues, reds and yellows did not change and kept the original tonalities.

I’m happy with the results from Black Widow Collection. It was a positive surprise! The majority of tonalities did not change at all after being exposed to sunlight for 30 days. Between all 180 BW pencils tested, only a few had problems. Black Widow pencils are considered student pencils, and they are a great choice: fun to colour with, affordable and will last longer on paper than other comparable brands. I really love colouring with BW pencils because they’re so smooth and have a crayon feeling, now I will enjoy my Black Widow Collection even more!

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