Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901 coloured pencils

Caran d'Ache makes the Luminance 6901 in its own workshops in Geneva. The core is wax based and packed with pigment. You notice it straight away: colour goes down creamy and covers heavily, even on dark paper. Of the hundred colours, 81 reach the top lightfastness class LFI and the remaining 19 sit at LFII.

That rating comes from the ASTM D-6901 standard, developed at the request of the Colored Pencil Society of America. Certification demands three months of outdoor testing in the Arizona desert and 400 hours of laboratory exposure. Caran d'Ache was the first brand to offer a hundred colour pencils that are fully lightfast. For anyone who sells or frames their work, that is the whole point.

The core measures 3.8 mm and sits in a round barrel of FSC certified cedar wood, matt lacquered in the colour of the lead. Every pencil carries its colour name, code and lightfastness class, so reordering takes no guesswork. One thing to keep in mind: Luminance is water resistant and not a watercolour pencil. If water is part of your method, Supracolor Soft Aquarelle is the better fit.

Penworld carries the sets of 12, 20, 40 and 76 colours, the box with all 100 colours and blenders, and the wooden case holding the full range. If you want something dry that feels less creamy, have a look at Pablo. The whole range sits under Caran d'Ache Coloured Pencils, within Coloured Pencils.

Frequently asked questions about Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901