Product Review Series | Black Widow & Scorpion - Wax Based Coloured Pencils

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I'd like to talk about the Black Widow and Scorpion wax-based coloured pencils by MediHealth. I had been seeing these pencils more and more in different social media groups and I wanted to know what the hype was about.

So sit back, grab a drink and read on. As always, this is going to be full of pictures and information!
For the purposes of this review, the image stamped is from Lawn Fawn's "Our Friendship Grows" stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb white cardstock and 65lb kraft cardstock.

These pencils have recently gained a lot of popularity and I wanted to know why. So when Amazon (Canada) had these on a super sale, I jumped for them. At first I was confused about these - were they the same, was one set bigger? As it turns out the Scorpions are a continuation of the Black Widows, so as of this writing there are 48 different pencils between the two sets with plans for a new set in the spring of 2018.

• Wax-based
• Hexagon barrel
• Scorpions have a number and colour name right on the pencil, the Black Widows do not
• Both boxes include a colour swatch - though I found this to be relatively inaccurate
• Black wood
• Pre-sharpened
• Vibrant colour

As I mentioned, I tested these on 110lb white cardstock and 65lb kraft cardstock, I chose these papers as they are the most common papers I use in my crafting. For this image, I used two different shades of red.

I prefer to test with reds because reds are typically the hardest colour to use - no matter what the medium.

Some of my observations:

• The core is very soft - much like a pastel. I would argue that the core is softer than those in the Prismacolor Premier. However, the core is sturdier than the Prismas. It was a very different to use these. 
• The colour lays down incredibly smooth, and spreads nicely. Much like using pastels. I didn't feel a need to resharpen the pencils before I used them; which was also interesting as I am insanely picky about the sharpness of my pencils.
• The barrel is very smooth and the hexagon shape makes it feel smaller than a standard pencil in my hand. If you have read my other reviews, you'll know that I have some arthritic issues in my hand and I did find that using these for an extended period of time hurt me. So that is definitely something to keep in mind.

For the blendability test I chose one of each of the primary colours. The top was blended just using the pencils, and the bottom was blended with Gamsol.

Observations:

• I found that the pencils layer nicely, but didn't really "blend" together to create a new colour the way I expected them to. I found the colours just seem to lay around each other.
• When blending with the Gamsol the pigment melted very nicely and sank between the teeth of the paper and helped with blending the two different colours. You can see this in the orange and green areas under the line.

For the erasability test, I used the SC33 Blood Red with increasing layers and pressure as I progressed down the page. On the left I used a regular white eraser and on the right I used the Tombow Mono Sand eraser.

Observations:

• Both erasers did a relatively decent job of removing the lighter shading at the top. 
• The regular eraser would most likely remove a small, light mistake - we've all been there.
• The Tombow sand eraser was able to remove a lot more pigment, but it took a bit of work. Depending on the quality of your paper this could be fine or detrimental to your project.

Here I have all the colours swatched (post on swatching coming soon), as you can see for the first 24 colours they have no names because none were provided. I worked out the colour order as I prefer it on a separate paper and numbered them myself. I like to show varying pressure moving from left to right.

The Scorpions do have their names and numbers on the pencils - I emailed the company about this and was told that when they rerelease the Black Widows in 2018 they will have names and colour numbers, but were unwilling to provide me with that list at this time.

I used a thin piece of painters tape and just wrote the number on the end so that I could reference back to my swatch and determine the colour I want to use.

They do have a couple unusual names for some of the colours, Blood Red, Bug Brown and Pig's Ear, but this is not really consistent. They have some regular names but I think it would be fun if they took this further for the whole collection.

I wanted to include this close up picture from a card that I had completed a little while ago. I used the Black Widows and Scorpions for the Balloons in this Happy Hippos card.  I had wanted to use them for the entire card, however there is a very sad lack of greys.

Overall Conclusions:

• These pencils have an incredible value vs cost. They were very inexpensive and would be an excellent addition to any colourist's collection at any level. I'll definitely be getting the next set that comes out for the collection.
• I will be getting a pencil case for these because I hate the cardboard box the Black Widows came in and I like to keep all my pencils together.
• The pigment lays down beautifully, requiring very little pressure though blending takes some work.
• They sharpen very well, I use the T'GAAL multi-sharpener by Kutsuwa and I highly recommend it for every pencil that I have and it has not failed me yet.

If you are looking to try something new or get a "better" type of pencil at a great price for yourself or as a gift, I highly recommend these. At this point there is a terrible lack of grays and I am hoping that when the next volume comes out they will have a few more.

I hope you enjoyed today's review. If you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, drop me a line the comments section below and let me know. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future reviews.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products for review nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I personally use, that I find interesting and that I have paid for. I receive no reward, incentive or payment to create a review. All reviews are based on my experience and are my opinions only.

Product Review Series | Irojiten Coloured Pencils by Tombow

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

To wrap up the year, and because it's Sunday I have a final product review for 2017. As many of you know I received a bunch of stuff for Christmas and I promised some reviews. Today I am doing the Irojiten Coloured Pencils by Tombow. If you haven't heard of these before, do some Googling and then come back here. I'll wait.

For those of you that have seen them and are interested in more information, sit back and relax, grab a cup of coffee and read on! As always, this is a lengthy post with lots of pictures and information.

