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Playing with Inktense pencils - ICABOD
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Message
Posted
Good exercise with the intense Lew, I use them in a completely different way, I tend to blend as I go along, sometimes using two or even three colours at once, but my paintings are usually the wildlife and nature kind so a different approach altogether, but great for illustration as you have proved.
Posted
Thanks to you, young Lew, I've had the tune Ichabod, Ichabod Crane, sung by Bing Crosby in the Disney Sleepy Hollow cartoon, in my head all day.....
I've never used Inktense pencils - I know, shame on me! But thinking about it, I realize that the materials I'm using now are those I've used for 50 years - carbon and charcoal pencils, conté crayon, oil paint, watercolour, pen and ink, brush and ink, acrylic .... do I want to try something new, I ask myself, or try to get a bit of good with the materials I've always used? Unlike you - because I have a suspicion you could turn out good work with almost anything..... don't think me jealous.
Posted
Thank you Linda. I haven't really tried using 3 or more colours and blending them...I assume you mean dry. Must give it a go.
Thankfully Robert, I can't remember that song...just the story. It's a good yarn. I love to read, must read something everyday...applying the word 'yarn' to them is my own form of highest accolade. As in...'Moby Dick', and Patrick O'Brian's 'Master and Commander' books...are great yarns. Like you, I'm formed by my years. All I've ever done is draw,
I don't do 'paintings' just more elaborate coloured drawings. So anything that resembles a pen or a pencil will get my attention. The latest paints will receive a passing nod. I used to love charcoal sticks and pencils, still do, but they don't love my clumsy ways. I have a couple of hard white conte crayons that I use to supplement my coloured pencil work...this on your advice in another thread...I find them better to use than white coloured pencils. Thanks for your over-generous comment about using other media. I'm not so sure. I bought a large MDF sheet months ago, intending to paint a BIG oil, or acrylic and oil. It sits there untouched in my shed. Thought I'd do that while we've been under lock and key for you know what. But no. Can't drum up the confidence. Pencils are nice, comfortable, homely, trusty things,
as much a part of my life as my socks.
But there's always tomorrow.
Posted
Thank you Katy. That's the problem isn't it? All this 'new' stuff around, when do you stop buying? I had water-soluble pencils (Faber-Castell), and very good they are. Then I read about Inktense water-soluble pencils, and how vivid they are.
So now I have two sets of water-colour pencils. No regrets, love them both. These days I use a bit of everything anyway.
Posted
I went on a course to learn how to use them, by Fiona Peart. Really good course. There is more than one way to use them. Apply them dry, then add water as Lewis has done or spray with water for a messy look. Wet the paper first, then apply pencils to get an instantly vibrant colour. Scrape some “lead” off into a palette and dissolve in water, to use as normal watercolour. Fiona recommended making a reference chart applied wet and dry. Good advice as the colour on the end of the pencil is a bit misleading. To fix the colours I have steamed them over a boiling kettle. She recommended that you do not wet the brush and take colour off the sharp end, because although it is quick and easy, it will weaken the lead and may break easily. Here endeth my testament on Inktense.
Edited
by Linda Wilson
Posted
Thanks to all for your feedback. Some really useful stuff in your piece, Linda. Thanks for that. I tend to apply one colour at a time, let it dry, then use another over the top. Glazing, I guess. I've found it makes the colours more vivid, I do the same with watercolour paint. I found out about applying the pencil to wet paper by accident...too impatient...as you say it's really vivid then. And yes, you must have a reference chart, and scrap paper to experiment on.
Posted
Done a quick sketch with the inktense pencils but found them difficult to use. Probably the way I am using them but don't seem to be able to get good smooth area, nor the depth of colour I want. Too many scratchy pencil marks showing through and rather like watercolour have to be more careful leaving white areas as easy to cover these (white gouache required here). Think I'll go over the sketch with acrylic so not to waste it.