Open stock Inktense

So the other week I wrote a long post on Instagram on how I discovered that I could have gotten away with getting a much smaller set of Polychromos and never missed a fair few of my 60 set. The post got a much better reception than I had anticipated, it seems I'm not the only one who doesn't think it necessary to go and get the full set of every art supply on the market. I'm not judging, honestly, if it gives you joy and you can afford it, then way to go! I love seeing poeple's haul posts! But personally I take a more practical - and tight-budgeted - approach to colouring supply purchases and look at what I actually need and will use.

Having written that post got me thinking about my next purchase. Ever since discovering Peta Hewitt's tutorials I'd wanted to use my Inktense pencils much more, but I really felt the 24 was too small. I missed some nice greens and rich yellows, among other shades. At first I was glancing at the full 72 set but upon closer inspection I realized that it, too, containted plenty of colours I couldn't see myself using, and/or shades that were very close to each other. So I started looking around the open stock pencils on offer and in the end I purchased 18 additional pencils to my 24 set. So now I have 40 colours plus the black and the outliner. And I couldn't be happier! I got exactly the colours I want the most and don't have to pay for any I won't use. I chose some beautiful cool teals, warm yellows, warm greens and rich neutrals - don't you just adore the Red Oxide and the Madder Brown especially?

Here's a swatch of my current collection.The colours are quite accurately photographed, the paper is really this cool hue drawing paper.

I decided to store the pencils tip down in a round container. At the bottom I put some sheets of paper towel so the tips will stay safe when I put them back. This way i can conveniently see both the colour coded ends and the names - a necessity since Derwent doesn't bother colour coating the entire pencil. 

Another change I made was go through my Polychromos, pick out the ones I really didn't like and put the rest in a beautiful glass container that I decorated with découpage paper and a silk ribbon. I ended up with 40-something pencils which sort of pushes the boundries of the container but I make it work because it looks so much prettier than the big ol' tin! The pencils left inside the tin I'm using for a #rarelyusedchallenge where I colour a page using those very pencils I usually avoid! If you want to challenge yourself using colours you're usually not comfortable with, go ahead and use the #rarelyusedchallenge on Instagram to display the result! The contributions are starting to come in, I will also post mine as soon as I finish at least some of the 20-ish WIPs I have going at the moment. There are no prizes or anything, it's not a contest, just a thing to try if you need a little extra challenge in your colouring!

Drop EVEYTHING! Inktense pencils!!!

So I've had my 24 set Inktense pencils in my possession for a while. A while being a couple of years  - I got them for some freehand drawing, not having any idea what they were or what they did. Even after I started colouring I never really used them, preferring coloured pencils and Pitt markers over water-activated media. Then I saw this awesome video where the artist (who incidentally looks TEWTALLY like deNiro and has a very entertaining style to boot), tried actual watercolours in adult colouring books, among others a book I like very much, Color Me Calm.


This book did better than exptected at taking watercolours and so I decided to try out wet media in it! Also the Mind of Watercolor teaches an important lesson: you don't need to have the fanciest stuff to make great art. He paints a wonderful image on the crappiest paper using talent, hard work and patience. Something to remember for a shopaholic such as myself!
Inktense came in handy for trying wet media in my colouring books and so I started looking for inspiration which led me to Peta Hewitt. The Queen of Inktense. The High Priestess of Inktense. I cannot even begin to explain how wicked this woman is with this medium! Just look at her speed colouring of Coverack from the Magical City book.  Super awe inspiring!

As fun as the above speed colouring is to watch, the Holy Grail of Inktense tutorials is the video below where Peta explains all about the Inktense pencils: what sets them apart from watercolour pencils (quite a lot so you want this info before starting out with them!), how to manage the fact that they are permanent as soon as you wet them, how you therefore must blend your colours before wetting the paper and so on. This video is time well spent if you want yo get started with your Inktense pencils!

Last night I started experimenting with my Inktense for real. A point made by Peta Hewitt is that painting with Inktense is much quicker than colouring with dry coloured pencils. Another great pro for me as I often get frustrated with the pace I keep going through my colouring books. I half completed this landscape which can be considered my first try with Inktense.

I'm particularly happy with how the large trees in the middle turned out. My 24 set of Inktense has a really crappy selection of greens (of course I think ALL my pencil sets have crappy selections of greens! I'm just super fussy with my greens.) so I used some different colours to shade and create the illusion of some naturally occurring greenish-y colour. Then I realized the curly bits in the bottom left were... ferns. GREEN ferns. So the ferns are really crappily coloured as I was sick of the poor green selection in my 24 set and was equally tired of trying to blend a nice fern colour.

Then I did the next page with the cloud swirls, done in 4 colours. Here I used the technique where I touch my waterbrush to the pencil and then paint in one continuous stroke so that I get a beautiful smooth gradient from dark to light as the pigment dissipates from the bristles.

And last but not least this nature pattern mandala, also with just 4 colours. The photo shows the pattern before and after adding water.

The Waterbrush

I use the Pentel waterbrushes or rather the medium size so far, and for the most part I'm really pleased with it.. There are occasions when water starts flowing from the bristles but that is quickly fixed by dabbing the brush on a bit of kitchen towel. The water in the reservoir lasts forever and the bristles stay clean at all times, I don't have to wash and wash them to get them clean. Much prefer the waterbrush to a regular watercolour brush!

Paper Buckling

As you can see even the fairly thick paper in Color me Calm gets all buckly. But it still holds up for all the water I put on it and as Peta Hewitt says, the buckling adds character to the page :)

I think the images speak for themselves so if you don't already own a set of Inktense I highly recommend you place an order now! :)
(I think I should put a disclaimer here: all the art supplies and books you see on this blog are purchased - and photographed - by me. So it's all my own shopping and my own photos, I only write about stuff I have actually tried & I'm not endorsed by any manufacturer. So if I rave about something it's because I really love it, not because they sent a free sample) :)