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February 5th, 2012 By Guest Author / Contributor written by Erica Walker, CPSC Secretary-Treasurer
 CPSC Monthly Colour Challenge Welcome everyone! It’s time for another Monthly Colour Challenge. Here’s one with a twist: can you create something transparent? Transparent things are a special challenge because we tend to think of them as more or less invisible – at least as far as colour is concerned. We might add some gray here or a highlight there, but that’s about it. Yet transparent things DO alter colours in many subtle and unexpected ways – we just have to take the time to look.
You don’t have any “clear” pencils, but you still have all your complements, so don’t reach for those grays and blacks just yet. Choose a transparent object – it can be anything from a glass jar to a crystal vase to an icicle. Place it against the colour background of your choice, and look carefully. Can you see the colours? Can you render them without any pre-mixed blacks or grays? Let’s find out!
February 1st, 2012 By Guest Author / Contributor written by Erica Walker, CPSC Secretary-Treasurer
 The Three Graces by Ester Roi The first time I saw some of Ester Roi’s work one word came immediately to mind: “blazing.” Such colour! I’m never surprised by the idea that coloured pencils can do extraordinary things but in this case I was particularly impressed and curious to learn more of her technique. When I found out about her Icarus Drawing Board I thought I would love to try it some day. Then the day arrived in January, with a late and unexpected Christmas present. Hooray!
For those of you who may not have heard of it, the Icarus Board is a portable drawing board with a “warm zone” that can be heated electrically. The heated surface causes any wax-based media to soften or even melt; when returned to room temperature, the medium solidifies once more. It is suitable for artist crayons, oil pastels and, of course, coloured pencils. Roi has developed many techniques for her invention and her own radiant work shows what may be accomplished with it. My own experiences are extremely limited since I’ve hardly used it yet, but here’s what I have to tell you so far.
First, I was impressed by how well-packed it was. Long-distance delivery of anything that happens to be both breakable and expensive always makes me nervous, but this was reassuringly solid. Inside a large box it is protected with lots of very stiff styrofoam and is held quite rigidly. So rigidly, in fact, that I couldn’t pull it out of the box. After tugging gingerly at it a few times I decided it would be safer to push it out. When I opened the other end I discovered a little paper anxiously instructing me NOT to pull out the Board, but instead to open both ends of the box and push it out. As a matter of fact there were several of these papers in the box — they are obviously meant to confront the opener immediately at either end, but had slipped out of place during transit. You’ve been warned!
Once I got it out, the next step was to find a place to set it up. The (temporary) choice was the dining-room table. The Icarus Board sits on 4 rubber feet so that its heat won’t destroy whatever surface you’ve put it on (though I personally still would not risk it on anything really delicate). It is intended to lie flat. I don’t know if it would be safe to have it on a slanted surface, but even if it is, I imagine it would be very awkward. It comes in two sizes: 14×20” and 20×26”. I have the larger size, which was uncomfortable to carry, but it also comes with a handle that can be attached at either side, to suit both the right-handed and the left-handed. Or you can simply not attach the handle at all. The Icarus Board can also be turned to suit both right- and left-handed. The only real inconvenience for me so far is that the rubber feet make it a little too high for me on this table.
If you are afraid this contraption might be too complicated or involve too many safety precautions, set your mind at rest. It resembles a stovetop with a burner on one side, and could not be simpler to use. On one side is the “warm zone;” the other is the “cool zone.” All you do is plug it in, switch it on, and turn the dial to whatever heat level you like. (Heat levels are numbered from 0 to 10; Roi says that 6 is the usual level for most work.) Those of you who are worried about burns may be surprised to learn that it is actually quite difficult to burn yourself with this. The warm zone is surrounded by a frame of space that stays cool, so you can always rest your hands against the work surface. At level 6, I found that I could still keep my fingers directly on the heated surface, although it was a little too warm to be totally comfortable. Even at level 10 it is hard to burn yourself unless you do so deliberately. Roi herself advises placing a folded cloth (or even two) under your hand, which provides protection from the heat while shielding your work from the oils in your skin. Of course there are instructions on what and what not to do with it, but a lot of these are just common sense. Never get water on it, it might get inside the mechanism; never use a damaged Board; make sure you’re working in a well-ventilated area; etc. Remember, though, that it is not made for children, and that close supervision is recommended if there are children around.
