Can You Draw Anime Characters with Holbein Colored Pencils?

Yes, you absolutely can—and the results might surprise you. Holbein colored pencils are premium, professional-grade colored pencils made in Japan, and their soft, creamy cores deliver the vivid, saturated color anime and manga characters demand. Whether you’re an anime fan, art student, hobbyist, or professional illustrator, they’re well suited to drawing big expressive eyes, flowing hair with tinted gradients, and smooth skin tones with clean blending and strong color payoff.

The 150-color set, in particular, gives you access to a wide range of shades—from delicate pastels and natural skin tones to deep shadow colors and bright accents—making it a strong choice for traditional character illustration. In this guide, you’ll see what sets Holbein Artists Colored Pencils apart, how to use them for anime skin, eyes, and hair, basic coloring methods, how they compare with digital art, and where to buy the full set. Artists and illustrators around the world use them for character art, fan art, and detailed coloring projects, and if you’re shopping from abroad, Discovery Japan Mall ships the complete 150-color lineup worldwide.

What Makes Holbein Artists Colored Pencils Special?

Holbein Works Ltd. is a Japanese art materials company with roots going back to 1900. Over a century of pigment expertise goes into every pencil they make, and their Artists’ Colored Pencils line reflects that heritage.

These are oil based colored pencils with a soft, molded core designed for smooth application and blending. The formulation is known for its creamy and saturated laydown, which means you get rich color from the very first stroke without needing to press hard. Unlike many wax-based alternatives, Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils resist wax bloom due to their unique formulation – so your finished drawing stays clean and vibrant.

The specs matter for practical use. Holbein pencils have a 3.8mm core in a 7.8mm barrel, giving you a thicker lead that covers larger areas quickly while the barrel itself provides a comfortable grip for extended drawing sessions. The core is fine-grained and soft enough to blend effortlessly, yet it holds a point well enough for detail work.

Holbein pencils meet the ASTM D6901 lightfastness standard, though the lightfastness of Holbein colors varies by individual color. Some bright or fluorescent shades may fade faster than earth tones or deeper hues, so it’s worth checking Holbein’s published ratings if you plan to display your work. Overall, these pencils deliver exceptional performance for artists who value rich pigment, smooth layering, and professional results.

Inside the 150-Color Set: Why It’s Ideal for Anime & Manga Drawing

Holbein offers a palette of 150 colors, and the 150-color set is the most complete range available. For anime and manga drawing, having this many options at your fingertips eliminates the guesswork of mixing and lets you pick precise shades straight from the box.

The palette spans an impressive range: warm and cool skin tones from the palest porcelain to deep bronze, a full spectrum of greys and browns for shading, vivid primaries and secondary colors for bold costumes, soft pastels for blush and atmospheric backgrounds, and a handful of luminous accent colors for energy effects or magical highlights. If you’re creating fantasy or non-human characters with unusual skin or hair colors, you’ll find greens, pale blues, and other unconventional shades ready to go.

Multiple skin-tone options are a standout advantage. Instead of trying to mix a convincing complexion from three generic “flesh” pencils, you can layer purpose-made tones for fair, tan, or dark-skinned anime characters – or even supernatural beings.

The pastels in the set are particularly useful for the soft gradients that define anime style: gentle hair highlights, flushed cheeks, and dreamy background glows that give depth to manga characters. The 150-color set in a wooden box organizes all pencils across retractable trays by hue family, but even the paper box version keeps colors grouped logically for fast selection while you work.

How to Draw Anime Skin with Holbein Colored Pencils

Smooth, glowing skin is essential for most anime characters. Holbein’s soft oil based core makes this easier than you might expect, even for beginners who haven’t spent years practicing coloring techniques.

Anime characters often start with basic shapes like circles and ovals – a circle for the head, guidelines for the center of the face, and ovals for the jaw. Anime characters are often drawn at six heads tall for proportions, so sketch your body proportions lightly in graphite before picking up any colored pencil. Keep your outline and lines loose at this stage. The mouth is often represented by a simple line or curve, so don’t worry about complicated facial features early on.

For step by step guidance on skin, pick 3–4 pencils per skin tone: a light base (like a pale peach), a mid-shadow (neutral beige), a warm accent for blush (rose or soft pink), and a deeper shade for shadows (soft brown or warm grey). Users are advised to build colors gradually with light pressure when using Holbein pencils. Start with a very gentle base layer over the face, neck, and ears, using small circles or overlapping strokes.

Layer the mid-shadow under the chin, along the sides of the nose, and beneath where anime hair would cast a shadow. Add blush by touching soft pink to the cheeks and nose tip – this is where those precise skin-tone pencils shine, letting you control how the color fades out across facial features without creating patchy edges. Even subtle shifts in shading can make a big difference in how soft or dimensional the face looks.

Before committing to your main sketch, experiment on a scrap of the same paper to find which combinations suit your character’s look.

Anime Eyes & Hair: Using Holbein for Expressive Features

Anime eyes and anime hair are what most readers want to master – they’re the features that give characters their identity. Holbein colored pencils excel here because their strong pigment and smooth form allow vivid, layered effects even at small scale.

