Drawing and Coloring with Prismacolor Color Pencil

Just recently, I've thought about creating a Youtube channel to broadcast my "How I Draw Portraits" work in progress. The aim of which is to feature speed-videos of me drawing portraits with color pencils, charcoals or watercolor.

At the bottom of this post is a video showing how I added colors on this sketch. I later uploaded that video on the channel. I used the Prismacolor 24 PCS color pencils that my cousin, kuya Jun, had sent me a week ago. He has three identical sets of this so I asked if he could sell me one. He actually ordered the Prismacolor 72 pieces on Ebay but got slightly disappointed when the seller sent a package of three Prismacolor 24 pieces instead.

So, 24 x 3 = 72. Seems valid, right?

I'm not sure if it was false advertising or a lack of clarity from the part of the seller that has misled my cousin into believing he was getting the right thing but the whole bunch of problem could have never happened if things were right in the first place, like putting in the correct description, for example.

Anyhow, he did send an email to the seller, politely informing him of the ruckus. I don't know what has happened after that but I have volunteered to buy one from my cousin so that I could try it. Here's the video of that test.

Painting and Mont Marte Watercolor Paints Review

Painting is an extension of drawing. It adds life to a pencil sketch or an inked art. While almost all of us have started as children who can doodle vivid images straight away from our little visual imagery with just about anything in hand, not all will grow up as descendants of Picasso or Da Vinci.

Perhaps as we grow older, our fondness for art subsides to a cryogenically preserved state due to intervening circumstances. The quest for getting good grades, house chores, new found friendship or even having unsupportive parents are just some of the things that may get in the way.

But why revive a hibernating fascination to art, you say?

Well, uhm, according to some scientific studies, getting oneself immersed in some artistic undertakings can have a positive effect to our brain and to our well-being. Sketching, for instance, increases our creativity and improves motor skills.

Painting, on the other hand, can have more beneficial impacts than drawing alone. According to Fox Hill Residences, painting could improve the overall quality of life. The following are six great benefits of painting that promotes mental health and life in general:

·         Fosters creative growth.

·         Strengthens memory.

·         Builds Problem-Solving and Motor Skills

·         Offers Stress Relief

·         Promotes Optimistic Attitude.

·         Nurtures Emotional Growth.

I guess I was in the right direction when, in the latter months of 2014, I began to scale down on other stressful activities and chose to resuscitate the dying artistic side of me.

Having said too much about painting, I feel a bit guilty for blowing up the introduction. Hence, let’s move on to our simple review of the Mont Marte Paints in 12 tubes.

Here are my Mont Marte watercolor brushes that I bought from Theodist. As opposed to acrylic or oil brushes, these have soft bristles. I originally did not know that watercolor needs particular brushes, until I noticed that I had been damaging papers from using the wrong brush. 

There are four ingredients to a good watercolor painting: perseverance, the quality of paints, the strength of paper and the right set of brushes.  If you have any of these, consider yourself lucky. 

Just recently, I discovered these two items at Theodist. I’m not sure why other stationery shops here in Papua New Guinea do not bother selling quality art materials like these, but I’m thankful that Theodist does.

The Mont Marte Watercolour Pad, in A4 size, is a 300-gsm cold press paper. It’s thicker than the average photocopy paper and is textured. The Mont Marte Watercolour paints come in 12 tubes filled with richly pigmented colors.

That is a good addition to my Mont Marte Two Seasons watercolors, which has 18 tubes of more subtle colors. I have a similar post about the Two Seasons which you can read on this link.

Here’s my sketch on the Mont Marte Watercolour paper for this painting. After some experimenting, I have established four types of pencil sketches for different media. For anime-inspired sketch, pencil sketch is more sharper. For charcoal portrait, it needs to be firm but subtle. For color pencil, the sketch should be almost invisible and for watercolour, the lines have to be sharp and the shades sketched roughly or a little bluntly.

The model that I’m about to paint is of someone that I browsed from Google by typing “Beautiful Face” on the search bar. It’s funny that when I browse this again, her photo doesn’t show up in the list anymore.

I hope she doesn’t get on me if she finds out that I made a watercolor portrait of her.

Here’s the sketch taped on the board. The board is just the backboard of an ordinary A4 photo frame. I’m using a masking tape to stretch the paper on the board. The paper usually warps when applied on with too much water. This technique, somehow, reduces that effect.

I love to use the medium-sized brush in the beginning. I usually start with applying transparent colors on areas that I expect to have darker shades.

Here’s the final product of using Mont Marte Watercolour Paints and Mont Marte Two Seasons Watercolour. Both watercolors complement each other very well and adheres nicely on the Mont Marte Watercolour paper.

Mont Marte Two Seasons Watercolor

Two years ago, I posted on my Facebook page that I would not be painting portraits anytime soon. This is because during that time, my accompanying art skills were on par with that of a Kindergarten learning to draw. My favourite tool back then was a mechanical pencil, which was a gift from my friend, Ali, who came to work for our branch in Daru. Nowadays, I believe that my art skill is still around the Kindergarten level, but with a slightly pronounced improvement. I have also welcomed the opportunity to try out other art mediums, like the watercolor in particular.

This is the Two Seasons watercolor from Mont Marte, which I bought for K30+ kina from Theodist. The paints come in tubes that look pretty durable. Cheaper watercolor brands in tubes are often plaqued by unnecessary problems like a leak from the bottom and breakage along the lines near the cap. But with Two Seasons, you can get your money’s worth and you couldn’t be happier.

