Polkadoodles Dinosaur with Friends

Hello everyone! I finally finished this month's Create and Learn from Kit and Clowder alcohol markers class. I've always done color pencils but for a change I figured I'd switch over to alcohol markers since I have about a year's worth of classes left undone.

My hands are still shaking a bit as I type. I figured I must've exerted too much effort into stippling.

This is such a fun image to draw and color. Yes I did draw all the background, hence the uneven volcano in the back. The image is from Polkadoodles called Dinosaur with Friends. I learned a lot drawing and coloring the volcano, love the overflowing lava. I must say I hated coloring the hair though. It's just too messy and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where to shade and flick. It is such a fun scene though, and definitely my favorite part is the dinosaur. I had a go with all the stippling, and I love the texture it created. Hence, my shaking hand.

Head on over to Kit and Clowder if you're interested. I guarantee you will love their monthly classes. Now I'm debating if I should go back and finish the previous months' alcohol markers or get started on pencils again....

Marta's Garden

Given the chaos we are having at home, the only solace I find is being able to color a few minutes or hours at night to the hum of the air drying machine in the kitchen. I have to admit I am not a big fan of the bokeh technique, but decided to try it out anyway. I'm not sure if this is for me, but I can honestly say I had fun doing it though. Just not sure the effect is my style. Nevertheless, I learned something new with this month's class project.

Below is my finished project all colored up using Prismacolor Premier pencils. So I now own the entire sets of Prisma, Spectrum Noir, and recently Polychromos. I have yet to complete a project using Polychromos, but I can honestly say I've just about had it with my Spectrum Noirs. I'm just waiting to finish out the pens, and it will be quick given how fast the points break, and then I'll just focus on Prisma and Polychromos.

I can honestly say I am happy how this turned out. The image is called Marta's Garden and it is by Molly Harrison. Kit and Clowder's monthly pencil classes are something I look forward now. It does take perhaps 3x the time to finish something vs. alcohol markers, but I really don't mind. It is very soothing trying to color with pencils, and once you're done, to see what it can look, is really rewarding.

Hope you guys like it! 

Have a great week ahead!

I Love You Baby

This month's Create and Learn uses The Paper Shelter's image "I Love You Baby". I fell in love with it. I love it so much I just had to do it again.

This was my first attempt and I used Prismacolor pencils. I kind of messed up the lanterns. I actually forgot the oval bottom and glow effect, and I wasn't so happy with how the clouds turned out. I also kind of messed up the frog and forgot to add a bit more highlight to it. I still wanted to finish it though so I kept going. I love how the hair on this girl turned out, her skin, outfit and wings. I think the water and ripples were done great too.

I was determined to do it again, because I just love this image so much. I decided to use my Spectrum Noir pencils this time. The last time I used them was July of last year I think. I got frustrated because I thought it was harder to blend, so I upgraded and got myself the full set of Prismacolor. Since then, I've always used my Prismas. For a change I thought I'd use my Spectrum Noirs again. And then I remembered why I stopped in the first place. The breakage was horrible! It feels like every time I sharpen them (I used electric sharpener), it just breaks after a go. Plus it's not as easy to blend, and the white just doesn't give the same effect as the Prismas. I still like how it turned out, except for the sky, I used Gamsol to blend it this time around.

Frankly my hands were so tired I just didn't have enough strength to blend, so I used Gamsol instead. Plus I figured it can give it a better softer look given Spectrum Noirs are hard core and not soft and creamy like Prisma.

I hope you like it too!

Coloring with Color Pencils

Hi Everyone! I've been missing in action the last couple of weeks because I attended Copic workshop and certification classes. Add to that I've been trying to finish 2 color pencil images I've been working on.

Today I finally finished the 2nd one and thought I'd share them with you. Coloring with color pencils takes I'd say 3x the amount of time compared to alcohol markers. My personal opinion.

This is November's Tiddly Inks Create and Learn project from Kit and Clowder. I used Prismacolor Premiere Pencils to color, and a white Molotow pen for the stars and sparkles. I have to admit it took me a long time to finish this. It was a bit challenging. From the tree to the gift sack and roof, I pretty much struggled on those points. Obviously I still need a lot of improvement, but overall glad that I was able to finally finish this.

This 2nd image was December's project. This one I enjoyed coloring very much. I didn't have to redo or repeat much, and I loved coloring the transparencies in the balloons. I love the slightly monochromatic look by just using Cool Greys. I wish I have a ton of time, because this is one image I'd love to color using Copics. This image is by The East Wind, and I again used Primsacolor Premiere pencils to complete this.

It takes so much time and effort to color using color pencils, but it's so worth it. I love the focus and concentration I pour into it. It makes me more aware of details, and partly I think it trains me to have more patience, because this is definitely not a quick job.

Have a great week ahead!!

Redoing Twilight

As promised I made another go with the image Twilight by Crafts and Me. This time I used Derwent Coloursoft. I wanted to try just how waxy this brand is, and color wise, how vibrant. I am happy with the colors, pigment is very vibrant, and it's not far from Prismacolor. I love especially how the bricks turned out, and the skirt too. I still had trouble with the wings, and the thunder I'm not so happy about. I did try using Derwent Burnisher to cover the tooth, but I don't think it worked. I also did try the Derwent Blender, and like the Burnisher, I don't think it did anything at all.