 Icarus Board  Icarus Board Zones A few complementary supplies arrived with it: some coloured pencils (Prismacolor, Caran d’Ache Luminance) and some Caran d’Ache Neocolor wax-based crayons and pastels, as well as 2 sheets of Stonehenge paper. I confess that I have not tried any of the Neocolors –I was just too eager to break out the pencils! In the end I tried out eight different brands: soft (Prismacolor, Derwent Coloursoft, Caran d’Ache Luminance), medium (Faber-Castell Polychromos, Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor, Caran d’Ache Pablo), and hard (Prismacolor Verithin and Derwent Signature). Note that both the Faber-Castell Polychromos and the Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor are oil-based. Although oil-based coloured pencils are NOT included in the list of acceptable media on the Icarus Board web site, I still wanted to see how they would respond to the heat. Derwent does not currently produce its Signature line, but since many of you might still have and enjoy them, I wanted to include them as well.
So what did I do? Scribbled and played around a bit — nothing serious. Nor did I test every pencil from every brand, so keep in mind the variations that exist even within each brand — one might react quite differently from another. All of the tests I did were at about heat level 7. With a cloth under my hand, I found this perfectly comfortable.
My impressions were as follows:
ALL of the pencils I tried were distinctly softer on the warm zone, though they retained their original hardness too. By that I mean that a heated medium pencil was still harder than a heated soft pencil and softer than a heated hard pencil. The creamiest pencils were softer even on the cool zone than the heated medium and hard pencils.
It was easier to lay down colour on the warm zone, and it does take noticeably less pressure to get complete coverage. What a blessing! Anyone who works heavily or burnishes a lot knows how hard it can be on your hands and wrists, and some pencils seem to release colour more reluctantly than others. For example: Prismacolor’s Black is one of its harder, scratchier pencils, and seems to fight you when you pile it on heavily. But here I was almost unconsciously using less pressure — there simply wasn’t the need for it. The exception was the Derwent Signature: although it did spread more easily in light layers it still protested loudly against heavy pressure, resisting all the way.
Many colours became brighter and/or more translucent when heated. I took colours from all of the different brands and tested them, first on the warm zone and then on the cool. I used heavy pressure, so as to completely obliterate the paper texture. The oil-based pencils I tried changed in temperature as well as brightness. The colours of Faber-Castell Polychromos colours on the warm zone actually got a bit warmer! With the other brands it varied: some were distinctly brighter, some slightly brighter, some seemed the same. The brightening was wonderful for achieving intense vivid colours, but I was a little disconcerted to see my favourite darks get lighter. At the moment I’m trying to figure out how to compensate.
I noticed that when pencils are used with heavy pressure on the warm zone there’s a lot of shed pigment to brush away, more than when they’re cool. The brand that seemed to be least affected in this area was the Prismacolor Verithin, which, although somewhat softer, still stayed “neat” and hardly shed at all.
The web site states that there must be a lot of pigment present for many of the warm zone techniques to be really effective with coloured pencils. I found this to be quite true: when I applied ONLY thin or delicate layers I did not find that the heat made much difference, other than making them easier to lay down.
The instructions state that the machine takes about 10 minutes to warm up properly. Again, this is true, but I personally found it more and more effective the longer it stayed heated. It might be simply that I became more used to it.
 River Pebbles No. 2 by Ester Roi You may be wondering if the heat damages or causes any kind of detrimental change to the support. I tried several kinds of surfaces on the warm zone: Arches, Stonehenge, Canson Mi-Teintes, Terraskin, matboard, and museum board. None of them seemed affected in any way. The web site states that some light warping of the paper may occur from heat (it did) but that the paper will return to normal when cool (it did). I don’t know if matboard would warp — I only had it on the heat very briefly. Putting paper under a heavy book overnight can help, so perhaps one could do the same with matboard.
Although keeping the support clean from all those little bits of pigment is always high-priority for the coloured pencil artist, bear in mind that this is twice as important when working on the warm zone … because they won’t just smudge and smear, they’ll melt.
Finally, remember that I have only just begun to try this out! You may make very different or even contradictory discoveries. The Icarus Board is something that has to be experimented and played with a great deal to really understand its potential. It might not suit every coloured pencil artist –for example, those whose technique requires them to work only with extremely sharp pencils. But it would certainly be an advantage to those who love a rich painterly look and who habitually use a great deal of heavy pressure.
The Icarus Board comes with a 1-year warranty (applicable only in the United States and Canada). Service was very friendly, encouraging both questions and requests for help. The web site provides many photos, a lot of information, and several excellent instruction videos — it’s particularly helpful to be able to see what kind of pressure Roi is using. Visit: http://icarusart.net
(Images used with permission.)
January 9th, 2012 By Guest Author / Contributor written by Manon Leclerc, CPSC Member
photos © Manon LeClerc
This article was originally published in the webzine “Crayons de couleur, le Mag” in November 2011. The webzine is available at: http://crayonsdecouleurlemag.jimdo.com/
Resistance to light is a major issue for all artistic media, including coloured pencils. Artists must take into consideration the quality of products used to ensure the long-lastingness of their works. Coloured pencil is no exception. Many coloured pencil artists assume that all artist-quality pencils have excellent resistance to light. Unfortunately, the reality is different …
Artist-grade pencils are made with pigments and binders of better quality than those in student- or middle-grade pencils, so artist-grade pencils are more likely to resist fading. However, the term “artist quality” on a box of pencils does not guarantee the product’s lightfastness. Some pigments are more susceptible to fading over time. Also, should you happen to have any old pencils, it is quite possible that they possess less resistance to light, since before 2003, there weren’t any standards in this area. Today, manufacturers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of offering products with improved stability to light.