• Wax-based
• Made by Tombow
• White barrel with painted end for colour identification
• Each pencil has a number and name directly engraved
• Each box has a list of colour numbers and names included
• Each set contains three volumes of 10 pencils (30 per set, 90 in the collection)
• They are pre-sharpened

Set one contains:

• vol 1 Pale tone 1
• vol 2 Vivid tone 1
• vol 3 Deep tone 1

For the purposes of this demonstration I will be using this set for the examples as I feel it gives the widest range of colours as well as what I consider to be "true" colours. Vivid tones is what I expect rainbows to be made of. 

I tested on my three most common papers - 110lb white cardstock, 65lb kraft cardstock and 65lb black cardstock. The stamped image is from Lawn Fawn's "Our Friendship Grows", stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

I used P1 and P2 (Orchid Pink and Coral Pink) for this example. Basically, I'm testing to see how they lay down on each of the papers and how much they stand out from the background.

As you can see on the white cardstock that the colours are very pale - which I expected coming from the pale tones. They continue to be quite soft on the kraft but not so much that I would choose not to use them. They stand out magnificently on the black - obviously you cannot see the stamped image, but the colours stand out very nicely. Again, colour choice is important on a darker cardstock, and it will take some experimentation before you find what works for you.

Observations:

• Core is a medium hardness - definitely harder than Prismacolor Premier pencils, but softer than a Faber-Castell Polychormos.
• I found that on all three papers the pigment lay down evenly without a lot of effort and they layered very nicely.
• It did not hurt my hand to use them. I didn't feel the need to grip the pencil tightly nor did I have to apply a lot of pressure to lay the pigment down.
• The colours I chose for this were very close together so it didn't entail a lot of blending at this point.

For the blending test, I lay down V1 (vivid tones 1) Cherry Red, V7 King Fisher (the blue) and then over top V3 Dandelion. On the left of the swatches is blending with the pencil. On the right I am blending with Gamsol.

Observations:

• The colours do less blending and more sitting together. You can see this specifically in the green area, where I lay the yellow over the blue. It seemed to fill in the gaps between the blue streaks causing the colour to appear green. 
• This is very different than the Prismacolors that seem to blend and mix together on the page.
• These seem to just work "together" to look the way I wanted it to.
• On the right where I used Gamsol, you can see that the blending is smoother and there is less visibility of the tooth of the paper - the Gamsol reacts as expected with these as they are a wax based pencil.

For the erasability test, I lay down the V1 Cherry Red in two layers over the paper. On the left I used a regular white eraser and on the right I used the Tombow Mono Sand Eraser. I chose red as it is the hardest colour to fix errors with or to blend. Red is a nightmare in pretty much any medium from coloured pencils through to nail polish.

Observations:

• Both erasers did a decent job of pulling up the pigment. I wasn't expecting perfection as it is red.
• The regular eraser (left) was able to lift more pigment than I expected and if I should have a tick or a mistake in a piece I suspect it would work nicely.
• The Tombow Mono Sand eraser was able to pull up a lot more pigment as expected due to the nature of the eraser. If you haven't gotten one of these I highly recommend you check them out in the link above.

Set two contains:

• vol 4 Pale tone 2
• vol 5 Deep tone 2
• vol 6 Light Grayish tone 1 

I found their naming of Light Grayish tone 1 interesting as there isn't another one, but maybe in the future.... who knows?

This set rounds out the pale and deep tones that are found in set one and expands into muted tones. I would naturally gravitate towards the Light Grayish tones for background or shadowed areas in a forest or floral scene.

Set three contains:

• vol 7 Fluorescence
• vol 8 Very pale tone
• vol 9 Dull tone

If you are not buying the full set, this is the last I would recommend, and maybe that's why they put these together as they did. I don't tend to use very bright colours and I'm still searching for a reason to use the Fluorescence pack. 

The very pale tones (vol 8) just screams baby cards or Easter cards and I definitely cannot wait to use these in that way.

Vol 9 Dull tone reminds me of a swamp or a forest at night and I will likely use them as such when a project comes my way with those things. I highly suspect that this third set will be the least used.

Here I have completed my swatch pages for all the colours - I'll have an entire post about swatching and why it is important in the future but this will give you a basic look at the colours and how they have set out their palettes for this collection.

Overall Conclusions:

• These pencils are super pretty to have in my craft room. They just look classy. So far the packaging has held up quite well, but I haven't taken them to travel yet. Regular use in the craft room, they take up a lot of space when they are all laid out. If you aren't into the pretty packaging I would recommend a pencil case of some kind.
• The pencils feel good in the hand. They have a smooth round barrel that is comfortable and I don't feel like I have to hold tightly.
• They lay down very nicely overall, the pigment quality is quite good. If find them comparable to Prismacolor Premier pencils - though the core is harder.
• The colours are true - One pencil is called "apricot" and when I lay down the pigment I am not disappointed when I see the apricot colour. They also match their painted ends rather well, so well done there - no sneaky surprises when grabbing a pencil. We've all been there and it's a dark, angry place.
• The colours are very unique which is not something you see with a lot of other pencil brands. 
• There is a disgusting lack of grays. Out of the entire set of 90 pencils there are two grays. TWO!! I happen to like to use a lot of gray in my pieces for shading and animals and it was incredibly disappointing to find only two. Both of which are in the first set - another reason why I recommend that set the most.
• They sharpen nicely and I did not have any breaks. As always the sharpener I use and highly recommend is the T'GAAL multi-sharpener by Kutsuwa

If you are looking to expand your coloured pencil collection I highly recommend them. The unique colours and the range in which they come with this set will make an excellent addition to your pencil collection.

