Back in my elementary school art class, my friends and I would scramble for the best colored pencils in the bin of jumbled-up brands—Crayola mixed with Prismacolor mixed with no-name pencils ...

Thankfully, Prismacolor sells its Premier line of soft-core colored pencils individually by color. Otherwise, I would go broke if I had to buy a new set every time I wore my black one down to a nub.