In April 2020, our first lockdown had begun in Melbourne, and I purchased all of the Faber Castell watercolour pencils and wrote a blog about it.
Over the past year, I have been testing the color ranges. Today is all about the greys – and there are a lot of them!
In my daily sketch kit I use three:
- Payne’s Grey – I use the Payne’s Grey for shadows. My Moleskine 13 x 19 cm watercolour sketchbook is small, so I don’t mix colours to create a grey. For me, it is all about a quick sketch and capturing the moment. There is not really the space to play around too much with colours.
- Cold Grey V – I use the Cold Grey V for lighter greys.
- Warm Grey III – I have discovered that the Warm Grey III is a good colour for old buildings, especially the sandstone of Melbourne. I http://alissaduke.com/2014/10/new-city-new-pencil-colours.htmlwrote about this when I moved from Sydney to Melbourne.
I have written about other colour ranges previously. I hope this provides an insight into the colours. It is important to note how the colour can change when water is added. Being aware of this factor is key to knowing which colour to choose and take out of your sketchkit quickly.
my blue and brown watercolour pencils http://alissaduke.com/2020/08/my-blue-and-brown-watercolour-pencils.html
my pink and purple watercolour pencils http://alissaduke.com/2021/03/my-pink-and-purple-watercolour-pencils.html
my green watercolour pencils http://alissaduke.com/2020/08/my-green-watercolour-pencils.html
my yellow watercolour pencils http://alissaduke.com/2020/09/my-yellow-watercolour-pencils.html
Let me know if you have any questions and share your watercolour pencil experiences.
Happy sketching. Stay safe and creative.
So many greys. The Melbourne skies would be one of those during this winter. They made an interesting Blog for this week.
Hi Alissa that’s quite a range of greys you have there. It is interesting to see the differences between the cool and warm greys.
One question, not sure if you know the answer, are these pencils lightfast rated? I just found out that the non-watercolour pencils (Prismacolor) are actually not particularly lightfast. Thankfully I am only using them inside my sketchbook. I am guessing that these would have similar lightfastness to their watercolour equivalent. That was one thing that never crossed my mindcwith pencils – although it’s something I consider with regular watercolours.
Although I tend to favor Caran d’Ache for most of my watercolor pencils, I use an Albrecht Durer Payne’s Grey frequently as my initial line drawing pencil. It looks almost like a graphite pencil, but the line can melt away later when water is added. For this purpose, I like how sharp it stays compared to softer Caran d’Ache.
HI Leonie. I honestly never consider it, as all of my sketches are in sketchbooks, just for me. I do a few commissions but this is not a high priority. I looked online and there a few websites that seem to compile the info from the FaberCastell website Faber Castell ratings systems–
and then the colour chartt with the star ratings for each color,
HI Tina – that is what i love about FaberCastell – the hardness of the final line. It lets me do lots of details if I want to