NEW ART MATERIALS, MORE TEABAG STAINS, AND CATARACT NEWS
Coloured pencils
A couple of years ago I got a set of Derwent Coloursoft pencils. These wax-based coloured pencils are very soft and creamy, and blend very well, but it is impossible to retain a sharp point on them and they are not good for detailed work. In the online drawing course we have a coloured pencil module coming up and Phil, the teacher, recommended Faber Castell Polychromos. I’ve been doing a lot of research lately into coloured pencils and the techniques for drawing with them, and if I had had more knowledge in the past, I probably wouldn’t have gone for the Derwent Coloursoft ones. I have not used them very much.
Originally I wasn’t going to buy any more coloured pencils as I thought I could probably manage with the Derwent ones for the course, but on second thoughts, having looked into the Polychromos, I decided it would be a good idea to get a set. I bought a tin of 36 rather than the full set of 72 (which I have in the Coloursoft). Polychromos are oil based, so they are quite a bit harder than the Coloursoft.
While doing my researches, I kept coming across extremely favourable reviews of Amazon Basics coloured pencils. Often these unbranded products don’t measure up to their more expensive counterparts, but everyone seemed to be raving about these. They are extremely cheap compared with the other brands, and the only down side that I could discover was that they are not available in open stock – if you run out of a single colour, in order to replace it, you have to buy another whole set. Perhaps if enough of us comment about this on Amazon they might do something about it… One can live in hope! Anyhow I decided to order the complete 72-pencil set because at that price you simply couldn’t go wrong.
They all arrived yesterday evening, along with a pad of Faber Castel drawing paper (also highly recommended), and the Faber Castel sharpener arrived today – this also had excellent reviews.
The Polychromos.
I like the coloured barrels. Easier to tell at a glance what pencil to pick up!
The Amazon Basics.
These come in two trays in the tin. As with my original Derwent Coloursoft pencils, I found this to be difficult to deal with so I got a case for those, and I have the same case in a different colour on order for these new pencils.
From my initial testing of these pencils, they are wax based, but quite a bit harder than the Derwent Coloursoft pencils, which is an advantage. They seem to fall between the Coloursofts and the Polychromos in hardness, so I think I now have all bases covered!
Here is a picture of my original Derwent Coloursoft pencils in their case.
This neat little blue case has several “pages” which hold 12 pencils on each side, and they are attached to the spine with Velcro, so they are removable, which is handy. There’s also a useful pocket inside the front cover for your bits and pieces. The new case I have on order is exactly the same but in pink, so I can tell the difference.
I spent this afternoon working on swatching out the pencils, using sheets from the new Faber Castell pad, which certainly are lovely to draw on. What I wanted to do was create three columns, one for each brand of pencil, and swatch the equivalent colours horizontally. I got myself into an awful muddle with this as I had stored my Coloursofts according to their consecutive numbers which meant that not all the reds were together, for instance. After starting my third sheet, I abandoned this first attempt (the paper won’t be wasted as I can draw on the reverse) and started again, this time arranging the Coloursofts in the case according to order of colour, and then swatched them out in the left-hand column.
The daylight began to fade and I had other things to do at this point, so I am hoping to carry on tomorrow with the Polychromos in the second column. There will inevitably be gaps because the set is half the size of the Coloursofts. Finally, I shall attempt to marry up the Amazon Basics in the third column. This may be a bit difficult because the range of colours is rather different. I am very pleased to see that there is a very good range of flesh toned colours in this set.
Once this is complete I will upload a photo.
Colour wheel
Yesterday I made myself a colour wheel, drawing the shape with my Helix Circle and Angle Maker tool (so useful!), and coloured it with the Derwent Coloursoft pencils.
In the outer ring is the pure colour. The middle ring is the tints, with added white, and the inner ring is the shades, with added black. The swatches on the right show the colours I chose for this colour wheel. I drew this on the back page of the basic sketch pad I am using for the majority of the online art course work. It has a fairly noticeable texture. The new Faber Castel paper is smoother.
For years I never “had” any colour theory but just went with what I felt looked good, and on the whole this has worked well for me as I have a pretty good eye for colour. I always remember Kaffe Fasset saying, “I have no colour theory!” so if it was OK for him, it was probably OK for me too! However, in recent years I have thought about this a bit more, and now understand a lot better how the colour wheel works and how to use it.
