The Bottom Line
Pros
- lovely, subtle colors
- blendable and water soluble
- did I mention the gorgeous colors?
Cons
- I'd like a bigger range of colors
- don't erase well on rough sketch paper
- round pencils roll away
Description
- Soft, blendable and water-soluble pencils
- Use dry for subtle shading or add water washes for heightened color
- 24 colors, retailing in sets of 12 and 24. The tub of 72 pencils has three of each color.
- Some stores sell blister packs of six colors, and occasionally available as loose stock.
Guide Review - Derwent Graphitint Pencils
I've yet to fully explore the possibilities of these pencils, but I've had a lovely time experimenting, blending and shading them. There's something about these subtle, glimmering shades that make you want to create something mysterious and magical! They blend well with graphite, so you can use them in a straight graphite drawing to subtly hint at color, perhaps in a night-time or forest scene. You might also use them in conjunction with watercolor washes and colored pencil. They'd be wonderful for fantasy subjects, knights in armor and the like. At first I thought they'd not suit 'purists' as sometimes 'metallic' shades can look gimmicky, but as you can see from the links below, you can produce 'serious' works with these pencils.
The colors are: port, juniper, aubergine, dark indigo, shadow, steel blue, ocean blue, slate green, green grey, meadow, ivy, sage, chestnut, russet, cool brown, cocoa, autumn brown, storm, warm grey, midnight black, mountain grey, cloud grey, cool grey and white.
Tips:
- These pencils are soft and blunt quickly on rough sketch paper. For detailed work, choose a finely-toothed drawing paper or board, and sharpen or brighten the point regularly.
- Though they do erase quite well, the coarse grain on sketchbook paper does tend to hold the graphite, so rough out your sketch first, and reserve highlights.
