in #hive-1932123 years ago

A very nice drawing course and I like the finished result, too.

Noticing that you bought your pencil at Action, may I suggest their DecoTime color pencils to you? They come in 4 sets @ 18 colors, each set about 2.00 EUR for a full range. They're a real bargain, really soft and decently pigmented for the money. There is one red set that would have all the shades for this particular flower. As a bonus, they can be blended with water although they're not watercolor pencils.

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The photo isn't that great but gives you an idea. Get them now - with Action, stuff is on sale today and gone tomorrow. These are not a regular stock item and it may be months until they come back.

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I think I actually bought them on Amazon and they are the water color pencils, but I didn't use water in the drawing.

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We do have an action store close to us though so I will keep that in mind for future purchases. The color range does look pretty extensive.

Those Goldfabers are nice pencils, very soft and vibrant. The Action ones aren't even close to that league, but again, at 2 EUR for 18 good value for money. The Goldfabers are like an Euro a piece. (Worth it, too.)

I bought them a while ago and I'm guessing they were on sale, but I actually think I bought them based on your recommendation at the time. We were talking about watercolor pencils like a year and a half ago or something and you mentioned a few brands that were decent.

Possible. Faber-Castell has three qualities in watercolor pencils: kiddy school pencils, Goldfaber, and Albrecht Dürer. The later are the super lightfast artist's quality and the most expensive. Goldfaber would be art student quality. The pigment numbers are the same across all product lines and they will match which is unique to Faber-Castell.

Okay gotcha. Good to know.

My paper is crap though. I didn't realize there were different qualities of paper until I read it in one of your posts. I just bought the cheapest available. It gets the job for my purposes but it's not great.

A good choice for florals with watercolor pencil is hot press watercolor paper of at least 300 gsm. It's very smooth so it allows for great detail with sharp pencils. If you don't want to invest a lot of money you can try "Clairefontaine PaintON Multitechniques" (250 gsm, 40 sheets, smooth white, A3, for about 11 EUR) which should be super easy to get in France. Works well dry and wet with the Goldfabers.

Just don't get the "à grain" variety by accident, that looks kinda ugly. They have 3 white qualities, the regular (as recommended), the "à grain", and the "lisse" (too smooth). They also have colored varieties (black, grey, green, blue, and buff). Only the buff ("naturel") variety looks good with watercolor pencil. If you use that paper colors look warmer but you need to invest in a good white gouache for whites and highlights.

A great all-purpose watercolor paper for wet work @ 300 gsm is Hahnemühle Expression. 100% cotton rag paper with a fine structure (not smooth but close enough) which can be had for about 20 EUR (40cm x 30cm, 20 sheets).

Okay thanks. I'll keep those suggestions in mind. I don't draw often but every now and again I get on a big drawing kick. Lol