I saw a very interesting video the other day where the artist explained how she matched her coloured pencils to the colours in the reference photo. She selected a number of pencils which she reckoned were approximate matches, and took a piece of scrap paper which she folded over so that one edge overlapped the other. She scribbled with the colours across the edge of the top layer onto the layer beneath, and when she unfolded the paper, she had the colours right up to the edge. She was then able to place these alongside the colours she wanted to match in the reference, and was able to choose the closest colour and eliminate the colours which didn’t match. Such a simple method.
I am very attracted to coloured pencil drawing and think this may end up being my favourite medium. People are getting astonishing results with them. I have very much enjoyed working with the pastel pencils and will continue with these, but ultimately they are a more expensive medium to work in, and the paper is more expensive, too.
Paper
The other day I bought a pad of Strathmore Bristol Vellum paper for coloured pencil drawing. This was fairly expensive, and it is very thick – like cardstock. I am going to keep this until I feel proficient enough in this medium to do some really decent drawings. In the meantime I have the new Faber Castel pad which is pretty good, and I’ve got a pack of printer-capable Bristol Vellum by Neenah arriving from Amazon soon; this worked out a lot less expensive. It’s thinner, but quite robust enough for working in layers with the coloured pencils, and recommended by one of the coloured pencil artists I am following on YouTube.
You do need a good quality paper for coloured pencils, with a certain amount of body and some tooth, or you cannot build up the subtle layers which give such good results.
Teabag Staining
My hubby has started drinking peppermint tea, and I was surprised just how dark the teabags were when he’d used them. I have got him to put them on a little dish rather than throwing them away, and as soon as I can afterwards, I have been placing them on a piece of watercolour paper, scrunching them up a bit and hoping they will produce interesting stains on the paper. You never know what you are going to get until the teabag is dry enough to remove. Here’s my first small sheet, a scrap of watercolour paper, with some stains already done, and a teabag “work in progress.”
Interesting how some of them have produced very distinct patterns while others are more diffuse and filled in. I suppose it all depends how wet they are, and how scrunched up they are! When removed, the underside of the bag is relatively unstained, as you’d expect, as the stain has gone into the paper, but the upper side is gorgeous – really dark stains. I am keeping the dried teabags and will eventually empty them and use them. They are slightly different from the regular ones we have, in that they have a central seam on the back. I think I should be able to open them up and get a larger piece of teabag material than normal.
These stains form the basis for doodling. I’ve done quite a bit of this in the past and love the results. You can cut them out and use them as collage elements or focal points. They are so random, and I love the grunginess of them. The teabags themselves are useful too, once dried and emptied.
My cataracts
Before Easter I had my six-week follow-up appointment at the opticians after my second cataract operation, and had my eyes tested again for new glasses. Yesterday we went in to collect the new glasses, and they also put the new lenses in my spare pair which I had been wearing in the interim. We had to wait an hour for this so we went for a cup of coffee and met up with a sweet little family of grandmother, mother and year-old little boy who was adorable – we chatted with them over our coffee. Prior to the appointment we had been to our favourite pizza cafe for lunch, a family business which has been going since the late 1980s. We had a great conversation with the son of the owner who told us he was vegan, and was responsible for the fabulous vegan menu they have – all delicious and tasty and healthy! We had a great time. We did a bit of shopping before going to collect my glasses, and were able to dodge the rain showers. Altogether a nice day out.
I am more than thrilled with the result. I cannot remember when my eyesight was this good! My distance vision is vastly improved since the cataract operations and the new glasses have now given me the astigmatic correction. Without glasses I cannot read, and with the new varifocals this is now fine – in fact I have never been able to read so well with varifocals, and was happier with dedicated reading glasses if I was sitting down to read a book rather than just the odd bits of reading one needs to do during the course of a day – recipes, labels, mail, etc. The colours are now all clear and bright, and white is actually white rather than a dirty cream! All I hope now is that I never take this for granted, but continue to appreciate just how good my sight now is – I’d hate to get so used to it that I become blase about it! I am so grateful for all that has been done for me, and for the friendliness and efficiency of all the staff involved in this journey, both at the eye clinic and at the opticians. Kudos to them all!
