"What Coloured Pencils should I Use for Botanical Art?"
The question that people ask me the most is about what pencils to use.
For making botanical drawings with
coloured pencils I mostly use
a combination of Faber-Castell's "Polychromos" and Prismacolor Premier. Coloured pencils don't mix as well as watercolours so the more colours you have the better. In botanical art this goes especially for the greens. Other brands are good too, although I personally don't like the Derwent Coloursoft pencils. They are often used and recommended but I found them too thick for botanical work and not reliable when you want to mix them with other colours. Derwent Studio pencils are harder and better for botanical art.
a combination of Faber-Castell's "Polychromos" and Prismacolor Premier. Coloured pencils don't mix as well as watercolours so the more colours you have the better. In botanical art this goes especially for the greens. Other brands are good too, although I personally don't like the Derwent Coloursoft pencils. They are often used and recommended but I found them too thick for botanical work and not reliable when you want to mix them with other colours. Derwent Studio pencils are harder and better for botanical art.
I've made this list (it's a long one) to help people that are just
starting with coloured pencils in botanical art. You need a lot of
colours since they just don't mix as well as watercolours. Still, this
is less expensive as an entire box with all the colours. Half of those
colours you'll hardly ever use in a botanical drawing. So.... here it
is:
Prismacolor basic list for botanicals:
PC 1059 Cool Grey 10%
 |
| photo: Rabi Abonour |
PC 1067 Cool Grey 90%
PC 1068 French Grey 10%
PC 1070 French Grey 30%
PC 1076 French Grey 90%
PC 914 Cream
PC 938 White
PC 1004 Yellow Chartreuse
PC 913 Spring Green
PC 911 Olive Green
PC 1097 Moss Green
PC 1005 Lime Peel
PC 1090 Kelp Green
PC 1091 Green Ochre
PC 989 Chartreuse
PC 1098 Artichoke
PC 988 Marine Green
PC 1020 Celadon Green
PC 1028 Bronze
PC 1081 Chestnut
PC 946 Dark Brown
PC 947 Dark Umber
PC 945 Sienna Brown
PC 948 Sepia
PC 933 Violet Blue
PC 936 Slate Grey
PC 901 Indigo Blue
 |
| photo: roz_moreton |
PC 902 Ultramarine
PC 926 Carmine Red
PC 924 Crimson Red
PC 925 Crimson Lake
PC 1031 Henna
PC 930 Magenta
PC 994 Process Red
PC 923 Scarlet Lake
PC 937 Tuscan Red
PC 1032 Pumpkin Orange
PC 916 Canary Yellow
PC 1034 Goldenrod
PC 915 Lemon Yellow
PC 917 Sunburst Yellow
PC 1083 Putty Beige
PC 940 Sand
PC 1089 Pale Sage
PC 1084 Ginger Root
PC 1012 Jasmine
PC 1017 Clay Rose
PC 1087 Powder Blue
PC 1086 Sky Blue Light
(this last selection are all faded, soft colours I use in shading whites or other light colours)
Extra colours (mostly dark ones to make rich dark shadow colours):
PC 935 Black
PC 1078 Black Cherry
PC 996 Black Grape
PC 1095 Black Raspberry
PC 1099 Espresso
PC 1094 Sandbar Brown
PC 932 Violet
Anything else, depending on what you'll make.
I also use Prismacolor Verithin pencils. Just a few natural colours. These are hard and when sharpened well they can make such great clean edges and tiny details at the end.
From Faber-Castell I use all greys and most of their brown colours. Also the Caput Mortuum (169) and Caput Mortuum Violet (263) I use a lot. They have two greens I often use in the shades: Chrome Green Opaque (174) and Chrome Oxide Green (278). I use the white a lot too. There is one blue I use more than others and that's Delft Blue (141).
Here's the list of colours of Faber-Castell pencils I use most:
Faber-Castell Polychromos:
Greens:
 |
| photo: Uriolus |
278 Chrome Oxide Green
165 Juniper Green
170 May Green
173 Olive Green Yellowish
167 Permanent Green Olive
168 Earth Green Yellowish
268 Green Gold
172 Earth Green
Yellows:
104 Light Yellow Glaze
107 Cadmium Yellow
102 Cream
Browns:
179 Bistre
187 Burnt Ochre
175 Dark Sepia
178 Nougat
186 Terracotta
280 Burnt Umber
180 Raw Umber
283 Burnt Sienna
Reds:
193 Burnt Carmine
169 Caput Mortuum
263 Caput Mortuum Violet
226 Alizarin Crimson
225 Dark Red
123 Fuschia
118 Scarlet Red
Blues:
140 Light Ultramarine
141 Delft Blue
157 Dark Indigo
120 Ultramarine
Violet:
138 Violet
136 Purple Violet
194 Red-Violet
249 Mauve
160 Manganese Violet
137 Blue Violet
All Greys (including 181 Payne's Grey), White and Black (especially "Soft Black" if available)
Now I also use sometimes Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils but I think they are a bit too soft and I don't like so much the thick leads they have. I do love the range of pastel colours, the white and almost whites. They cover very well over other layers, even if you think the layers can't take any more layering. So, for finishing touches it work fine, just not very detailed. Also I have a nice range of greens from the Caran d'Ache Pablo pencils. Really pretty greens. But these coloured pencils too are on the soft side and you have to be careful when using them. I also wrote a post on the Luminance pencils.
I know that's quite a lot of info but basically I use the Faber-Castell and Prismacolor pencils the most.
No comments:
Post a Comment