Why is this important?
The durability of a work in coloured pencil is just as important as that of a work in oil or acrylic. Numerous coloured pencil artists have seen the colours of some of their drawings fade considerably with time. This is a heartbreaking and disappointing sight, particularly considering the many hours of hard work invested in their creation.
Professional artists are not the only ones who ought to be concerned to ensure the ability of their work to last. Imagine the reaction and the disappointment of the people to whom you have given or sold a drawing, if after just a few years, your drawing has lost its original colours, and, with them, all its brilliance.
This is just the kind of thing that contributes work in coloured pencil being so little recognized by the art world, even looked down upon by it as inferior. For coloured pencil to be justly valued, the materials used to create it need to be of the highest quality possible.
What is lightfastness?
Lightfastness, resistance to light, is a matter of the chemical properties of the organic and inorganic pigments used to manufacture colours, of whatever medium. In essence, a degree of lightfastness indicates how quickly art materials lose their colour integrity. Art materials which bleach or fade considerably are called fugitives, for their colours alter dramatically, when exposed to just a normal environment, in fewer than twenty years. Note that today’s archival standards require colour to be long-lasting (at least a century). For, colour durability ensures a work’s continuity. Light resistance is not specific to pencils. It has to do with all art media.
The colours in pigments do not all react in the same way to light. For some pigments, their resistance to light is reduced as they have been weakened as a water colour wash or a light shade of a colour. Others have greater tendency to discolour over time when exposed to light.
 - Sunflower by Dominique Vaillant. On the right, drawing after exposure for 52 days in a window. Pencils Koh-I-Noor Mondeluz.
Standards
ASTM International:
ASTM standards are technical standards for materials, products, systems or services. They can take the form of a specification, a practice, a test method, or any other form deemed necessary.
The ASTM International is an organization that publishes voluntary standards, that is to say that the proposed standards are followed voluntarily by users. The standards are written by volunteers who donate their time and expertise.
The objectives, scope and content of the standards agreed between the parties involved: users, manufacturers, consumers, etc..
For several years, standards for resistance to light in various artistic mediums were developed: oil painting, watercolour, acrylic, gouache. Since 2003, coloured pencils now have as their standard ASTM D6901, thanks to the efforts of the Colored Pencil Society of America. It took 10 years to implement this standard!
This standard uses two types of tests: exposure to sunlight and to xenon arc light, to simulate the effects that prolonged exposure to the sun will have on an application of coloured pencil. Based upon the results of these tests, each coloured pencil can be accurately placed into a category of lightfastness. These categories are identified as follows: I, II, II, IV and V. I represents the best resistance and V is the lowest.
Only Class I and II can be labeled as compliant. For a range of pencils to be identified in accordance with ASTM D6901, each pencil in that range must possess a lightfastness rating of I or II. Unfortunately, the standard for lightfastness is not mandatory for manufacturers of coloured pencils. Currently, only one brand is manufactured in accordance with ASTM D6901: Luminance Caran d’Ache. Prismacolor had already brought out a range of coloured pencils consistent with this standard (Prismacolor Lightfast), but ceased its production, because the lighfast brand, being more expensive, sold with difficulty.
The blue wool scale:
The blue wool scale measures and calibrates the permanence of colour. Historically, this test was developed for textiles. Graduation is from 1 to 8, with 1 being the lowest value, the next digit is twice the level of strength of the previous figure, with twice its exposure time. Thus, index 2 takes twice as long to fade as does index 1. Index 3 takes two times longer than index 2 takes and so on up to level 8.Levels 1 to 3 mean that the colour is somewhat resistant to light. In other words, colours at these colour fastness levels will fade in fewer than 20 years. Levels 4 and 5 indicate a resistance to light considered just acceptable, meaning that they should not change too much from anywhere from 20 to 100 years. Level 6 is considered very good, and levels 7 and 8 indicate excellent resistance and colours with those ratings should pass the milestone of a century. To sum up, only coloured pencils with levels 6-8 should be considered as having good resistance to light.
Comparison between the ASTM D6109 and Blue Wool scales:
 click to enlarge
Light Resistance Of Different Brands
Standards of lightfastness are only valid for artist-quality coloured pencils. Student-grade coloured pencils intended for school or average use contain lower quality pigments of untested fade resistance. The same is usually true of store-brand pencils, which generally are of lower quality, unless they originate from stores specializing in art supplies.