However, if you are looking for your first "Artist" grade pencils - these are not the way to go. I would only recommend these to people who already have or are planning to have another set, such as the Prismacolor Premiers or the Faber-Castell Polychromos. 

I hope you enjoyed today's review. If you have any questions about these pencils or a suggestion for a future review, please leave me a note in the comments section below. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook so you don't miss any future posts.

Have a Happy New Year

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I have, that I find interesting and that I have paid for (or in this case received as a gift). I receive no payment, reward or incentive by the company to review the product. All reviews are based on my experience with the product and are my opinion only.

Product Review Series | Luminarte Twinkling H2O Watercolours

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Last week I had a poll going on my Facebook page to see what you would like to have reviewed this week. It was an incredibly close call but the Luminarte Twinkling H2O Watercolours won with 52% of the vote. Keep an eye out this week for another poll!

I currently have three packages of these that I feel give me a pretty fair palette of colours to choose from. Don't get me wrong, I would certainly love to have more, but for what I do and my needs at this time, these suffice.

As always, this will be a pretty long post, with a bunch of pictures. So grab a coffee and enjoy!

First Impressions:

• Vibrant colors
• Cute little pots
• Decent packaging
• Has the name on the bottom - I'll get to this
• They are Acid-free, Odorless and non-toxic - so good for kids to play with
• According to the website they are available in 210 colours!!
• Can be purchased individually in 5/10mL pots - but I was only able to find them in these packs of six at my local Michael's Craft store

There aren't really an "instructions" with the packages as to how to get them to work, so I was a little disappointed there. They have claims on the site about being child-friendly, but they don't work like any type of paint I have ever purchased for my kids. If I weren't crafty and these were gifted to one of my kids it would be disappointing because they don't work right out of the gate.

To use:

• Open the pot (obviously)
• Spray or add a few drops of water and let them sit for a few minutes. These paints are hard. Like super colourful little rocks inside cute little jars, by adding some water and letting them sit it softens the paint and "activates" it so you can actually use it.
• Paint and enjoy!
• You don't have to wait for the paint to dry out before closing it up. It'll dry out just fine with the lid closed - at least I have never had a problem with it. 

After using these, I found:

• They are incredibly pigmented - there is a lot of colour shoved into that little pot, so a little goes a long way
• Insanely shimmery - You know how I always mention that my camera doesn't pick up the shine and that makes me sad but in real life it really sparkles? With these, the camera picks up the shimmer as you can see in the large butterfly on the right. In real life, the shimmer is off the charts. I couldn't even believe it 
• They blend pretty well - to be fair it was very late when I made this card front and I didn't actually use watercolour paper. Normally I would have. So that being said they can be used on 110lb regular cardstock as long as you aren't going crazy with them - They would be excellent to add just a bit of shimmering highlight to an image
• Be aware that they will warp the page as they dry - just make sure you cover the entire back of the panel with a very strong adhesive so that it will lay flat.
• When the paint mixture is thin it is very transparent - so if you want to add a light wash of shimmer over another colour, you would be able to do so
• As the water starts to evaporate or continue to seep into the paint pot the paint will become very thick - at this point you can use it on dark cardstock (picture below) as it is very opaque and just as shimmery.

As my paints dried I used a couple of the colours on just a scrap of black 65lb cardstock by Recollections. The blue I found to be the most vibrant, but I think if the same consistency were reached with most of the others it would work as well. Obviously a very light colour like yellow won't be as opaque as a blue or dark purple but experimenting with them would be fun.

As you know I'm a fan of swatching - There's a whole big post coming up about it. I'm also a fan of knowing what my colours will look like on the paper I'm most likely to use them on. I mentioned above that there is information on the bottom of each pot about the colour - name, number etc. That's a problem for me, I like to refer back to the colours so I can remake an image or I can discuss it here in the blog, so it just spells disaster for me to have to look at the bottom of a tiny paint pot that I have just added water to. I'm sure you can see where this is going.

To solve this problem I use my 1" Recollections circle punch and punched out a circle from Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper - which is my go-to paper for most of my projects.

I activated the paints, added water to half of the circle and dropped in the colour. Once they were dry, I wrote the name and adhered them directly to the top of the lid.

My overall impressions:

These are a nice to have in the craft room, but definitely not something I would recommend you run out and buy (not that I ever tell you to go buy something, but you know what I'm saying). If you are looking to add some shimmer to your piece and you want to try something new, then by all means these are something you may find interesting. 

Being able to use these on dark and regular cardstock to add just a bit of shimmer is a huge plus for this product. As long as you are using a light hand, I think you'll be incredibly pleased with your results. That being said, this product is something I feel you need to plan to use. Having to activate the paint and wait around for it to be ready, does not lend itself well to being a "spur of the moment" kind of medium.

If you are able to find them individually or want to give one a try, I recommend a neutral colour; a pearl or pale silver, if the paint is thin you'll be able to use it over something you have already coloured (provided it doesn't reactivate with water) to give it a wash of shimmer. 

Aside from these three packs that I had come across in my craft store, I haven't seen them locally since; even in the same store. They are available online - but without seeing them in person picking a selection would be difficult. 210 colours is incredibly overwhelming even for an experienced craft supply purchaser. 

