It has never been my aim to have the entire range of 120 Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils.
I have always been happy with the 26 or so that I have in my sketch kit, which I carry with me every day. I know them so very well, the colours they make on the page, and what happens to that colour when water is added to the page. It can sometimes change ! I wrote a blog post in 2018 about my pencils an the colours I used then.
However, I was recently given a voucher at an art shop and decide to spend it on purchasing the entire set. In the last few weeks, I have received some exciting packages in the mail from Deans Art. They are my local Melbourne art supply store, where I bulk buy all of sketchbooks, watercolour pencils, waterbrushes for my watercolor pencil classes. Not every art store sells individual pencils. Deans had sold out, so I completed my set from Larry Post in Sydney.
And now they are all here on my desk. It is slightly overwhelming. One day, I will do a swatch for each to discover what they do. There appear to be a lot in the orange/red range.
I was able to test some of them in an online art catchup last night with Anna at Shiny Happy Art. She usually runs classes, but at the moment she has a Drink and Draw social session on Saturday night. She had a reference photo of a bunch of colourful poppies, and presented a number of art materials and techniques. I in the session. I Just used my watercolour pencils and drew them all in red with my new pencils. This seemed appropriate on Anzac Day.
I have found one new pencil that will go into my sketchkit, replacing another that wasn”t quite red enough for me .
Stay safe, happy and creative !
Hi Alissa, thanks again for the postcard. You have inspired me to draw some eucalyptus leaves. In regard to the red watercolour pencil, which one have you found is better than what you were already using? I had to use an Inktense red, because I was unable to find a good red in the FC Albrecht Durer loose pencils sold at Officeworks.
Hi – So glad you got the postcard – there are lots of wonderfully coloured leaves around at the moment. Looking forward to what you do.
!’ve never been satisfied with the reds I had – they were too orange and I wanted a real fire engine red. There are two that I want to play more with MADDER (142) and PERMANENT CARMINE (126). One of the few final colours I have on order is one called DARK RED (225). I’ll let you know how I go !
What a full range of colours you have now! There will always be favourites which you will discover as you continue to draw. Shiny Happy Art is based in Toowoomba and recently Anna had an article in the local paper. I have always admired her art. as I do yours.
Hi. Did you settle on a red that you were happy with? Love to know 🙂
hello and thanks for the question, I think Deep Red is as close as I get and it is in my sketchkit. At the moment I also have Cadmium Red which is a bit orange-ish and also Pale Geranium Lake has made its way in there too. I am fortunate to have a few extra spaces in my sketchkit to move a fe optional extras around
Thank you. I will check them out when I next go to the art shop, one of my favourite places at the moment!