Here's a list of things I think are essential to have if you want to get into colored pencils:

Colorless blender pencil
kneaded eraser
paper stumps
electric pencil sharpener
cotton balls and Q-tips
Prismacolor spray final fixative
no. 2 round watercolor brush for solvent (I use Bestine)

I'm sure there are other things, but those are my must-haves.

Thanks, Sunshine. This is really cool of you to post.

great list, and I found all but one thing locally.

Very cool list, Sunshine.

Besides the blender pencil, I'd say the electric pencil sharpener is the most important thing on the list. I'd also add a pencil extender to the list for when you've sharpened your pencil so short that it barely fits in your hand anymore. I do that a lot!

I see you use Bestine. So does Mere. She prefers it to Gamsol.

I'm hoping that this is the right place to ask this. I want to really start getting into and using watercolor pencils, blending pencils...but I'm not really sure what is necessary to get at first.

I love the list at the top....totally helpful. Let's say I want to go the route of Prisma....should I go for it and buy all of the pencils at once, or will the chances be slim that I will ever use that many and it would be smarter to get a smaller pack. Same for their pencils. I've been looking at their soft core pencils too.

When I try something new I have a tendency to buy it ALL (insert evil laugh) and after I've begun using everything I realize that I haven't even opened half of what I bought.

Can anyone point me in the right direction??

I'll put out the bat signal. Meredith is obsessed with colored pencils.

Cool! Love the bat signal... Thank you