I hope you enjoyed today's review, if you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, drop me a line in the comments section below, I would love to hear from you. If you haven't already please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I use, that I find interesting and that I have purchased myself. I am given no reward, incentive or payment to write a review. All reviews are based on my personal experience with the product and are my opinions only.

Product Review Series | Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and a Completed Card

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

This past week on my Facebook page, I ran a poll to see what you were interested in for this week's review. Well the votes are in and 65% of voters wanted to see the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.

In April of last year, I did a post about these Zig markers and about the gauntlet I went through to get my hands on them. It didn't occur to me until just recently that I never actually did a review of them! Whoops!!

So here it is, as always this review will be long and full of pictures, so grab a coffee and enjoy! And don't forget there is a card at the end!!

My current storage system has them broken into three groups; neutrals, cools and warms. This isn't ideal, I'll be honest. I would love to find another way to store them but frankly I haven't gotten to it yet. I like the three mini mason jars as they just sit on my desk but when I come up with something new, I'll be sure to share it.

So a couple of things:

• These are super vibrant. A little goes a long way - and that's good because they are pricey.
• They blend super well. Don't feel like you need to buy the whole lot to get a good range of colour, any colours you may not have can very easily be created with a little practice.
• Can be used with or without water (I'll have examples below)
• They will reactivate after drying if new moisture is applied. Very handy for those times you may slip out of the lines.
• They have an actual brush tip. It doesn't just look like a brush, it is a brush, so in a lot of ways it's like painting.
• These come in open stock as well as packs of 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and finally 80 (If you checked out my other post - linked above - you'll see why I got the 60 pack instead of the smaller one that I had originally wanted)

Here I just wanted to show you a close up of the brush tip. It is amazing. Like any other brush don't apply a lot of pressure - more pressure means a wider stroke and that's okay just be careful not to damage the tip.

There are about a million printable swatch cards online for these guys and that's fantastic. However my printer doesn't take watercolour paper, or Bristol paper or any paper that it doesn't like the look of depending on the day, so I made my own. This way I could keep them in basic colour groups, I could arrange them the way I wanted and I could omit any markers that I didn't actually own. 

Swatching is good for a couple of reasons (and I have a post coming up all about it), firstly it gives you a basic idea of what the marker feels like when you use it. How fast the pigment comes out and how much pressure to apply. It will also show you the true colour. I know they try and try to put the colour on the bottom of the marker or the pen but really they don't always match up - and that's frustrating to find out in the middle of a project.

There are two ways that I personally use the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.

The first is with Bristol Smooth paper. I use Strathmore 100lb Bristol Smooth - it's white but almost has a creamy colour to it. It's incredibly smooth and mostly useless for coloured pencil but it works like a dream with these markers.

In the picture above, I have stamped this floral image from Clearly Besotted with CTMH Archival ink. Using Archival ink is incredibly important as it is waterproof, and these are water-based markers, so you see where I'm going with this.

I work in small areas, adding the darkest colour where I want the deepest shadow to be, then add the lighter colour and blend the two together. The smooth surface of the Bristol paper keeps the marker from drying as quickly as it would on regular cardstock, allowing you to blend. Don't wait too long though as it will dry. 

I keep a paper towel handy to wipe clean my lighter colour. While the brush will pick up the darker colour it will not seep up into the brush nor will it ruin the tip so feel free to blend away.

For this second example I am still working on Bristol Smooth paper because I love the smooth texture, but this can be done on watercolour paper as well.

I prepped this piece with my powder tool and stamped the rose image from Clearly Besotted with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder.

For each petal I added a fine line of my blue and then pulled it out using the clear Wink of Stella glitter brush pen. You can also do this with water, but I wanted my flower to sparkle. I repeated this process with each petal, wiping off the glitter pen whenever it was picking up too much colour.

I did the exact same process with a green for the leaves and stem. I wanted to show this close up as it is also the completed card for today. There are only two markers used for the colouring of this entire flower. One blue and one green. 

Overall I'm incredibly happy with these markers. You can use them the way I have described above, or you can scribble them on a palette and pick them up with a brush. These have all the best things about watercolours and all the best things about markers - rolled into one!

For this completed card, I coloured the flower from Clearly Besotted as I described above, I then masked it off and lay down a stencil and spritzed a light blue mist through it. Because this is Bristol Smooth paper, the areas where the liquid pools in the corners of the stencil will be more intense than if it were pulled into the paper.

Once that was dry I heat embossed the greeting in the same silver.

I hope you enjoyed today's review and card. If you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, please drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. 

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I find interesting, that I use and that I have purchased. All reviews are based on my experience with them and are my opinions only. I am not given reward, incentive or payment to write a review.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge 

Challenge #245

 Thank you for voting for this card!

Product Review Series | ft. Prismacolor Verithin Pencils

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Recently I was in my local Michael's store, and I'm not even really sure why because their selection has gone down hill in the paper crafting areas and I'm always so disappointed; but I had just dropped my son off at soccer practice and it was right across the street.... you know how these things are. 

Anyway, I'm wandering about and I see that all the Prismacolor sets are on sale, like crazy on sale and I already have the 132 set so I don't need those, but they do carry the Verithins in the 24/36 pack, but for whatever reason they are NOT included in the sale stuff. So I take the 36 ('cause if I'm going to get them, I'm going to get them all) to the counter and the lady says I can use a coupon; this worked out exceptionally well for me because the price after the coupon was better than the price would have been if they were included in the sale! YAY!!

