The Thrill of New Coloured Pencils
My interest in coloured pencils had been steadily growing, especially after I watched a bunch of YouTube videos featuring coloured pencil artists. The amount of detail they're able to get into their drawings is inspiring.
So I decided that it was time to invest in new sets of coloured pencils. Up to this point, I'd been using my 24-colour set of Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer coloured pencils (review here) which were almost 30 years old. They're top of the line pencils but I find doing detailed work with them very difficult as they have a gummy texture. I'm not sure if that's due to the age or the fact that they're watercolour pencils.
I had already ordered a few loose pencils from Jackson's Art in the UK - Faber Castell's much lauded Polychromos pencils, but I thought it was time for a proper set if I was going to do coloured pencils more regularly. I did a bunch of research, then made a trip to Art Friend and got myself these two sets from Derwent. Art Friend only carries Derwent, which is a long established coloured pencil brand from the UK (its peers would be Faber Castell from Germany and the very pricey Caran D'ache from Switzerland).
I bought two sets - a 36-pencil Derwent Lightfast set and a more modest 12-pencil Derwent Inktense set (review here), the pigment of which turns into permanent ink when wet. Can I tell you how happy it makes me to look at these pencils? They make me feel like I'm surrounded by happy rainbow clouds and unicorns. The cover art for the Inktense tin was done by my coloured pencil artist guru - Lisa Clough of Lachri Fine Arts. She has a Kristin Chenoweth voice (and speaks as fast) but her artwork is breathtaking.
These coloured pencils, especially the Lightfast ones, work like a dream. They're oil-based instead of wax-based, just like the Faber Castell Polychromos, so they're great for detailed work. But they still manage to be soft and glide over the paper, unlike the Polychromos where my hand aches from repeated pressure after using it for a long time. I ♥ them so much.
Ironically, now that I own these new supplies, I feel the pressure to create great art.
So I decided that it was time to invest in new sets of coloured pencils. Up to this point, I'd been using my 24-colour set of Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer coloured pencils (review here) which were almost 30 years old. They're top of the line pencils but I find doing detailed work with them very difficult as they have a gummy texture. I'm not sure if that's due to the age or the fact that they're watercolour pencils.
I had already ordered a few loose pencils from Jackson's Art in the UK - Faber Castell's much lauded Polychromos pencils, but I thought it was time for a proper set if I was going to do coloured pencils more regularly. I did a bunch of research, then made a trip to Art Friend and got myself these two sets from Derwent. Art Friend only carries Derwent, which is a long established coloured pencil brand from the UK (its peers would be Faber Castell from Germany and the very pricey Caran D'ache from Switzerland).
I bought two sets - a 36-pencil Derwent Lightfast set and a more modest 12-pencil Derwent Inktense set (review here), the pigment of which turns into permanent ink when wet. Can I tell you how happy it makes me to look at these pencils? They make me feel like I'm surrounded by happy rainbow clouds and unicorns. The cover art for the Inktense tin was done by my coloured pencil artist guru - Lisa Clough of Lachri Fine Arts. She has a Kristin Chenoweth voice (and speaks as fast) but her artwork is breathtaking.
These coloured pencils, especially the Lightfast ones, work like a dream. They're oil-based instead of wax-based, just like the Faber Castell Polychromos, so they're great for detailed work. But they still manage to be soft and glide over the paper, unlike the Polychromos where my hand aches from repeated pressure after using it for a long time. I ♥ them so much.
Ironically, now that I own these new supplies, I feel the pressure to create great art.
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