Botanical Painting with Coloured Pencils. Ann Swan
so well, they make excellent companions to the Faber-Castell range.
ART MARKERS AND BRUSH PENS
Both Faber-Castell and Prismacolor produce a range of matching brush pens and markers that can be useful for underpainting if care is taken to match the pen to the coloured pencil you have used for the main drawing. Faber-Castell produce the Pitt Artist Brush Pen in a range of 48 colours, with plans to extend the choice, and the Pitt Artist Pen Big Brush, a much chunkier version, with a range of 48 similar colours. Prismacolor produce a huge range of 156 double-ended Art Markers.
From left to right (left-hand pot):
PC938 White
PC1084 Ginger Root
PC1032 Pumpkin Orange
PC 922 Poppy Red
PC923 Scarlet Lake
PC924 Crimson Red
PC925 Crimson Lake
PC994 Process Red
From left to right (right-hand pot):
PC1095 Black Raspberry
PC1078 Black Cherry
PC996 Black Grape
PC931 Dark Purple
PC1009 Dahlia Purple
PC1005 Limepeel
PC1089 Pale Sage
∆ Prismacolor offer several colours useful for botanical work that are not available in any other range.
OTHER GOOD RANGES
There are many makes of coloured pencil available now, too numerous to list here, but the following ranges are good quality and worth consideration. Try out each make before you buy to see which you prefer because we all have different styles and draw with differing pressures. Most art shops will let you try pencils, but if not just buy one before you commit yourself to any additional expense.
DERWENT STUDIO
This is a useful range of 72 slim artists’ quality pencils. They share the same colour core as Derwent Artists coloured pencils, but have a slim, hexagonal barrel. The 3.4mm core sharpens to a fine point, producing a narrow colour strip that is useful for detailed work.
CARAN D’ACHE LUMINANCE 6901
Relatively new to the market, this range of 76 pencils comes with full lightfast guarantee on 61 of the colours. They have a lovely soft, creamy laydown similar to Prismacolor but without the tip breaking off. However, there is only one good green and the range is limited. The grey, light brown and beige colour ranges are strong, with some lovely violets and purples, but they are weak in the yellows, oranges, reds and greens. They can be confusing to use as the barrel is wooden with a colour reference just on the tip and the number is written around the barrel, so is difficult to read. I recommend that at first you buy just a few of the more unusual colours.
LYRA REMBRANDT POLYCOLOR
A range of 72 oil-based colours, these pencils are similar to the Faber-Castell Polychromos range with similar colour names and numbers.
PRISMACOLOR VERITHIN
A limited range of 36 colours with narrow, hard colour strips, Prismacolor Verithin are useful for fine details and edges.
∆ CONCENTRATED PLUMS
13 x 11 cm (5 x 4 in)
EXTRA COLOURS
You will come across many other makes, mostly with limited colour ranges, but keep a look out for the occasional colour that is not in any of the other ranges and collect any you think might be useful. Ask if you can try different makes out before you buy to check their consistency and ease of use.
Some distributors are now manufacturing their own brands, such as Dick Blick in the USA, who have produced a range of 72 Blick Studio Artists’ Colored Pencils with what they call ‘fade-resistant’ leads, which they state are formulated utilizing feedback from the Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA) artist members and teachers.
∆ SUNFLOWER SEEDHEAD
Helianthus annuus
49 x 66 cm (19 x 26 in) Pencil PAPERS
GRAPHITE PENCILS
Graphite pencils range from the very hard 9H through to the extremely soft 9B, with an F for fine in the middle of the range. For botanical work you will mainly need pencils from 2H to 2B. There are many brands to choose from, but try to select a make that is consistent and non-gritty and that gives a good depth of blackness at the HB grade. Look for leads that are well centred in the wooden shaft and check the wood for any signs of splitting.
The pencils I prefer are the Derwent Graphic range as they produce a good dense black tone at the HB and F grades. Some makes are quite pale and grey at this level, so you would have to use a much softer pencil to achieve depth of tone, resulting in a loss of precision.
Graphite can also be used in the form of a propelling pencil. Again the range is wide, with the added variation of width of lead. Generally, good makes come in a range of 0.3mm, 0.5mm and 0.7mm diameter leads and a range of grades. I find the most useful is a 0.3mm with HB and H leads to handle fine detail and clean outlines.
SHARPENING GRAPHITE PENCILS
A sharp point is essential when drawing. Rather than using a pencil sharpener, which can produce a short conical point that soon blunts, sharpen graphite pencils with a scalpel for a long-lasting point.
PAPERS
For coloured-pencil drawings it is important to have a good quality paper on which to work. It needs to be at least 300 gsm (140 lb) in weight, to withstand the constant pressure to the surface with a sharp point; also the use of erasers and solvents will quickly wear out a lighter weight paper. The paper surface needs to be fairly smooth, otherwise work can look too grainy, but it does need to have some texture in order to hold the pigment on the surface.
The type of paper I use is ‘hot-pressed’ (HP), which has a slight texture. Other paper types, called variously ‘rough’, ‘cold-pressed’ or ‘Not’ (meaning not hot-pressed) are generally too textured. Very smooth papers such as Bristol board will only take a few layers of colour before the pencil starts to slip and slide over the surface without depositing any further pigment. Whatever make or type of paper you prefer it needs to be acid free (that is, have a pH balance of 7), so that your work can be kept for many years without the paper discolouring. Non-acid free paper can discolour alarmingly in just a few months, spoiling your finished work.
There are many quality makes of watercolour paper available, such as Arches, Saunders, Hahnemühle and Schoellershammer, all of which take coloured pencil well. Rising Stonehenge is a popular paper from the USA and a lot of artists working in coloured pencil prefer its softer texture.
The make I use for preference is the Italian-made Fabriano Classico 5 hot-pressed paper. This white paper is available in sheets and in pads, called ‘Fat Pads’. Fabriano also make another, better quality 100 per cent cotton paper called Artistico, which is also good to work on with coloured pencil, but is creamy in colour. It comes in ‘white’, which is very creamy, and ‘extra white’, which is still cream coloured. White or cream paper is a matter of personal preference; however, as I shall be showing you later, white flowers are much easier to depict on white paper.
∆ A basic start-up kit should include graphite and propelling pencils. It is worth buying a good quality pencil sharpener with a spiral core and you will find a range