Showing posts with label Faber Castell Classic Colour Pencils. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Faber Castell Classic Colour Pencils. Show all posts

Saturday, 29 April 2017

A Glimpse of What We Do In Papua New Guinea

There’s a saying that says, “An opportunity only knocks once.” And then it’s up to us to decide in which way it’s better greeted up.

My older cousin, kuya Jun, has invented a series of object classes in a programming language called Visual Foxpro. These classes are mostly an enhanced version of the usual controls that we normally see on desktop computers being run by Windows OS.  To help you imagine what an object class is, you can think of the browser’s title bar as an example where at the rightmost corner of which you can find three inseparable buttons: the Minimize, Maximize and Close button. His classes include a title bar class, and what it does is that it gives other software developers the chance to change the title bars’ appearance during run time and make them look more pleasing to the eye.

A benefit that one gains from such feat, aside from the money that pours in from subscriptions, is a surprising increase in the number of followers that recognize your invaluable contributions to VFP communities.

While I, myself, have been contributing for years in my own leisure, they're just an infinitesimal dot in the cyberspace of history. I wish not be perceived as being cocky, but if someone likes to see the stuffs that I gave away for free, please visit these two links: the Polyclock class and the Number To Word function.

Anyway, the reason being that I have come up with the quote above is because this post is mildly related to that. As kuya Jun’s class increased in popularity, so does the frequency of deposits made to his Paypal’s virtual wallet. The emerging problem thereafter is about finding the way to make use of it because his Paypal account has no link to his other personal bank account. He thought it better to spend them on buy and sell items; like order an item from Ebay with Paypal and sell it locally.

I am one of the few “local” buyers.

A few months ago, I ordered a 120-set of Faber-Castell Polychromos color pencils from him. I got it for less than 20% of the price in the retail market. The delivery was prompt, which did not take more than two months. Before the novelty wears out, I thought it appropriate to take the opportunity of making a drawing with it. That’s my hand in the picture. I’m kind of wearing a crude smudge guard which I made from a recycled glove mitten.
If you’re wondering who it is that I’m drawing, she’s Julia Gillard, one of Australia’s former prime ministers. 


In the office, I continue to be busy on anything I can work on with. The scope, in which the whole weight of my responsibility falls into, is a bit large. While surrounding circumstances make me prioritize software development, I also put myself in charge of our company's digital arts, computers and networking maintenance, and inventory management. An apparent visible cue to having as much work is the agglomeration of various things on my desk.

Although a cluttered desk may receive an immediate impression of being a disorganized old chap, I beg to disagree.  A few mitigating factors involved in having such is my reluctance to dispose of remnants of the finished works, simply for the reason that I find delight in savoring the fruits of labor.


















But any of which you see on my desk is regarded with equal importance. Hence, a puncher and a calculator are as indispensable as that of the three-screen display that I have. Working on multiple screen is fun and it can increase productivity to a certain point by reducing the time spent on shifting through open apps. 

In the picture above, on the left screen, is the CinchPro Payroll System that I’m creating for the company that I’m working with. In the middle is the source code editor and the screen on the right is for viewing SQL queries.


















Before I knew about the existence of Acrylic paints in tubes, I was using watercolors. The A4 size artwork above is of the cartoon Thomas and Johnny and is what I painted with Mont Marte watercolors. The advantage of using acrylic paints over watercolors is that the former doesn’t fade after it dries out, but the latter doesn’t dry as fast on the palettes. I’ll post some of my artworks using acrylics in the near future if time permits.


Here in Papua New Guinea, we spend most of our times in the office or in the city proper. I find it that there’s not much an opportunity to be out and about and be in one with nature at one's whims. But one such opportunity arises during when I accompany my friends to a morning mass held during Sundays somewhere in Waigani. Even though I just usually wait for them and sit the time entirely in this parking lot that resembles a nature themed park, the experience is worth taking on.

That’s all for this week. Have a nice Sunday everyone.


