Inktense Pencils

Just got these, and thought I'd post this for people thinking about giving them a try, and, more importantly, maybe I can pick up a few tips from those who use them. First thing...the names are a bit odd. Willow, Chilli Red, Poppy Red, Sun Yellow etc, etc. So, not what we're used to. It's important to make up a color chart with this...so important that I haven't done that yet. Fool. So keen to try them out. I use water-soluble color pencils anyway...I like them, it took a while to get used to them. It'll do the same with these. The main difference is that these are INK. You draw as with ordinary pencils and can leave it at that if you wish. But adding water (with a brush) effectively turns them into watercolor...vivid watercolor. When dry, it's permanent, and you can add other colors over the top without disturbing the layer beneath. This is what appealed to me, I already do it with colored pencils and ordinary watercolors...but have to do it very, very carefully or I'll mess up what's underneath. My first attempt was a page of sketches (posted), that told me they'll be ideal for some of my cartoonish stuff. My second attempt was a more elaborate facial study. I have posted it, but as I'm about to talk about it, I'll post it here again for convenience sake. This is 6 x 8 inches on Bockingford Hot Pressed 300 gsm paper. I lightly drew the character, not in detail, then blocked in a sloppy background with ordinary watercolor to give me a contrast to work against. I started with 'Tangerine' as the base flesh color, I was able to thin it down with the brush to an almost acceptable skin color for a caricature like this. When dry I worked on the face with other colors, letting it dry each time. The hat is in bands of color. I drew each band with a different color, when dry I drew the shadows across all of them using charcoal grey and a little blue. This was my only attempt at color mixing before I applied the water. It came out as you can see. Then I added the different color patterns...I thought this worked well, when I added the water the bits in the shadowed areas needed no further adjustment. I've found the white to be useless. I decided to give him sideburns, and used gouache for this. Maybe the white is better on a paper with a little more tooth (??). There's a pencil named 'outliner', it's a dark grey and adding water makes no difference to it. I won't be using it...I'll either use a pen or watercolor if I want an outline. I probably fiddled too much on this little picture, but as a last fiddle I used some different colors on top of my sloppy watercolor background...that worked quite well. The most notable bit is top right where I used a purple over the blue. On the next try, I'm intending to mix more colors on the page...ie, two or three with the dry pencils and THEN add the water. I hope this is of interest, and makes sense. If anyone has tips to pass on I'll be glad to hear them. I've already started another pic, I'll post it here later.

Yes Paul, the colors are vivid, for me this is not a problem. I like loud color and these really shout. I won't be trying the blocks, I've only used blocks once, when trying pastels...didn't like it. Inktense suits me because my style is more drawing based...I use watercolor but I'm not a watercolorist... more a producer of colored drawings. I hope I've explained that properly. At the moment I have water soluble graphite pencils, watersoluble colour pencils, and now inktense. It's chief attraction is that once water is applied the color becomes permanent. I suspect these inktense will become a valued part of a mixed media style. I've already had to use gouache for white. So far, I'm liking them very much.

Yes Carol, I read somewhere that you can get interesting effects by dropping crumbled inktense onto wet paper, but I haven't tried that yet.

I was experimenting yesterday, it didn't come out very well so I won't be putting it in the gallery. Never mind, I was drawing and that's enough for me. But it's worth putting it here. Here's the picture done on Bockingford hot pressed 300 gsm paper. This is great for my style of work, for drawing, pen and watercolor, but I'll have to try paper with more tooth. I have a Strathmore Tan sketchbook that takes colored pencil reasonably well, and they do one specifically for colored pencil. I'll get one. The main difference here is that I tried mixing the colors on the paper...dry at first, and added water with a brush to mix them. For the skin I started with tangerine, then added yellow, white (Hoping it would take down the orangey effect), and a little light blue. I applied the dry colors thicker were I wanted shadows, lighter elsewhere. They mixed OK when water was applied, you can pull color around with the brush pretty well. I did the same for the hair...using blue, purple and black (bit adventurous using the purple). When painting black hair with watercolor, I often use some blue. The hair looked OK when it was wet. But they haven't blended too well when they dried. My fault, I guess. So the hair is a failure, the skin OKish but too orange when it dried. I don't think I'll do much dry blending with these...I was happier when I first applied one color, let it dry, then applied another color over the top. It's glazing really and you have some control by using more or less water. I often use glazing with watercolor. So, not a success, but I think I learned a few things, which was the point of the exercise. I'm still impressed with inktense and suspect I'll use it more as part of a mixed media set up...watercolour, gouache, pen, and inktense.

Thank you Margaret, but I didn't like it too much, however it served its purpose. I've posted the nonsense below on the gallery, but this is the image without the text (added in photoshop). I'm including it here, because I tried a couple of things worth mentioning. When drawing the hat, I used purple inktense and black for the shadows. I don't use black for shadows normally...I was messing about trying things. When applying the water, I varied the strength of the purple to suggest light. When the hat with it's black shadows dried, it looked wrong...as you'd expect. I then re-drew over the black shadows with the purple, once that was dry it looked better...for strong shadows it might be an option. For his tunic, I drew the shadows first with a mix of charcoal grey and blue, when dry I went over it all with purple. It sort of worked, but the shadows are a little blotchy, this is down to my hurrying it...it is a sketchbook...but I think it will work with a little more care. This is a mix of inktense, watercolor, gouache and pen...all the face, hands and shadows were inktense. I suspect this is the way I'll go, as Paul suggested I may use intense for details etc. So I think they are a worthwhile addition to my drawing armory. I won't be adding anymore to this thread for a while...if something crops up that may be of interest I'll post it. Thanks to all for having a look and your contributions. I anyone has any useful tips I'll be delighted to see them. Lew.

Yes Paul, I've tried that too. Experimenting was the point of these pics. I haven't used black for shadows before, but glazing with more inktense or watercolour seems to work quite well, although you might not want to use it in every case.

Yes they are fun things and well worth playing about with to see what happens.