I used Strathmore 300 Series Drawing paper still, so as to get an apples to apples comparison. Since the Coloursoft pencils are very creamy and waxy, I found that it takes less layers to achieve the same look as the Prismacolors. But the disadvantage it, it's too creamy that layering on more colors is also hard. A couple of layers in and the paper just can't take any more. You will feel the pencil just gliding, but not really blending. I think the right thing to do is to use it in conjunction with Derwent Studio or or Artist, but I was too lazy to try. Overall, for a first try, I am quite satisfied. It also taught me how else to do it better next time.

Here's a close up comparison.

If you want the specific colors I used, send me a note and I'll share them with you.

Thanks for looking!

Twilight

I am so happy that I've finally finished coloring this piece! It took me almost  a month, with a couple of hours here and there, and a lot of giving ups in between thinking whether to start over or not, before I finally came to an end and finished the entire thing! I love love love how the brick wall turned out. Trust me it did not look like that even halfway through it, which scared the hell out of me. But I tried to keep going, until I was satisfied by it. 

To my surprise, the brick wall was not even the hardest part of this piece. I had a hard time with the hair and the wings, and struggled a bit on the night sky. The details were so tiny it was hard to do cast shadows. I will most definitely try again and will redo this. 

I used Strathmore 300 Series Drawing Pad and it has way too much tooth (?), too much effort to do the layers, but it has also allowed me to keep on layering until I got it right. I guess what I'm trying to say is despite the effort, it's a bit forgiving? Sorry guys, not really an artist so I'm still trying to learn the difference in papers, weight, texture and medium.

I have already reprinted this Twilight image by Crafts and Me onto a Strathmore 400 Series Colored Pencils pad, and the print turned out much better. The lines on the angel's wings are much more defined, so I'm excited to redo it again. I'm also excited to try on my Derwent Coloursoft on a full image like this so I can compare the outcome to the Prismacolor Premier. 

This is courtesy of Kit and Clowder's August Create and Learn Pencil class. I am so addicted with all this coloring. If you're a fan of it, check out Kit and Clowder and pick whatever is your favorite medium.

Can't wait to get started again!

Battle of the Color Pencils

Hi everyone! So last week I posted the Hydrangea Fairy that I colored using Spectrum Noir Blendable Pencils. Since it was my first attempt, I realized as I colored along the way that there were some things I'd like to do over. Being the perfectionist that I am, I went back and tried to improve upon it. This time I used Prismacolor Premier Pencils. I tried to shoot 2 birds with one stone, thinking I'd improve my coloring skills and at the same time try what's the difference between Spectrum Noir and Prismacolor.

Before I go into detail, here's my finished image using Prismacolor.

Skin - White, Eggshell, light Peach, Peach, Burnt Ochre, Dark Brown

Hair - Sand, Light Umber

Dress - Lilac, Blue Lake, Imperial Violet

Wings - Lavender, Lilac

Flowers - Lemon Yellow, Lilac, Blue Lake, Imperial Violet

Leaves - Yellow Chartreuse, True Green, Prussian Green, Grass Green

Sky - Black, Indigo Blue, Peacock Blue, Powder Blue - Gamsol

Water Puddles and Ground - Indigo Blue, Indanthrone Blue, Powder Blue, Slate Gray

This is my comparison image.

I improved upon the wings, and I thought I'd improve upon the flowers, but that's still up for debate. I thought I'd also try to improve on the sky, but halfway through it, I figured I'm doomed again. Man coloring that background sky is HARD!!! And the puddles, they sure are hard to draw and much harder to color. So I will leave it up to you to comment, and let me know which version you like better.

So, having used both pencils, here are some of my observations:

1.) Spectrum Noir pencils break easily. I know it's half wax and half oil and shouldn't break easily, but mine did, on A LOT of them. Which makes me sad given you can't buy them in singles - at least not yet.

2.) Spectrum Noir takes more effort to blend, but you get more control out of it. 

3.) Prismacolor pencils are way more vibrant. A little goes a long way.

4.) Prismacolor's wax based core makes it easier to blend, but harder to control. Too much color, too waxy, and next thing you know you've put down way too much color.

5.) Prismacolor needs to be sharpened more often. 

6.) Prismacolor - I never had a pencil that broke on me while doing the entire image. But since it's waxy, I feel like I've used more than I should, especially during burnishing, so at the end I kinda lost a good amount of pencil (especially with Imperial Violet since I used that the most). 

Overall, I think both brands are great. Color wise I'd say nothing beats Prismacolor. As you can see, just from the sky alone, the vibrancy is so obvious. I wouldn't rule out Spectrum Noir though. It's not bad, and maybe an expert colorist who knows what they're doing can actually try to give Prismacolor a run of it's money. If you ask me though, I think I will continue to use Prismacolor, at least until Spectrum Noir starts selling their pencils in singles. Coz if not, I sure am not going to spend on a whole set just to get 1 or 2 to refill. 

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Would love to hear from you!  Thanks for visiting!