Drawing anime eyes. Anime eyes are typically larger than other facial features, so they deserve the most focus and color depth. Sharpen your pencil to a precise point for linework around the lashes and pupils. Choose 2–3 colors for the iris gradient: a dark shade around the outer rim, a brighter mid-tone through the center, and leave the specular highlights white or lift them with a kneaded eraser. The saturated pigment in Holbein pencils ensures that even small dots and reflections stand out on smooth paper, giving eyes that signature anime sparkle.

Drawing anime hair. Anime hair is usually drawn with fewer individual strands for simplicity – think large clumps and flowing shapes rather than realistic single-hair detail. Block in the base color lightly, following the direction of hair flow. Then add hair shadows with a darker shade, working in smooth strokes along the shape of each clump. To get that multi-toned look common in anime, tint the hair with one additional color – blue layered over black, or pink blended into blonde – to add depth and visual interest. Avoid pressing hard in early layers. Building 3–5 thin layers before burnishing gives you a smoother, more digital-like finish and makes it easier to cover the rest of the head evenly.

Basic Colored Pencil Techniques for Drawing Anime (Layering, Blending, Gradients)

Even if you’re new to tutorials on traditional coloring, a few fundamentals will help you get professional-looking results with Holbein right away. Holbein pencils blend smoothly with light pressure, so the key is restraint – not strength.

Light pressure layering. Hold the pencil slightly farther back from the tip and apply gentle, overlapping strokes. Build your shading in stages instead of trying to achieve full saturation in one pass. This approach takes advantage of Holbein’s soft core and keeps edges clean.

Dry blending for gradients. Layer related colors to create smooth transitions – for example, light pink fading into red for anime blush, or a pale yellow shifting into orange at the tips of anime hair. Use small circular motions where the two colors overlap to soften the gap between them, creating a realistic gradient effect without any visible horizontal line or vertical line from directional strokes.

Using MELTZ. They feature a water-based blending medium called Meltz that provides watercolor-like effects. This optional tool, available as a bottle or dual-tipped pen, lets you blur pencil strokes into soft washes – perfect for atmospheric backgrounds, glowing effects, or ethereal shading behind manga characters. Because it’s water-based over oil based pigment, always test on scrap paper first to check how your chosen surface reacts.

Paper choice. Use medium-tooth drawing paper or Bristol board. Too smooth and the pencil won’t grip; too rough and fine details suffer. A paper like Holbein Crester Watercolor Paper can work for mixed-media approaches, though for pure colored pencil work, standard smooth drawing paper is usually the best fit.

Holbein Colored Pencils vs Digital Art for Anime Drawing

Many anime fans start with digital art using apps like Clip Studio Paint or Procreate, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But traditional colored pencils offer a completely different creative experience – and Holbein’s smoothness can give your work a semi-digital look even on paper.

With colored pencils, you get tangible control: the texture of paper under your hand, the physical act of layering pigment, and the satisfaction of creating something you can hold. There’s no tablet required, no subscription fees, and sketchbook work is free from screen fatigue. Holbein’s soft, creamy application makes it easier to achieve the clean color fields and gradients that anime style demands.

The good news? You don’t have to choose just one. A “tradigital” workflow – where you draw and color anime characters with Holbein pencils on paper, then scan or photograph the art to enhance contrast or add effects digitally – gives you the best of both worlds. Many artists learn anatomy traditionally first, including how to draw arms naturally and place joints with confidence. They also study body proportions, clothing folds over legs, and facial features before transferring those skills to digital later. Starting with Holbein pencils can help you master the basics of form, shading, and color theory in a way that strengthens every style of drawing you pursue.

Is the Holbein 150-Color Set Worth It for You? Price, Uses & Buying from Discovery Japan

The Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencils 150-color set is a premium investment. It sits firmly in the professional-grade category, and the price reflects that. If you love anime drawing and want a long-term, high-quality set that can grow with your skills, it’s one of the best traditional tools available.

Who benefits most? Artists who draw regularly – anime fans working on character illustrations, art students exploring traditional media, hobbyists who enjoy detailed coloring sessions. If your main interest is creating rich, layered fan art or original characters with vivid clothes, expressive eyes, and flowing hair, the 150-color set gives you everything to do it without constantly wishing you had “just one more shade.” Practical uses extend beyond anime: portraits, illustrative posters, mixed-media pieces with ink or markers, and greeting cards all suit these pencils.

A note on budget. Holbein pencils are not ideal for beginners or budget-conscious artists who only color occasionally. If you’re just starting out and unsure whether traditional coloring is for you, a smaller 36-color or 50-color set lets you test Holbein’s quality at a lower price point before upgrading to the complete range.

Buying from Discovery Japan Mall. Discovery Japan stocks the official Holbein color pencil 150 colors set with worldwide shipping. U.S. shipping runs around several thousand yen depending on delivery method, and the product page includes customer reviews and detailed specs. You’re getting an authentic Holbein product sourced directly from Japan – no need to worry about counterfeits or unauthorized imports.

If you want smoother coloring, richer tones, and a set that can handle anything from simple line sketches to fully rendered anime characters, check the current price and reviews on the product page above. Your next favorite drawing might be waiting on the other side of that box.