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Monday, January 30, 2012

New Pencils That Are Like Coming Home - Derwent Tinted Charcoal

Many years ago an artist friend of mine, Sharon L Bell of Windom, TX, gave me a stubby charcoal pencil and a much weathered paper blending stump. And she sent me on my way.  I had it in my head that there might be an artist hiding inside of me.  So charcoal was my first experience and first love in the world of drawing and pencil art.  I was inspired by Clare Turlay Newberry who often drew in charcoal and who, like me, loved to draw a beautiful cat.


With time I moved on into paint, graphite pencils, and colored pencils of many different kinds.  As I got busy I left my charcoal pencil sitting alone in the drawer for a long time.

Three times each year my local students and I order supplies.  Each time I order some new colors or I try a completely new set of pencils to feed my addiction to pencils.  I've looked at the Derwent tinted charcoal several times.  But I really thought they were either just like a muted soft pastel or just another version of the graphitint pencils.  However, after reading a favorable review about them, I decided to add the tinted charcoal to my order this time.

Well, when the package arrived I sat right down and opened them and began to doodle.  Oh my!  About 20 seconds into it I knew I was in love with these pencils.  They go on very smoothly. And the colors!  Oh what beautiful colors they are!  These charcoal pencils were like coming home to me - only better.  I remembered those early days with that stubby charcoal and how much I enjoyed it.  As I marveled at the beautiful colors Derwent had created I began to wonder just what I could draw that would do them justice.  One of the fun things about these charcoal pencils is that you can set them with water.  So, when I had the pupil of this cat done, I could set it and then as I worked on the rest of the eye, the pupil did not bleed onto the colors.  How cool is that?!  And unlike the graphitint, who get much more intense when water is added, these do not change in appearance with the water.

This feline face was created with the Derwent tinted charcoal pencils on Strathmore 400 series vellum bristol board.

I will be going today to my students and encouraging them to purchase the Derwent tinted charcoal pencils.  They will love them too!

Want to learn more about drawing and creating your own pencil art?  Try out my online pencil art learning community at Wind and Honey Classes  We are having a great time there and my students are progressing so well.




Wind and Honey Creations

5 comments:

Art From The heart said...

Thanks for sharing these. I love to hear recomendations from other artist's,good to know ideas.
Love the cat,looks just like my Puff.
Hugs

Liz @ the Brambleberry Cottage said...

Another beautiful creation, Elizabeth! I'm so glad I found you out in this vast blogosphere. I would love to try my hand at this...perhaps when my life settles down a bit. ;)

Blessings,
Liz @ The Brambleberry Cottage

Cindy Adkins said...

Oh my gosh - I love this kitty drawing! You're inspiring me to try my hand at drawing and pencil art! I always say "I can paint, but I can't draw!" I would love to be able to draw a cat like that, though...thanks for the recommendation on the pencils.
Cindy

Jan said...

I followed you here from Brambleberry Cottage and I'm so glad I did. The tinted charcoal sounds wonderful and your little kitty is darling. Off to check out the new find (I hope they're more lightfast than many of Derwent's products. Thanks again for sharing!

Kathleen said...

These pencils look like sooo much fun! Definitely going to check these out =)

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