After completing 50 similar coloring pages using 14 different art materials, I have some pretty strong opinions about which are my favorites and which are my least favorites. Today I'm going to rank them from best to worst.
Some points to clarify:
- I like each of these art materials. They perform well for what they are intended to do. In many cases, they are not meant to be used on detailed coloring pages. That doesn't make them bad art supplies. It just means they're not the best choice for this type of project.
- I printed all the coloring pages on Neenah Vellum Bristol (affiliate link here and below). It's the best quality paper that works in our printer. It is not made for wet media, so that definitely affected the performance of some of the art materials I used.
- I printed the coloring pages at full size. Some of the materials I used did a great job covering large areas easily, but were incredibly difficult to try to fill in the lettering. Others were the opposite - great for tiny details and frustrating (and time-consuming and product-wasting) for broad coverage.
- Some of the art materials I used have been favorites of mine for years. Others I used for the first time for this project. My own skill level and familiarity with the products influenced how each performed.
- I did a better job coloring some pages than others, separate from the amount of experience I had with each art material. Lighting conditions, the speed at which I colored, and stresses going on in my life while I was coloring all played a role in how the finished pages turned out. I like some of the state quarter designs much better than others, which made them more fun to color. Some art materials had a much more limited range of colors than others due to which sets I own. I tried to think just about the art materials themselves, and not how my finished pages turned out, when ranking them from best to worst.
Below, I've ranked all 14 art materials I used for coloring the 50 State Quarters. You'll find an affiliate link in the title. I've chosen a representative quarter for each material; that image will link back to the post about that art material. OK, let's get ranking!
The Ohuhu Kaalas get the top spot because they color beautifully and are a pleasure to use. The broad tip covers large areas easily and the fine tip can get into those tiny letters. The color range is fantastic. The markers are comfortable to use even after a lot of coloring.
To be honest, I never would have expected a water-based marker to rank in the top 2. But Ohuhu's Pupe markers are a dream for coloring. You can go over an area repeatedly without tearing, scratching, or peeling the paper. Once again, having two options for nibs (brush and fineliner) made it easy to get good coverage and to fit in tiny spaces.
My previous favorite markers are in spot #3. Just like the Ohuhus, they're a pleasure to use, are comfortable to hold, and work well for both large areas (using the chisel tip) and tiny areas (using the fine tip). The quality is nearly identical to the Ohuhus.
I had a lot of fun coloring pages with gouache. I loved how the vibrant colors blended on the page. Being able to reactivate dried areas was a major plus too. Filling in the tiny letters took time, but it wasn't unpleasant.
I absolutely love coloring with Prismacolor colored pencils, but I knew that coloring in an entire page would be time consuming and would hurt my hand. By starting with a base coat of inks, I could then add details and shading with the colored pencils. It was a lot of fun, although it made me realize that there are a lot of basic ink colors I'm missing.
I enjoyed coloring the pages with gansai tambi - I love how easy it is to get deep pigmentation or a light wash depending on how much water you use. However, the paper did not love the amount of water I needed to make the paint work properly. This is an excellent example of a great product on the wrong paper.
Just like above, I love my Sakura Koi watercolors, but they work much better on proper watercolor paper than on Bristol vellum. If I'd been able to print the coloring pages on the best paper for each particular media, that would have made an enormous difference in the rankings. As it was, the watercolors were still fun to use but I struggled to get smooth and even color.
I like the versatility of the Inktense pencils and had fun using them, but I struggled with covering large areas without introducing too much water to the paper. This is another supply that would have been more enjoyable to use with the proper paper.
I know some people can happily fill an entire coloring page using just colored pencil, but I prefer using markers or something else that goes on quickly as a base, then adding colored pencil on top for shading, detail, and tiny spaces. Blending wasn't as easy as with other methods. Coloring with the Halawas was fun, but not one of my top choices of I'd reach for the next time I complete a full-size coloring page on this paper.
How much I enjoyed coloring with acrylic paint varied widely across the four images I completed. Filling in the letters was a pain in the neck, as were other tiny details. Bigger areas were more fun. I had to add a drop or two of water to some of my paints to get them just the right consistency for coloring, so that I was an extra step I would have preferred to skip (and did sometimes, only to regret it).
Crayola crayons rank high for nostagia and have a lot of other things going for them. But ultimately, they are not the best choice for coloring if you're interested in achieving any sort of detail or shading. It's hard to cover large spaces smoothly and painstaking to fill in tiny letters. I enjoyed using them, but purely for the good memories of my childhood, teaching years, and early parenthood.
I love Flair pens. They are one of the few art supplies that live permanently on my desk within easy reach. I use them all the time. Before this project, however, I had never used them to complete an entire coloring page. And for good reason. I only ended up coloring two state quarters with Flair pens instead of four like I'd done for every material listed above.
Once again, I only finished two pages using the Stabilo Woodys. They are chunky and thus great for making big, bold marks on canvas, glass, and other surfaces... not filling in little letters on paper. I didn't hate coloring with them, but I felt very limited in what I could do.
I'm a huge fan of Sharpies, but as it turns out, I am NOT a huge fan of completing coloring pages entirely with Sharpies. This was the only art material that I regretted using for this project. I couldn't work for any length of time before needing a break from the fumes. I did manage to complete two pages, but yikes.
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There's actually a secret 15th art material that I tried (and failed) to use for coloring: tissue paper. I thought I could paint glue onto the coloring page, then tear tissue paper to color in the spaces. That didn't work well at all, so I tried using a craft knife and a lightbox to cut tissue paper into the shapes I needed. Nope - not fun at all and the detailed lines on the coloring page didn't show through some of the colors of tissue paper like I thought they would. I abandoned my efforts after an hour of frustration.
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