Here’s a pencil sketch that I drew for this blog entry. Most of the art pieces that belong to a watercolor artist begin from a simple pencil sketch.  I drew mine with less shade and a little subtle so the lines wouldn’t show up too much in the end product.

I have a well lit custom-made drawing table where I carry out my sketching. However, it doesn’t have enough space to accommodate all these panting tools so I had to clear up the things on my laptop table and did the setup there.

This brush holder is the latest addition to my painting tools. The price is around K9+ from Theodist. Those watercolor brushes are new ones too. My first impression of brushes is that all brushes are the same and are all suitable for water-based paints. My updated realization is that not all brushes are cut out for watercolor painting. There are brushes that look subtle in appearance, but can become a threat to the paper in an instance so it is always a good thing to check the labels before making the purchase.

These brushes have a “watercolor” label on the package.

I’m very new to watercolor painting. Having said that, I guess I am allowed to use a “scratch pad” for testing the intensity of paints before I actually apply them on the drawing. One surprising advantage of watercolor painting is that you can easily dismiss a mistake for style.

As the scratch pad is filled up with psychedelic swatches of paints, the art piece itself is slowly taking form. The pencil strokes becomes less visible and the once two-dimensional drawing becomes a bit alive from the constant application of shades.

Here’s the end product. Overall, I have spent roughly thirty minutes for the pencil sketch and some two hours for the application of watercolor paints.

Happy painting everyone! 

Review of Mont Marte Products and Panda Watercolor

It’s not always that I get to see myself sitting down in front of my laptop and thinking of how I should begin my review for a newly acquired sets of art tools. After a few sips from a cup of an already cold Lipton tea, I am feeling more relaxed and sleepy and the prospect of coming up with a catchy introduction is slowly slipping away from me.

Luckily, the presence of a few *kamikaze mosquitoes is keeping me awake.

*Kamikaze mosquitoes - Mosquitoes that bite and die after a good slapping.

Last week when I went to Theodist here in Port Moresby, I saw this product sitting on a shelf along with other products that belong to the same category. I originally thought of this as some kind of unnecessary invention. With the help of a little creativity, I might be able to build a similar DIY brush washer made of, uhm, an empty bowl and a few clothes peg.

I think that should be easy.

But not quite so. This brush washer from Mont Marte is not as simple as it looks. We can see in the middle that it has a screen mesh with a holder. I suppose that this is to filter out sediments and keep them in the bottom of the container once you scrape off your brush on it.

There’s a spring coil at the top. Its purpose is to hold different sizes of brush handles and it can really hold any size. Brushes with a really thin handle can also fit in if you try and place it at a correct angle (slightly angled to follow the spring direction). 

Oh yes, the whole thing is made of stainless steel. I shouldn't be worrying about corrosion any time soon.

Another nice art tool that I’ve picked up from Theodist is this set of Mont Marte Calligraphy Brush. In some Japanese or Chinese movies that I've watched before, I remember to have seen a scene of someone painting Chinese fonts on more than one occasion. These brushes are very similar to what were used in those movies. If there's one peculiarity that makes this brush stand out from the rest, it would be its ideal shape that allows for a dynamic and round stroke.This is probably the reason why it is also being referred to as "Chinese brush."

The box is elegantly styled with silk cover to present itself with a classy look.

There are 8 different sizes of brushes with holes to which those two handles can be screwed.  I bought this for the purpose of learning how to paint with watercolours. Two years ago, I indulged myself in art and started teaching myself how to draw anime-inspired portraits with pencils which had later progressed to learning how to do colour pencil portraits. After getting the hang of it, I thought that maybe I should also learn watercolour painting.

And viola, here’s a noob “me” buying these brushes.

These brushes go well together with the brush holder/washer. As you can see on the right side, there’s also a thin brush that I intend to use for painting small details. All these brushes are unused yet at the time of this shot.

The spring on top is designed with having two things in mind: to keep the brush tip in the water and to keep it off the water to dry. I like that with this, I can easily transition between the two options. I prefer to do the latter after cleaning the brushes and leave them suspended there for the next use. When the brush is dangling by the spring, the water droplet forming down on its tip is also helping it to retain its pointy shape.

We can think of this picture as a stalactite hanging in a cave. They occurred with pointed tips due to the precipitation of minerals caused by water dripping through the cave ceiling. This action is responsible for shaping stalactites and stalagmites over time.

Here’s a Panda watercolour brand. I bought this from Tango Department Store. Judging from its very affordable price, this brand is meant for student use I guess.  

Luckily, I consider myself as a wishful watercolour art student and this is just enough for me.

This particular watercolour brand is surprisingly easy to mix and use. The colours dissolve well in water and like how any other watercolour should behave when diluted, the intensity of colour is affected by how much water droplets you apply on it. You can see in these two plastic palettes how I have come up with new colours from combining stock colours.

And here’s what I came up with from using these three different art tools. Why bird, you ask? It’s because this is what I think, one of the easiest thing to paint. I have once shown my first watercolour landscape painting to a professional painter. Although I know that it wasn’t a good one, he pointed out my flaws in a suggestive but polite way. He told me to paint small or still objects first. That way, he said that I could slowly but progressively learn how to see and render things effectively. He also said that each object could possess a hundred colour and I must first learn how to compose shadows. 

 Pretty good suggestions, I must say.

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.

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.