I made a fantasy landscape with some big flowers in the foreground and a little town on the horizon. I made the drawing with two drawing pens, one with a medium point and one with a brush point. After the drawing was done it was time to ad the color and what better way to do that than with my brand new inktense pencils. I started coloring the hills and sky first and that led to this:
I must say that I liked the effect of the black and white on all that color so much that I was very tempted to leave it as it was right then. But of course my artistic inability showed. I mean my inability to leave white spaces or just spaces of any kind if I can help it. I am in total awe of people who can do that, you know: minimalists and those that say that less is more. I can say it and I believe it, but I can hardly ever apply it. But just to compare which was best I decided to at least take a picture of the half colored drawing.
And then it was back to coloring with my pretty pencils. Full color this time! By the way all the colors were wetted after applying them to paper, to really make them pop. Here's the final version of the drawing:
I think I do like the full color one better after all, but frankly it's a close call. There's something different about the half black and white one that I might like to explore in future drawings. Tell, me blogsy people, which version do you like best?
In working with the pencils I found out that the Derwent people have not exactly been very precise with the labeling of these pencils. By that I mean that the color on the pencil is not always representative of the color of the pencil. So I decided to make a color chart for the pencils in my sketchbook.
I drew a circle for every color and colored them in and then wetted them, so I would get the full color, cause the colors are not so bright until they are wetted. I put the number and name of every color beside the circle, so I would be able to find it again in the box. And by doing this I found out that in naming the colors the Derwent people were a little off sometimes too. For instance 'light olive' is anything but light.
In fact if you look at the color chart you may agree with me that apart from the yellows (and the white of course) there's not really any light colors at all. Even the yellows aren't really light if you look closely. This I found a little disappointing.
It seems the Derwent people think that light and intense don't go together. But to prove them wrong I wish they would just take a look at acrylic paints or the beautiful Neocolor II watersoluble crayons. Instead of all those dark browns in the second column from the right I would rather have invested in some cool pastel colors, some light blues, greens, reds and pinks. I would also love some light greys. In a box with 72 pencils I expect more diversity in color and the funny thing is that I also have their big box of colorsoft pencils and there the color range is fantastic.
So, Derwent people, if you ever read this: I love love love your inktense pencils and I am by no means sorry I splurged on the big box, but if you want to make me really happy, make an extension set or something in light colors. I think I will not be the only one you will be pleasing with that.
On a very different note I want to tell all of you how happy I am with all the responses to my butterfly book giveaway. To know that so many of you would like to own it just rocks my world! Thank you!
For now I wish all of you a wonderful and artsy week!
Tuesday 11 October - Afternote
I have sent a link to this blogpost to the Derwent people. I'll let you know if they respond.
a short while after that:
Wow! I must say kudo's to the Derwent customer service! They responded very quickly. I like that.
Here's what they had to say:
Dear Carin
Thank you for your email and the link to your blog; your review is
great. The Inktense range is designed to be bright and vibrant. You can
achieve more paler/subtle shades by applying less colour to the paper
and diluting it more by adding water. We have no plans to change or
extend Inktense at the moment but if you would like more lighter/paler
shades then I would suggest using Inktense with our Watercolour Pencils.
Our Watercolour range has 72 different colours that are lighter/paler
than Inktense and both of these ranges work well together. Please visit
our website where you can find out more about our Watercolour pencils
and download a colour chart.
If you have any more questions let me know.
Many Thanks
(I left the name of the writer of this mail out for privacy reasons.)
I had kind of expected this answer. I replied (after thanking them for their quick response) that I choose the Inktense pencils because they are waterproof after washing, which can not be said for watercolor pencils. I also hope they will change their minds about the lighter colors. Who knows, maybe someday they will. Keeping my fingers crossed. ;-)