After having these Derwent Graphitint pencils for months, I finally got a chance to try them out! These are water soluble, tinted graphite pencils. They feel very much like working in watercolor. They reactivate even when dry when you add additional water, making blending very easy. You can get beautiful results with these pencils.
They come in a range of 24 muted colors. They are great for wildlife and nature, but they can’t get nearly as bright as the Inktense. I found them to be a little difficult to get fine detail. In the end, I started scribbling the pencil onto a scratch piece of paper, then loading that pigment onto a wet paintbrush and painting detail onto the paper that way. It worked well, but I feel like you end up wasting a fair amount of product using that method. I wish they came in the blocks like inktense which are really easy to paint with a paintbrush. It was worth the trouble though as I did really enjoy the process of playing with these pencils.
The only real drawback is that they don’t have a reputation for being very lightfast. I’ve read several posts where people claimed they faded within a sketchbook, not exposed to light. That’s not a good sign if it’s true. On the other hand, I’ve also heard from some of you who have had your graphitint paintings on the wall for months with no noticeable fading. I will be doing my own lightfast tests this next year for sure. I will be testing how they hold up behind UV glass, UV spray fixative, and without any protection. I would recommend being cautious about using this medium if you are planning to sell the work though because there is a good chance it will fade quickly.
I will be using mine for quick sketches and concept art, or for making prints of my work. The thing that was so great is how very fast the color lays down. You can have a project finished very quickly with these! That makes them really fun to work with, instant art gratification (unlike colored pencil which we all know takes forever to finish haha).
If you’re interested in drawing this image yourself, you can pick up the reference photo from http://www.wildlifereferencephotos.com 😀
Graphitint on Amazon (my affiliate link) http://goo.gl/kb1a2I
Inktense blocks http://goo.gl/R671RD
Inktense pencils 72 http://goo.gl/P8drPi
Most of the brushes I used can be found in this set. The only thing really missing are taklon filberts. : http://goo.gl/XthDxT
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