Sunday, 19 June 2016

Drawing Sue Ramirez With Faber-Castell Classic Colour Pencil

In Papua New Guinea, an expat may find himself contemplating at some point in time about how his life closely resembles the saga of our solar system wherein the Earth is revolving around our sun in a circumscribed manner in which the strong gravitational pull of the sun keeps the earth from being swept away of its orbit. Let loose a bit and the Earth will find itself taking a path to uncertainty while infinitely sailing through the darkness of the ever expanding universe. Like a planet, depending on how one should put it, the life of an expat might take a spin only within the collective encasement of three familiar entities: the house, the office, and the shops.


Yet I haven’t heard of a planet displaced from its orbital path aside from what NASA has done in the past when they sent out a spacecraft carrying an impactor meant to intercept a moving comet millions of miles away. Instead of subtle rendezvous, they intentionally smashed an impactor on board a rocket into the comet Tempel 1 to eject materials from its surface which could then be analysed later at a considerable distance.

The impact did little to alter the course of the comet. 


But going back to our topic, one can be forgiven for making inaccurate assumptions on what to expect while living in this country. This can be followed by the sweeping realization that there is not much difference from where you’ve come from. The points in which the adjustment period lies within may not be so steep. And so it came to pass that I contentedly celebrated another year of being here, this time by going through the art tools that I have collected for years.

Which is one of the things I came up with to prevent boredom and homesickness.


Phase #1. I'm proud to say that I'm a fan of miss Sue Ramirez. And I've got a little crush on her. In my other post, I wrote a simple review about Faber-Castell Classic Colour pencils to which I highlighted the importance of using it when one has just started with colour pencil. Here's my pencil sketch of Sue using an HB graphite pencil. 

This is my second attempt for drawing a portrait photo. We can see here that I've just begun coloring an eye. This is where I stopped and moved on to do other things.


Phase #2. After four days, I continued with the other eye and the areas around the nose and lips. I'm actually guilty of rushing through this part. I had wished to see myself involving a more relaxed hand in a series of slow moving gestures when working on accentuating facial attributes in the future.



Phase #3. Yet after another four days, I had only managed to work slowly on enhancing facial colors and my eagerness to work on the hair had led me to draw in a hurry. It was not a good thing for the hair. I'll do some necessary correction and see if I can make it more convincing.



Phase #4. Eight days had passed since Phase #3, I sat down by my drawing table and thought it would be nice to work on the hair. Using the selected colors above, I managed to draw her hair much better than the last times I tried. I guess, you'll just get better in time with practice. 

Just give time a time and you'll see the result.


Phase #5. A day after Phase #4, I continued with the rest of the hair. I wasn't able to complete it but I was satisfied with what I'd done so far.



Phase #6. Four days after Phase #5, despite  coming home at around 9:00 in the evening, I found the motivation to finish this portrait. Such inducement is probably coming from my strong desire to test the Faber-Castell Polychromos and set aside the FC Classicfor a while.



Last week, the Faber-Castell Polychromos that I ordered from Ebay through kuya Jun's (my cousin) Paypal account had arrived earlier than the expected time. I haven't tried using it yet up to now but I might give in to the temptation on one of these days.


I've ordered the set of 120 pieces which has a wide range of color values. What I find interesting with this is that those nice people from Faber-Castell has even bothered to give each piece a name apart from the numerical values imprinted next to it.

The big difference between the Classic Colour and Polychromos is that the former is wax based and the latter is oil based. If time permits, I will be writing a review for Polychromos and point out some other differences between the two.

Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Faber Castell 48 Classic Colour Pencils + 2B Pencil & Sharpener

When I was three decades younger, I used to fill the backmost pages of my notebooks with sketches of just about anything I could draw.  I usually sketch in school and mostly during classes.  I know it wasn’t a good idea to begin with, but if you had a last name that began in letter "V" you'd end up being asked to sit at the back along with other children whose surnames started with y, u or z. Far from the teachers prying eyes, it was not long until I found myself filling up my notebooks with crayon sketches.

