NEW PASTEL PENCILS, AND COLOURING SOME OLD DRAWINGS

Faber Castell pastel pencils

My new pastel pencils arrived today, a day earlier than scheduled, which is excellent. Tomorrow I am hoping to settle down and begin the Pastel Pencils module on the art course, which I have had to delay because my existing set of pastel pencils was far too limited.

This is a 24-pencil set so there should be sufficient colours to render some nice drawings. They come in a smart metal tin.

They do look very smart, all lined up like little soldiers, ready to go into battle! In the tin were two leaflets, including one about Faber Castell’s new matte graphite pencils. I saw a video about this a few weeks ago and had forgotten who made them. Drawing with graphite is always problematic in that the medium has a natural shine which you don’t always want. These new matte ones look very good, and one day I may try them.

I shall make a swatch of the colours, and maybe re-do the warm up exercises, this time using the correct colours as suggested by Phil, the teacher.

I am hoping that despite pastels being so messy, I shall embrace this medium more than I did the charcoal which was definitely not my favourite!

Resurrecting some old drawings

Looking for something else in the studio last night, I came across some old drawings I had done on very smooth card which I think is designed for computer printing. This is gorgeous to draw on with the ink pens, but it does not take water media at all well; the surface of the paper breaks down very rapidly, and also you cannot blend the colours. Using Golden Satin Glazing Liquid sorts the problem, so last night I painted a couple of sheets of drawings with this and left it to dry, ready for colouring today. There were also some full-sized drawings that I had begun but not completed – ink pen outlines with some Zentangle fillings. Some were merely pencil outlines – shells and a jellyfish, and there was also a toucan with ink work. I had done some of the Zentangle work on this final one, so this afternoon I completed that, filling the areas I wanted with different patterns, and leaving other areas blank. Once this was done, I painted it with the Satin Glazing Liquid, and I shall be colouring it tomorrow too, all being well. My hubby is out all day tomorrow and I’m up to date with my domestic chores, so I am hoping for a nice long day dedicated to art with no distractions. Well, one can always hope…

Here are the two sets of small square Zentangle drawings, now coloured with the Tombow Dual Brush Markers.

I can’t remember whether these were the original drawings, or print-outs. I know I made a lot of copies of these, ready to colour and use for card toppers etc.

I made a montage of the two photos for uploading to the forum for the art course.

They are quite fun – a really eclectic selection!