As always, this is going to be a lengthy post with a bunch of pictures, so grab a coffee and tuck right in. 

Unlike the Premiers that come in snazzy little tins, the Verithins do not. They come in these cardboard boxes that you have to open and slide then bend backwards to create an easel and then they stand up but then you have to do everything backwards just to put them away and .... really? SERIOUSLY Prismacolor? 

Okay, so here we have it standing up and as you can see there are a few things we're going to notice right out of the gate.

• Crappy cardboard box container - let's be honest, this isn't going to last.
• Unsharpened pencils
• 36 Vibrant colours - more on this later
• Hexagonal Barrels
• Contains a Silver and a Gold 

As you know I am a huge fan of the T'GAAL Multi-Sharpener, I was using a super inexpensive electric sharpener and that worked great but the amount of waste was killing me.... I was dying inside watching my beloved pencils be ground to dust  - well not really dying inside but it was getting very irksome. So after a few videos, I decided to give this a try and I am so beyond glad I did. It's ridiculously expensive and worth every cent.

These pencils sharpen very nicely, they have a harder core than Premiers so I was less worried about it snapping off (which has never even happened with this sharpener.... just sayin'). I also noticed that the core is much smaller than with Premiers. I tried to get a good shot to show you the ends, but that wasn't working out for me, so you'll just have to trust me, there's a difference and it's noticeable.

Here I wanted to compare the Verithins (bottoms) next to their corresponding colour in the Premiers (tops). As you can see here there is a big difference in both the size of the core and the size of the barrel. That being said, I have arthritis in my right hand from a sports injury back in school, I could tell immediately that holding these pencils for a long time would be a problem for me.

The name and number of the pencil is stamped into the barrel which is super handy, except while they use the same names for the pencils, they do not use the same numbers. I'm okay with that, I swatch by name - what I'm confused about is the half-numbers. As you can see in the picture above, the top pencil is Pumpkin Orange (one of my absolute favourites) it is numbered as 736 1/2. Not sure why. I don't see a reason for it at all. They clearly have enough numbers for all the pencils considering there is only 36 in the largest set and you cannot buy these open stock. So just a fun little quirk from the gang at Prismacolor.

For the purposes of this review, I have used 110lb white cardstock (my usual go-to for most projects), the image is from Lawn Fawn's "Our Friendship Grows" set stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. 

On the left I created a mini swatch using the same colours from each set. Pumpkin Orange, Goldenrod and Canary Yellow. 

• Premiers lay down more pigment
• Premiers are more vibrant
• Verithins are like softer versions of the colour
• Verithins hold true to the colour - it really just looks like I didn't press as hard with the same pencil

On the right I wanted to compare how they lay down individually then together (as they are meant to do); using the same three colours from each set as shown in the swatch on the left. The first flower is just Premiers, the second is just Verithins and the third is a mix of the two. 

• After laying down the Premier for the third flower I went over with the Verithins and it really feels like nothing is happening.
• You can feel a noticeable difference in the hardness of the cores, think spreading butter at room temperature then someone switching it out for frozen butter. 
• Once the Verithin pencil has been applied over the Premier the intensity is amazing. Without even feeling like I was doing anything the results were incredible.
• The Verithins seem to burnish the paper and flatten out the tooth, while blending the pigment from the Premiers underneath.

Overall, these pencils are nice to have; provided you aren't using them as your primary medium. I would never use these exclusively on a project, the hard lead doesn't allow for blending and there just aren't enough colours in the pack to do a project the way I like to work. And to be honest, if they didn't qualify for use with the coupon I would have put the right back on the shelf.

I could certainly live without them and unless you are doing crazy line work I wouldn't say that they are necessary in the craft room. But that's really the point of them. They say right on the back of the box they are for fine details and outline work. I think the "magic" of these pencils is to replace the blender pencil (which I never use anyway). 

The hard core lends itself well to blending the softer pigment already laid down as it helps in burnishing it down into the paper. Adding additional layers of colour over top of these is not an easy task, they have already pushed down the tooth of the paper and with nothing left for the softer core to grab on to, these are definitely best left to the very end of a project.

I probably wouldn't miss these if they were misplaced and I probably won't replace them when they wear down, especially since I'm not able to get them individually. I don't suspect that they will need to be replaced any time soon, as the hard core means the pencil will last longer so sharpening is infrequent. 

It is also important to note that there is a warning right on the box that the Gold VT754 contains copper and they don't recommend eating, drinking or smoking while using these. So keep that in mind if you are a pencil chewer. Metal poisoning is no joke. As with any art supply - keep out of reach of children and pets.

I hope you like today's review. If you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, please drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know. I love to hear from you. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products for review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I personally use, that I find interesting and that I have paid for with my own money. I get no incentive, reward or payment to write a review. All reviews are based off of my personal experience and are my opinions only.

Product Review Series | Baby Oil for Blending Coloured Pencils

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

A couple weeks ago, I reviewed Odorless Mineral Spirits, specifically Gamsol as a means for blending coloured pencil. In the hours and then days that followed I received a bunch of comments and mail and private messages about the post. Many people wanted to know how it compared to using baby oil, some of them wanted to know why I would promote such a dangerous chemical and some were so excited by the results, they said they were going right out to buy some.

I'm not here to tell you what to buy. I'm here to tell you about my experiences and hopefully share some knowledge to provide you with information if you are sitting on the fence about it. I will give you my opinions and my recommendations and I will happily answer any questions I can. Before we get right into this review, I want to clear a few things up.

