draw, paint, create

Derivan Liquid Pencil

by Faye O. on November 8, 2009

in Color Charts, Graphite, Reviews, Sketches

I was perusing online at Blick Art Materials several weeks ago (what else to do on a lazy Sunday morning, hehe), and I saw they had a new product listed under the ink category. It’s called ‘Derivan Liquid Pencil’. The product piqued my curiosity. ‘Liquid Pencil’? Isn’t that an oxymoron in itself? I googled it, read about the experience others had with this medium …. and in the end, by golly, I JUST HAD TO HAVE IT! As if I didn’t have enough art products to play with, hahaha!

Liquid pencil is essentially graphite in a water-based binder. It is available in two 50 ml formulas: permanent and rewettable. It comes in six tints: yellow, red, blue, sepia, grey 3 and grey 9. The permanent formula is exactly that …. once dry, the medium cannot be manipulated further. The rewettable formula, however, has more of a watercolor property. It can be lifted, reworked and erased.

The manufacturer, Matisse Derivan is an Australian company, so I thought I’d begin my search for an Australian art store that carry this product. I figured, Australian stores will have a better pricing since this is a local product for them. Shipping to Malaysia from Australia shouldn’t cost a bomb either because of the shorter distance (compared to the US).

A couple of weeks after placing my order (they didn’t have some of the colors I wanted in stock, so they had it backordered), I received my package. I bought four jars in red, blue, sepia and grey 9 … all in the rewettable formula.

Derivan Liquid Pencil Rewettable

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Tagged as: Derivan Liquid Pencil

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All Hung Up

by Faye O. on October 29, 2009

in Liquid Acrylics, Watercolor

A friend of mine commissioned me to paint two pictures of her and her husband. I was the photographer at their wedding in France last year, so the pictures they chose were the ones I had personally taken of them.

They had seen a sketch I did of a metro sign when I was in Paris and loved it, so I thought I would paint their portraits in a similar, ‘comic’ style: I outlined the line drawing with black liquid acrylic ink using a Tachikawa G-nib pen before filling those outlines with watercolor.

Laying the underpainting: Phthalo Green (Y/S) and Sap Green for the background and Quinacridone Rose for the skintone.

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Tagged as: 140 lb Arches Hot Press, Daniel Smith Extra Fine, FW Acrylic Black Ink, Tachikawa G Nib, Winsor & Newton Artists'

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Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Pencils

by Faye O. on October 29, 2009

in Color Charts, Color Pencils, Reviews, Sketches, Watercolor

One of my favorite online art supply stores, Artifolk, had a ‘buy 4 get 1 free’ offer on Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils. After doing some calculations to try justifying why I should purchase them, I finally gave in (hehehe) and ordered 20 pencils, which means I received 5 pencils free. By the way, I love Artifolk because their shipping fees to Malaysia for small items are very reasonable.

After less than a week since I’ve placed my order, my pencils arrived!

The colors shown in the photo are (from the bottom): Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Light Cadmium Red, Middle Cadmium Red, Fuchsia, Mauve, Light Ultramarine, Phthalo Blue, Prussian Blue, Light Phthalo Blue, Helio Turquoise, Cobalt Green, Phthalo Green, Leaf Green, Pine Green, Dark Naples Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Caput Mortuum Violet, Burnt Umber and Payne's Grey.

As usual, the customary color chart is a must!

Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Pencils: Dry and Wet

I’ve left several spaces empty in my color chart because I plan on buying a few more colors. The stars beside the color names denote the lightfastness of the pigments. Faber Castell rates their lightfastness on a scale of three stars. Three stars being very permanent, and one star being fugitive. These pencils are very creamy and saturated. The first time I tested the colors, the first word that came out of my mouth was ‘WOW’. The colors are brilliant and bright! I’m in love with these pencils already.

I needed some time to get used to these pencils because I had trouble controlling the intensity of the colors. When I thought I had laid down a very light stroke of dry color, I ran it over with my waterbrush and the color became too intense for my taste. I’ve since discovered that a little goes a looooong way. By that I mean VERY little. If I wanted a light wash, I had to gently skim (almost barely touching) the pencils on the paper in large loose strokes.

After so many ruined sketches, I was finally able to produce a result that I like:

"The Moon in Her Hand", Watercolor Pencils on 9"x12" Canson Manga Drawing Paper

The sketch was done on a Canson Fanboy Manga drawing paper (a really good paper, I might add). The dots were painted with Daniel Smith iridescent watercolors.

Overall, I like these pencils. I can see them lasting a loooong time, judging from the intense saturation of the pigments. I plan to get 5 new colors in the upcoming weeks. Will update soon!

Tagged as: Canson Fanboy Manga Drawing Paper, Daniel Smith iridescent watercolor, Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Pencils

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A Boy and His Cat

by Faye O. on October 25, 2009

in Pen & Ink, Watercolor

I took a picture of my son a few months ago, which cracked me up whenever I look at it.

He just came home from preschool. The family cat was sleeping on the carpet at the time. My boy then bent down to hug and squeeze the living daylights out of the poor creature, haha! On a whim, I did a quick sketch of the photo.

Rough sketch: Mechanical Pencil on Cachet Sketcbook

Since hubby and I loved the photo so much, I thought I’d immortalize it a bit further by making a small painting out of it:

"A Boy and His Cat", Watercolor and Liquid Acrylics on 7.5"x11" Arches 140 lb Hot Press Paper

Tagged as: Daniel Smith Extra Fine, Tachikawa Spoon Nib, Winsor & Newton Artists'

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Geisha In Waiting

by Faye O. on October 25, 2009

in Color Pencils, Pen & Ink, Sketches

Had plans to do some ACEOs revolving on multi-cultural women in costumes. You know what …. I never seem to be satisfied with the outcome. Blame it on my so-called quest for perfection, LOL!

So I drew up a series of Geisha sketches which I hope to turn into an ACEO. I did work on it, but it didn’t turn out the way I wanted to. Hmmm, y’know … at this rate of constantly abandoning my artwork, I’ll never get anything done. Here’s a scan of my sketchbook detailing the concept sketches.

The sketchbook was locally produced by A’zone Corp. The half-finished ACEOs which I taped to the sketchbook were done on Strathmore 400 smooth bristol paper. I colored it with Derwent Inktense pencils.

Tagged as: Derwent Inktense

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