Saturday, January 16, 2010

Derwent Inktense WC Pencils



This past week the Quiltart list has been discussing the use of Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils. I'd not heard of them, so I ordered a small set (plus a few extra colors to balance out the set) on sale from Dick Blick. They arrived today and I decided to give them a try. I did two sample pieces as you can view below.

The first example is done on a a piece of 8x10" smooth Bristol board paper.
Here is the completed colored pencil drawing prior to the addition of water.
This shows the colored pencil drawing and the photo I'm working from.
This is the completed painting. Only water was added in very small amounts with a fairly small brush.


The second example is done on 5x7" watercolor card stock (before folding, it measures 10x7") I'm working from one of my photos taken at the area's annual orchid show last fall. 1. the base color applied
2. more color is added
3. completed colored pencil drawing
3. completed painting


To compare Derwent's pencils to Prismacolor's pencils, see my blog posting here. For example, this is the same cat as above, different pose, but done completely in Prismacolor pencils. It was also done on a sheet of 8x10 Bristol paper. The above is done with soft pencils layered one over the other and blended well to create a finished piece. It is then polished with a soft cloth to bring out the color and add a finished sheen to the work. As noted above, check out my earlier posting for the step-by-step process of this piece.

The watercolor above is lighter and more spontaneous in appearance, as many watercolors are. The pencils lines still show - which is probably my fault for not adding more water to the pencils to give it a more painterly effect. Both pieces are fine as they are, but they are quite different.


What I've learned thus far:
1. when water is added to the pencil drawings, the colors are VERY intense.
2. these pencils do not blend well, although they layer fairly well.
3. the finished paintings look better done on watercolor paper (of course!)
4. they work well for color/design studies (in my opinion) than for finished art.
5. I'd like the whole set of them if I were to plan on using them for finished paintings.

I have yet to try them on fabric, which is what Quiltart members were discussing. I'll post my results of those experiments after I've tried them out on fabric!

12 comments:

Karen S said...

Wow -- your drawings are fantastic. The cat's pretty cute too. I've wanted to use the Inktense pencils on fabric -- that's my next project.

JYA Fiberarts said...

Excellant drawings! These pencils look very interesting. Can't wait to see the results on fabric. Thanks for sharing your results.

Lorraine said...

Thank you for taking the time to do this and to post them so we can all see them. The cats are GORGEOUS. You are very talented in many ways. Your fabric work is beautiful. Can't wait to see the new book. Congratulations!
Lorraine

Anonymous said...

Fabulous drawings. I use Derwent Inktense for fabric portraits and really like them. They seem to blend pretty well for me on the fabric (only used 100% cotton so far). I do most of my blending when first layer of pencil color is wet. Once dry, color is permanent so I then make new wet layers of color to blend on top of dry layers until I'm happy with the result. I've learned to be careful of bleeding though and recently heard their outline pencil acts as a resist. I have one, but haven't tried it yet. I've used a bottled clear resist a couple of times and was able to remove the resist by handwashing it in clear lukewarm water. Took some time to remove resist, but I couldn't see any color loss afterwards. I no longer use resist. Instead, I just add pecil color well away from edge of face/mouth/eyes and then carefully use a lightly wet brush to move color out toward edges. I really love these pencils for fabric work and hope you have a good time with them too. I think that painting with fabric paints and inks is faster, but the Inktense pencils leave a nice, soft hand to fabric, IMHO. I use them all, depending on what I plan to do with finished piece. Have fun!

Pat Dolan said...

Thanks, everyone. And Gloria, you've probably saved me some time on the learning curve by sharing your methods and experiences. Super thanks to you as I didn't know how I'd keep it from bleeding unless I used wax batik or something similar... And batik is LABORIOUS when what I want is FUN!

I also did not know that the Derwent outline pencil acted as a resist. I wonder if it colors the fabric and them must be washed away... It was dark and seemed to be a graphite pencil when I tried it on paper.

Thanks again, everyone!

mzjohansen said...

Thanks for this wonderful review!
Love that glorious cat!

Anonymous said...

Oh PAt, the eyes of the cat are so beautiful and capture me wholly! You're creating from so many places within and without, I feel honored to see it all. Thanks goodness for Blogs!

Anonymous said...

I just heard of this product today. A doll artist on Etsy - sandymastroni.etsy.com uses them for her vividly painted cloth dolls. The colors are as amazing as they are in your artwork shown here. I'm going to order a set today. Thanks for your photos - they were the final deciding factor me me.

Laura
LaloBean.etsy.com

Anonymous said...

I just heard of this product today. A doll artist on Etsy - sandymastroni.etsy.com uses them for her vividly painted cloth dolls. The colors are as amazing as they are in your artwork shown here. I'm going to order a set today. Thanks for your photos - they were the final deciding factor me me.

Laura
LaloBean.etsy.com

Anonymous said...

I just heard of this product today. A doll artist - sandymastroni on Etsy.com uses them for her vividly painted cloth dolls. The colors are as amazing as they are in your artwork shown here. I'm going to order a set today. Thanks for your photos - they were the final deciding factor me me.

Laura
LaloBean.Etsy.com

Anonymous said...

Oh dear, so sorry about the repeats. I hope you can delete them. I kept thinking they hadn't been taken.

Anonymous said...

I just ordered my first set of the InkTense pencils I love them. fyi if you dont want to pay upwards of 180-200$ for them go to cheapjoes.com i picked them up for under 90$ then 10$ for shipping all in all still under 100$ for the tin set of 71 colors plus the out liner to make it 72. great artwork btw.