Yes, Gamsol is a dangerous chemical; but when you get right down to it so are alcohol markers - if you don't use them correctly. So are oil paints and micro fine glitter. Anything can be dangerous if it isn't being used safely and carefully.

For those of you that messaged me to say they appreciated the information and will be picking some up, I cannot wait to see what you create with it. If it is something new, practice, practice and more practice is the key.

Finally, I've never tried baby oil as a blender. So today that's what I'm going to be talking about. This week, I put away my Gamsol and pulled out my baby oil. I wanted to give it a fair shake.

For the purposes of this review, I stamped these images from Lawn Fawn's "Our Friendship Grows" using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I will be using:

• Prismacolor Premier Pencils
• Life Brand Baby Oil
• Blending stubs or Tortillions (rolled, not compressed)

As with my review on Gamsol, I added the colour where I wanted the deepest shadows to be. I chose this image from Lawn Fawn because it has large spaces that are excellent for practicing laying down colour or shading. I used a separate tortillion for each colour to avoid cross-contamination.

I've numbered each of the points I want to talk about when working on this image.

1. Large petals. For these I used PC917 Sunburst Yellow. As with Gamsol, I dipped my blending stub into the oil and worked in little circles, starting on the pigment and pulling it out towards the tips. I found that the yellow moved surprisingly well for the most part. The petals on the right of the flower seemed to move better than those on the left even though I lay down about the same amount of pigment. I found I had to dip several times as the paper sucked up the oil very quickly.
2. Leaves and stem. I used PC908 Dark Green. I found that the oil smoothed out the pencil lines and filled in the areas where the tooth of the paper did not grab the pigment but it did not carry the colour into the unshaded areas - as you can see most prominently on the left leaf. To get an even blend, I had to work the area several times to move the green as much as I did.
3. The pot. I used PC937 Tuscan Red. The colour did not move at all. I ended up going over the red a bunch of times and finally added a second layer with a super light hand just to get some colour in the middle. If you look at the pot in the picture above and change the lightest areas to stark white, that's what it looked like before I added a second layer. As a side note, I didn't notice any problems when adding additional pigment to the image on top of the baby oil.
4. Smaller petals. I used PC917 and PC1002 Yellow Orange. As these petals are behind the main flower image, they will naturally be darker, so I added the second colour just at the very base of each petal to give it a bit more shadow. I found the baby oil blended the two colours nicely and as with the yellow in the larger petals moved the pigment to the tips well.
5. I had an oops and dripped baby oil to the corner of my panel. I've done this with the Gamsol and it dries right up and you can't tell. Not so much with the baby oil. It was there in the second picture after I lay down the initial colour, and I had hoped it would dry out, but as you can see, even after blending the colours in the image that "oops" is still there. Not cool.

Overall, this is not my blending solution of choice. I found it was way more work than it was worth. If this panel were going to be going on a card, I would have to scrap it and start over because of that drip in the top right corner. 

It didn't move the colour as well as I wanted and I found I had to make many extra passes just to get the colour to move as well as it did. 

I do not like the oily finish that it leaves. If I were creating a piece to look like stained glass for a window decoration maybe I would reach for this, but I don't really do those.

If you are uncomfortable using Gamsol for medical reasons or pregnancy or because you have a kitten or kids that have access to your crafting space then by all means, give this a try. As I mentioned in the previous review, I prefer using an incredibly light hand and allowing my pencils to do the blending for me. If I were in a situation where I had to use a blending solution, I'll take the Gamsol over the baby oil any day of the week.

I hope you enjoyed today's review. If you have questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, please drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future reviews or posts.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I am interested in and use, I receive no incentive, reward or payment to do so. All products are purchased with my own money and all reviews are based off of my experience and are my opinions only.

Product Review Series | Odorless Mineral Spirits; Gamsol

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I have received quite a few questions regarding Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS), which I use and how to use them. So for today's review I will be discussing Gamsol.

Gamsol is an artist's grade OMS that can be purchased at your local art supply store or online for a relatively low cost. While it truly is odorless there are still vapors and you must use adequate ventilation. Do NOT inhale, taste, swallow or get in contact with eyes. Avoid contact with skin.

• Relatively inexpensive. I paid $16.40 for 16 fluid ounces (1 pint or 2 cups) at my local art store in Calgary.
• Absolutely odorless
• Clear liquid
• Locking Top

It's not really practical to keep it in it's original container for small crafty uses such as colouring with pencils. I have mine stored two ways.

• The first (left) is in a top press bottle - this allows you to press a small amount for dipping and avoids terrible spills. 
• The second (right) is in a small baby food jar. I added a craft sponge to the bottom so I can just dip my blending stub. This is how I carry it when I am travelling.

Always keep you containers tightly sealed and away from children and pets. It really does look like water so please be smart and safe whenever you work with any type of chemical.

For blending, I use very inexpensive blending stumps. The ones on the left are my preferred type; they are basically rolled up paper and can be purchased for just pennies a piece. The ones on the right are more compact and will absorb a lot more of the OMS, this is good if you are trying to blend a large area in the background or a large image, I don't typically do that - but I have a couple. Just in case.

I prefer to have one blending stump per colour so that they don't cross contaminate. There is nothing worse than going to blend a light colour and having a different colour smear over because there was pigment left over.

