Inktense with another layer by Amanda Bates

Plenty of colour in this one Amanda and a cheery look as well!

I really like this. You know your own image so well, whereas I avoid mine at all costs. I love my Inktense pencils and never leave home without them. I don't put them on paper dry, in the way one might with crayons. A wetted brush and pick the colour straight off the pencil or block works well for me and I get a denser layering of colour.

It sounds like a curious way to treat a pencil, Tony, but if, as you say, it works for you... As to knowing my own image, 'tis a subject that is always there, but infinitely variable, and it makes for useful practice. I was gratified to be recognised from my self portrait recently :-)

How wonderful! To be recognised from a painting is a huge complement to your work. I suspect I would recognise you too! It's not so curious to use a brush directly onto a pencil. It's not so different to dipping your brush into a watercolour pan. I never use a pencil sharpener, preferring to use a Stanley knife to expose more of the lead (pigment?) of the pencil, so I can pick more off with a brush. Also i scrap pigment into a container, so I can add water, for washes on large areas. I tend to use an inktense block for that, rather than use up chunks off my pencil, but it works either way. When a pencil tip gets a bit mucky from other colours, it's a simple matter to scrap off back to clean colour. Look forward to seeing what else you produce, now you have discovered Inktense.

The aspect that I found curious was that you don't use the pencils directly, Tony; it seems to negate the pencilness of the tool, and made me wonder why you have pencils as well as blocks.