Coloring, the down and dirty of pencils

What can I use to color?

I have given you two markers that have worked for me on the cards, so let's talk about colored pencils.

The fallacy is that there are two kinds of colored pencils, wax and oil. Actually there are a huge number of colored pencils that vary by the ratio of wax to oil. The more oil, the higher the pigmentation which means the brighter the colors. The highest ratio of oil seems to be found in Prismacolor. They will produce some of the brightest colors you will find. Right under them is a brand you have probably never heard of: Brutfuner. They list themselves as oil pencils but once again, if they didn't have some wax in them, they would be liquid. Both the Fool and the Magician are done exclusively in that pencil. They are available on Amazon as a set unlike Prismacolor which can be purchased individually along with Faber-Castell Polychromos and Artist's Loft. I have to admit, I did not like the one Faber pencil I bought and I really love the Brutfuner, so I haven't bothered to buy any more of them.

The High Priestess is done mostly in Cezon, which is found in a set on Amazon. They are a babystep below Brutfuner. However, Brutfuner is numbered, like Faber, with no color names. Cezon has named colors but you may disagree with a few of the names. Then you have crayola and Artist's Loft which is Michael's brand. There is also two other sets I have Colore and Sudee Style. They both have numbered pencils without names. Aside from the tins, the best case awards go to: 1. Brutfuner which has a plastic case with handle in a paper sleeve and each pencil is securely locked into a plastic tray, and 2. Cezon which has a nice fabric covered locking case but the trays do not securely lock the pencils in and you have to keep lifting them in and out unless you have a big work surface. The box can come open and I use Dollar Store head bands, 12 for a $1.00, to keep every case securely locked. Even the tins can come open.

This brings me to a simple maintenance. You need to sharpen pencils before first use. It was months before someone let me into that little secret. If they sit for a while, they will need a quick sharpening or you just can't get the color out of them. It seems as though the wax comes to the surface and coats them. Do not drop pencils. The leads will break internally and that leads to a lot of I sharpen and it fall out syndrome. This is also why buying individual pencils in stores is a risk. People drop them.

Speaking of sharpening, when I was a young secretary working with dinosaurs, if your boss really loved you, he bought you a Bostitch stapler. Those babies could staple through anything and not jam and with it often came the pencil sharpener. Needless-to-say, the moment I saw a set at BJ's for colored pencils, I grabbed it. It died in 3 months and ruined more pencils that I want to count. However, when trying to get refills for my electric eraser, and you will need one of them, I found no one told you the sizes of the erasers and I wound up buying another eraser to get the two sizes of refills. It was an Afmat. I love that eraser and the smallest size will be your favorite because it gets into tiny spaces. So when my fancy sharpener died, I went back to the manual one and it promptly cracked. I super glued it back together a half dozen times before I went back to Amazon in search of a new battery powered one. I saw an Afmat one! It was inexpensive and they even explained how long pencil sharpeners lasted and why. Okay, I was impressed. I bought. I LOVE!!!!! This thing can produce the best point I have ever seen. This pencil sharpener is what produces the detail in my work.

Now for the finishing touch which is blending. Blending can create a new color, blend two colors seamlessly into each other and eliminate pencil lines. It is for the latter you will use it the most. There are two steps with colored pencil. First you color and then you go back and blend what you colored. There are three blenders, Prismacolor, Artist's Loft and Derwent. There are other brands but these are the easiest to get unless you have an artist's supply near you. For me, Derwent is the best. Then comes Artists's Loft. These are colorless blender pencils. At Lowes, I buy a two pack of fine wet/dry sanding blocks. They are the beige ones. I use them to remove the color from the tip of the blender with a couple of swipes. They are indispensable. You also have to grab them when you see them because they sell out fast. Seems, woodworkers use them. I know because I first bought them to finish sand small wooden display boxes.

The last item is fixatives and I am 75 cards from worrying about that, so stay tuned.