If having individual stumps is not practical for you, you can always clean off the stumps on a scrap of paper or by using a piece of find sanding paper.

For the purpose of this example I have stamped the dog from Simon Says Stamp's "You are Pawesome" stamp set with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb cardstock.

The top image is coloured with Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils. These are a soft core wax-based pencil.

The bottom image is coloured with Faber-Castell Polychormos coloured pencils. These are a hard core oil-based pencil.

When using Gamsol with coloured pencils, I lay the colour down where I want the shadows to be the darkest (as you can see in the picture above).

Once I have my shadows places, I dip my blending stub in the OMS and work in small circles pulling the colour towards the centre. With both of these images I applied the Gamsol, then used a lighter brown and repeated the process, pulling the colour towards the centre again.

My observations:

• The Gamsol worked far better on the wax-based colour pencil (top) than it did on the oil-based (bottom). I found I had to work harder to move the colour with the oil-based pencils with less of a result.
• While the OMS did blend out the harsh lines in the oil-based image, it did not get rid of them completely and you are still able to see pencils lines even though I went over it a few times more than I did with the wax-based image.
• The colour stayed truer with the wax pencils, while it brightened the colour of the oil pencil. Handy to know if that's what you're going for.
• Does not leave a residue or "oily" mark on paper after it has dried.

Overall, I don't typically use OMS when working with coloured pencil. I will pull it out if I can't get the blend I want, or if I'm using a paper with a lot of tooth, but for the most part I use the colours themselves to get my blend. I don't use the blending pencils at all. 

If your paper has a lot of tooth (you can see this by the little white dots that get left behind after you lay down your coloured pencil) the OMS will help to get an even coverage by "melting" the pigment and allowing it to settle in those spaces.

If you're in a hurry to get something done or you just want to play around I highly recommend using the OMS - it will "dissolve" the waxy build up and allow you to apply more layers of colour. For me, I prefer to use a light hand and layer, layer, layer the pencil to get the look I want.

If you are going to purchase an OMS - go for the good stuff. Don't mess around with cheap products that give off an odor of paint thinner. You'll just end up with a headache and be unhappy with final result. Always work in a well ventilated area and close the lid of your container when you aren't using it. 

I hope you enjoyed today's review. If you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, drop me a line in the comments section below, I love to hear from you. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I use and that I have paid for with my own money. I am not rewarded, paid or provided with incentive to do so. All reviews are based on my personal experience with the product and are my opinions only.

Product Review Series | T'GAAL Multi-Sharpener by Kutsuwa

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I've done a lot of coloured pencil reviews and as anyone who uses pencils knows, they have to be sharpened.

There are dozens of sharpeners out there, by dozens of companies all promising the best results. Sadly, we know that this is not necessarily the case. They don't all provide excellent results.

Moreover, what works for one person may not work at all for another. For a long time, I was using an electric sharpener. When you have soft-core pencils (like Prismacolor Premiers) it can be very frustrating to get them sharp. The soft core means a higher chance of breaking, and when it comes to manual sharpening it is nearly impossible to hold the pencil still while sharpening and ultimately the pencil breaks.

I have seen numerous colourists and pencil artists talk about the T'GAAL sharpener so I thought I would give it a try myself.

• Quite expensive 
• 5 settings for pencil points
• Self contained - you don't have to hold it over the rubbish bin
• Comes in various colours
• Incredibly sharp blade
• Light weight

This sharpener fit nicely in the palm of your hand and is very light weight. It doesn't take up much room if you are travelling with your pencils. It fits a standard pencil as well as the slightly larger pencil (like Faber-Castell Polychromos). 

It comes in several colours - while not important to the function, it's always super fun to have choices.

Each of the five different settings allows you to change the angle of the point, depending on what you prefer. The first point is very much like the way most presharpened pencils come from the factory, and as the number goes up, so too does the angle of the pencil point.

When I was using my electric sharpener it resulted in what would be a five (shown above). While I loved the point, I found that if the tip broke because of how long the point was I was wasting a lot of pencil to get the tip sharp again. When you work with pencils that are upwards of $2.00 each, it becomes important to keep waste in mind.

Since I switched to the T'GAAL, I'm finding less and less waste as I personally only use setting number one. I like to keep my pencils very sharp which means I'm sharpening them often during the course of a project - setting one keeps a sharp point but short so that I'm breaking the ends less often. Many times it doesn't even feel like the pencil is sharpening and yet out comes a lovely point.

Overall, I'm incredibly impressed by the T'GAAL Multi-Sharpener, despite being (what I consider) ridiculously expensive for a small manual sharpener, I can honestly say it is worth every cent. When I purchased mine from my local art store I paid about $10 CAD, when my husband was looking for a new sharpener, I sent him to get the same one (because I don't like to share) and he paid double that at the same place.

Honestly, worth it. I will not hesitate to spend the same amount for another of these sharpeners. So if you are able/willing to use a manual sharpener for your pencils, I don't think you have to look any further than this one.

I hope you enjoyed today's review. If you have any questions about this product or an idea for a future review, please drop me a line in the comments section below. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss out on any future posts.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I personally use, that I find interesting and that I have purchased with my own money. I receive no incentive, payment or reward to review a product. All reviews are based on my experience using them and are my opinion only.

Product Review Series | Prismacolor Premier Coloured Pencils

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I have been promising this one for a very long time, and I'm happy to say I'm finally ready to deliver. Perhaps it is the cooler fall season, but I've been using the Prismacolors a lot more often in my work. I've also been using Kraft cardstock more often and honestly the two just go together like tea and biscuits.

