Cheaper artists markers - Fine Colours

Hello everyone! Happy Saturday!

So another art purchase happened this week! 

I purchased a 92 piece set of artists markers: Fine colours 😃😃😃

Everyone raves about Coptics and I do own some Coptics, but I have to admit that these are just as great! 

The colours are beautiful and vibrant and each set comes with a colourless blender. I have to say these blend perfectly!

The dry super fast and within minutes you can be ready with your pencils! 

I've been using these markers as a base layer and not only does it spread things up you have a beautiful vibrant base layer...

I would honestly choose these above Coptics..they're a fraction of the price and well worth the money!!!

This set was £94 including the postage. So about a £1 a pen..double ended too, a fine tip and a wider to tip.

You really wouldn't be disappointed with these! They're great! 😃😃😃😃

Layering colour - pencils

Happy Sunday everyone. 

Lots of you have been messaging asking me to discuss layering techniques for when using coloured pencils. 

The pencils I have been using for my latest Magical Forest drawing are: Prisma Colours. Beautiful vibrant soft pencils that blend like a dream. 

I like to try to use as little colours as possible, so the colours don't get too muddy or muddy at all. Once I've decided on the colour tones I'm going for, in this instance, cool tones. Blues purples, greens. I then select around 7 or 8. Light, mid and dark tones I like within that range. It's quite handy with these large professional sets of pencils, as the tones are all together and nicely organised :-D

I start by shading very, very lightly to set the base first layer colours:

As you can see on the left, this area is pretty much done and on the right, it looks rough and kinda primitive! The tricky is to keep layering up colour and blending. In this drawing I used lighter pencils to blend the colours together. This is one trick to blending, that I like to use, I'll share other blending techniques in future posts.

You have to be really patient and go slow, this is how you get the colours shining through and the level of details you want.

Coloured pencils are my favourite medium to use, I love the control I have over them when creating the details and colours.

There are so many techniques and you'll discover things you like and don't like. 

I have some other tricks and tips I'll share coming up in future posts.

For now, happy drawing! ✨✏️💪

Prisma colour full set, is it worth it?

So today, yikes, I can hardly contain myself! I made my first ever investment into and full, full set of artists pencils.

I had been toying back and forth between Faber Castell Polychromos and Prisma Colours. I had a post regarding this only a few days ago...so yes, I took the plunge and went with Prisma :-))

In the very full set of these pencils you get 150 glorious soft, blendable pencils, the colours are truly beautiful. A vast, vast array of every colour/tone you can think of!

The reason I went with these over Polychromos is; I feel that the pigments are brighter, the colours really do jump off the page. I also feel they blend better than Polychromos. The cores are so soft, yet sturdy. 

I know these pencils have received some scrutiny after they moved their production, but I honestly love them. I haven't encountered any problems at all. I do still own a 60 tin set of Polychromos and I definitely wouldn't part with them.

A full set of Prisma costs around £150 with shipping here in the UK, it's a lot and I have been saving up the extra pennies for them :-) However to me they were fully worth the investment.

What may help, which is what I did, is buy a smaller set of both brands to test out for yourself which ones you prefer before parting with the pennies. 

As always I'm always happy to answer any questions you may have :-) 

Now off too stare at this vast tin of pencils! Feeling all dreamy eyed! 

Jen 

Drawing faces and mastering it

Hello Guys..

Hope you all had a good New Year, and Christmas! I'm done now for Christmas. I definitely don't want to see any Christmas pudding again anytime soon.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about what drawings I might create in 2016 and what I might want to improve on, to push myself. On this note I have been thinking a lot about portraits!!! Mastering the complexity of proportions, shadows and tones is a tricky little number, but practice makes perfect, so onwards and upwards. On this note I have just received for Christmas these wonderful books by professional art tutor and writer: Jake Spicer.

- Drawing Faces in 15 mins and

- Drawing People in 15 mins

To me like I say, both of these drawing subjects can be tricky. But, these books are both so easy to understand and follow! It really is broken down so well.

From simply capturing your subject to filling in tones, shadows, features and intricate details.

Whenever I have been drawing people and faces it really does help to think about the bone structure and muscle underneath the skin..and these books cover this well too! Like, thinking about how the eye fits in the socket of a person rather than just floating on top of the face and skin, it really helps you think about shadows and where thy sit.

I'm so looking forward to tackling these areas of my drawing this year and improving on them. 

I received these books from Santa ;-) but for anyone looking to tackle this vast subject and get a good easy to understand start, or to brush up on old knowledge and skills, these books could be for you! I've looked up the prices and here in the UK they're both about £10 new, bargain! 

Anyway, that's all for now...if anyone needs any help or advice, just message me anytime...happy to lend a hand :-) 

jenniferlouington@gmail.com

Coloured pencil decisions! ✏️✏️✏️

I have been torn between pencils of late! Polychromos, Faber Castells and Prisma Colours. 

I haven't ever used Prisma colours before, but my latest drawing of Jennifer Lawrence was drawn using them. The polar bear drawing was drawn with Faber Castell Polychromos.

It's hard! Tricky! Both ranges have spectacular amounts of colours available. They both blend beautifully and colour pigmentation is high. I do think though, that Prisma colours are slightly easier to blend and without hardly any pressure when using them the colour goes on so well. I think I slightly prefer them 🙈✏️

I definitely think that in the new year I shall buy a bigger set of Prisma colours, they're definitely worth the extra pennies spent...so looking forward to new projects in 2016 😃✏️