Hands down, drawing with colored pencils is the experience of a lifetime. It certainly changed my life for the better. I absolutely adore colored pencils as they allow you to make precise outlines, detailed patterns, and intricate spaces of colors. I create shade by increasing or decreasing the pressure from the drawing utensil onto paper, thus lights and shadows appear. There is an abundant amount of colors to choose from since there is no mixing of colors unless I draw in layers. I love to use colored pencils in every coloring occasion due to its simplicity and effectiveness. However, it does take more time and effort as the pencils' surface area is small, unlike brush & paint. I blend the colors together using a colorless blender. Texturing with colored pencils is easy if done correctly because it all depends on the direction and length of the strokes. Some techniques used for texturing are parallel, cross, and contour hatching; although these are used more for sketching with pencils. A coloring tip an Art teacher taught me in middle school was to draw little swirls when using colored pencils because it would make coloring a large area of paper way less painful. I also recommend doing gradient effects to enhance the quality of the image. Prismacolor pencils is the brand I use.