Prismacolor Premier pencils have been around for some time, established by the Eagle Pencil Co. in 1938 in New York City.  The company has changed hands a few times since then and now has a total of 150 vibrant colours in it's palette.*

• High Quality - Artist Grade Pigment
• Widely available in stores or online
• Available in sets or open stock
• Soft core - allows for smooth application of colour
• Wax based
• Blending pencils available

I personally have the 72 set, and for the purposes of this review I will be using them on 65lb Kraft cardstock from Recollections.

If you shop around, you can certainly find a set that fits within your price range. Don't get me wrong, these pencils are not cheap. In Calgary, I can purchase them open stock for about $1.90/each plus tax. This is not a grade-school investment. I ordered my set off Amazon (Canada) in the spring as they were having a sale and I just couldn't pass it up.

The pencils come pre-sharpened, however there seems to be a lot of extra room in the tin so during shipping there was some damage to the tips.

I expected this. I have long been reading reviews from other colourists and pencil artist discussing how the quality of Prismacolor has been declining. Perhaps this is true. I bought my first set nearly a decade ago, and from my experience the quality is the same now as it was then.

I have personally had some trouble with a couple I have purchased open stock, as they get touched by people and knocked about by children and dropped on the floor.

These are a soft core, wax based pencil so they are more delicate. I found that with the few I had breakage issues with, by changing my sharpener I was able to greatly reduce my frustration. For a while I had been sharpening with an electric sharpener as it gives more stability and control - basically you just hold the pencil there; then I switched to the T'Gaal manual sharpener. I've since put away all my other sharpeners. There will be a review of this sharpener. (Spoiler - go buy it!)

I have also had one or two instances where the casing has split down the length of the pencil. Again, I expect something like this when you ship wood through dry areas. If you use a piece of thin washi tape and wrap it tightly - but carefully avoid as much overlap as possible - you can stabilize your pencil and still sharpen right through the tape. It may be annoying but in my opinion it is a small price to pay for the quality of pigment.

If you get a set and there are a significant percentage that are damage, split or broken then by all means send them back, that only makes sense.

I stamped these images from MFT's "Our Story" with Memento Tuxedo Black ink (out of habit) on 65lb Kraft cardstock by Recollections.

Each object has a minimum of two shades (for the books) and a maximum of four shades (chair and side table) for shading.

Observations:

• If coloured pencils aren't your typical medium they require practice. I normally colour my scenes with Copic markers and my technique for laying down the colour is completely different. With Copics I start with my medium shade, then darkest then lightest. However with pencils I start with my lightest and work to my darkest shades. You have to find what works for you.
• You must use an incredibly light hand. Unless you are working on high-end artist paper with lots of tooth, you have a limited number of layers before you just can't put down any more colour. The pigment in the pencil sticks to the little bumps (tooth) of the paper, once those are smoothed out - there is no more layering.
• Keep your pencils sharp. There is literally nothing worse than trying to colour with a dull pencil. I don't know how I used to do it. I don't know how my kids do it - I can't even look. Find a sharpener that works for you and stick with it. 
• If you are colouring stamped images such as this one, and you like that bold black outline, your multi-liner or pigment pen will not work over this. The wax and the ink aren't friends. They don't like each other and they don't want to play together. Use the black pencil and carefully go over your lines. I used this technique in the example above and you would never know that it wasn't the original stamped lines.
• Pencil colouring takes way longer than colouring with alcohol markers. I'd say this little scene took me about an hour to do. Had this been with Copic markers, I could likely have been done in 10 minutes. Maybe less.
• Do away with the blender pencil (in my opinion). Take the time to learn how to get the blend you are looking for with just the colours that you want to use. I found the blender pencil added an additional waxy bloom to the area with no real benefit. All it did was mash down the tooth of the paper and stop me from adding more layers. I tossed it and forced myself to learn how to blend without it and I'm happier and feel more accomplished for it.
• Pencil colouring is a labour of love. If you are in a hurry or have a lot of copies to get done this may not be the medium to choose at the moment. I don't mass produce cards that are in pencil. They are reserved for close friends and family members.

Overall, I feel Prismacolor Premier pencils have been getting a bad rep for no real reason. Sure there are a few out there that were missed by the quality inspectors but tell me a product that has never had a problem. I can't think of one. For the dozen or so sets and brands of coloured pencil (both wax and oil based) I have, I still reach for my Prismacolors first. 

They layer well, there are an amazing number of colours and they are easily accessible. I haven't come across a wax based pencil with a higher pigment quality, so really the price is not that ridiculous. Shop around. 

There will likely be one or two in the bunch that are damaged, maybe repairable but maybe not, but think about the number of pencils that are being produced. Should there be a tighter watch on the quality of the pencils as they come off the line? Probably, but that can be said of any company with nearly any product. 

Despite the shortcomings and horror stories that you read floating about the internet, these coloured pencils are a fine addition to an artist's craft room. My only regret is not purchasing a larger set when the sale was going on.

I hope you enjoyed today's review, if you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review please leave me a comment in the section below. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss out on any future posts.

Click here to see the card created with this example.

**disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I use, that I find interesting and that I have paid for with my very own money. I am given no incentive, payment or reward for a review. All reviews are based on my experience with the product and are my opinion only.

*reference