Fast forward to today’s era,  I notice a big leap in the development of art tools. Back then, I was fine with crayons and watercolors and they were an indispensable kiddie art tools. Now, we have oil-based and wax-based color pencils which can really color drawings more vividly and lively.

Despite my love for art, I am extremely new to color pencil. From reviews, I’ve read that the best two brands around are Faber Castell Polychromos and Prismacolors.  It’s unfortunate that in Papua New Guinea, these two are non-existent.  About a month ago, however, Star Office Works in RH Gordon Branch started selling the Faber Castell Classic Colour Pencils in 12’s, 24’s 36’s and 48’s.


The 48 pieces in suitcase-like plastic container is what I bought.  It costs around K40 to K50. The color pencils are safely tucked within the coves to hold them firmly in place. The red handle is designed to slightly elevate the case on a flat surface at a fixed angle when shifted downwards. I’m not sure how can this be of any help to me but a kid might find a use for it, like a mini-table perhaps?

Hey, now look at that. It also comes with one graphite pencil and a sharpener! 

I have a low grade 12-pieces color pencils before which I bought mainly out of curiosity and in comparison to it; Faber Castell Classic Colour Pencils have bigger lead in diameter.


I was a bit excited to try and draw anything and this is the first drawing that I made with it on a 165g sketch pad. The colors are vibrant and it’s a bit softer compared to my Faber castell water color pencils. It’s easy to blend too.  I haven’t tried the polychromos or prismacolor before so I can’t really say if this is good or not.  

Looking closely though, we can see that this is not quite an artist-grade tool but we can surely draw whatever we want with it.  


Here's my second attempt to sketch a color pencil portrait with Miss Destiny Nickelsen as the reference person. I noticed that I spent the black faster as opposed to any other color despite the only areas I used it up with are the hair, the dark undershirt and the eyes. 

I'm thinking that if I do another portrait, i'd consume another 25% of that remaining black. If I use another media as a replacement for black, I might prolong its life. The classic color is also available in 12 sets which is relatively cheaper so I guess I'd just have to buy the 12's to replenish the black.

I think it's a good idea and money-wise to begin with this type of color pencil when leaning how to use it and then shift to a more expensive and artist-grade tools like Polychromos later when I feel like I'm ready for it.



Update: (07 June 2016)


I must take back what I said when I mentioned in this blog that FBCC was not an artist grade. Now I believe that it is not the tool that sets the standard for a good art but rather it's the talent of the artist itself. This is Iya Eugenio's art. She used Faber Castell Classic Colour Pencils to color this portrait sketch and the secret to that smooth skin tone as she said was perseverance. 

Pretty talented girl I must say.


Update: (02 February 2017)

I've been following miss Iya Eugenio's artworks, particularly her sketch of Avril Lavigne. Last year around June, I had brushed upon one of her works (this) which was then a work-in-progress and I was amazed by the fact that it was drawn with Faber Castell color pencils.  

If you wish to see her other artworks, you may want to visit an FB Group, Guhit Pinas, of which she is a member. A remarkable member I'd say. 

She also has her own page to showcase her artworks. If you like getting astonished by color pencil arts, it's a high time that you visit her page, Isiya's Art. If you find her work inspiring, please feel free to leave a comment or click the Like button to show appreciation. 

Have fun!


Update: (27 July 2019)


I haven't been drawing anything with color pencil for like two years now and I have lost track of what's going on in the art groups that I am a part of. Anyway, just today, I was able to come to my blog and check the comments. One of the comments is for this post and I kind of wonder what has happened to Iya's Avril Lavigne color pencil artwork. 

Unfortunately, the FB links that I've posted here no longer work. But I managed to search for her new FB account (I guess) and have found this public post of her. So without permission from her, I just grab this wonderful artwork and posted it here. Iya, if you're reading this, I hope you won't get mad. Thank you for completing this lovely artwork. I truly like this. 


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