It’s not always easy to make sense of what you are told concerning a pencil’s resistance to colour fading.
All brands of coloured pencils use different standards for rating lightfastness strength in measuring their own pencils. Some refer to ASTM D6901, other to wide blue wool, others seem to have devised their own rating systems.
Some manufacturers indicate the level of lightfastness directly on their pencils, while for other manufacturers, you have to scan through the documentation they provide. As well, methods for classifying colourfastness of pencils may also vary from one brand to another.
To ferret out all documents related to the resistance to light of different brands of coloured pencils, you need a good deal of patience and perseverance. In a few cases, it requires tough investigative research to unearth the information you want. You’d think that this was top secret information!
The following list includes only those pencil brands about which it was possible to locate information relating to their grades of lightfastness.
Blick Studio Artists’:
Blick Studio classifies the lightfastness of their coloured pencils using a system of stars: **** Excellent. *** Very good. ** Good. * Satisfactory. The rating does not appear on the pencils themselves.
I was unable to determine the particular standard according to which Blick rates the lightfastness of their pencils.
Information is available on Dick Blick’s website at:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-studio-artists-colored-pencils/#itemspecs
Cretacolor Karmina:
There is no information on the Cretacolor website about the lightfastness of Karmina coloured pencils. However, Peter Weatherill points out on his website that these pencils conform to ASTM 4303. This standard concerns the lightfastness of pigments and colours used for art supplies in general.
According to this standard, Karmina have a lightfastness of I or II. It should be borne in mind that the 4303 does ASTM tests on ingredients, not the final product.
Cretacolor Marino (watercolour):
As with Karmina, there is no information on the Cretacolor site concerning the degree of resistance to light of their watercolour pencils.
However, on the Colored Pencil Studio website, there is a colour chart with ratings of fade resistance for both kinds of pencils. Again, we claim the right to inquire about their watercolour pencils, whether these ratings are valid for both types of applications, that is to say, dry or watercolour.
Information is available at: http://colored-pencil-studio.com/documents/68.html
Faber-Castell Polychromos:
Faber-Castell have used the blue wool scale in assessing their pencils. Their results are summed up in a classification system of stars, visible on all pencils: *** Excellent. ** Very good. * Good. Here, three stars are equivalent to grades 7 and 8 of the blue wool scale, two stars stand for levels 6 and 5. One star represents levels 4 and 3.
It was less than easy to locate documentation on the site of Faber-Castell. I did find a colour chart with a listing of lightfastness for all products. Information is available at: http://artgraphic.fabercastell.com/search.aspx?q=chart&epg=1
(click the first link, which will direct you to a new page. Then click on “Click here to view our color chart.”)
Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer (watercolour):
As with Polychromos, colours are classified by stars printed on the pencils. Information concerning their lightfastness is available at the above address. As with all other brands of watercolour pencils, it is unclear whether this lightfastness rating is valid for both types of application, dry and watercolour.
Holbein Artist coloured pencil:
These Japanese coloured pencils are rated by stars: *** Excellent. ** Very good. * Good. I could not determine the standard by which the pencils were tested. It was also impossible to find out such information on the manufacturer’s website.
On the other hand, you can obtain the rating from the Colored Pencil Studio website at: http://colored-pencil-studio.com/documents/79.html
Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor and Aquarell:
Lyra uses a star system to rate the lightfastness of their pencils: *** Very good resistance. ** Good resistance. * Satisfactory. This information does not appear on the pencils, but is located inside the lid of the boxes in which the pencils are packaged.
There is no more information on this subject to be had on the Lyra website. Therefore, it remains unclear by what particular standard their pencils are classified.
Prismacolor:
Prismacolor uses ASTM D6901 to classify resistance to the light of their various lines of coloured pencils. Ratings, however, are not stamped on the pencils. Instead, you have to look them up on charts located on the Prismacolor website itself.
Again, we had to do considerable detective work to succeed in locating the chart listing the codes for resistance to light.
Premier and Art Stix:
http://www.prismacolor.com/Style%20Library/PrismaColor/media/promotions/Prismacolor_Lightfast_Color_Chart.pdf
Verithin: http://www.prismacolor.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/prismacolor-verithin-colored-pencils-lightfast-color-chart.pdf
Watercolour: http://www.prismacolor.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/prismacolor-watercolor-colored-pencils-lightfast-color-chart.pdf
As usual for watercolour pencils, it is impossible to determine whether the rating applies to both dry and watercolour applications of the medium.
Van Gogh Colour and Water colour pencils:
Royal Talens uses ASTM D6901 to test their pencils. These are rated as follows: + + + Resistance to light of at least 100 years lightfast under museum lighting. + + Lightfastness 25 to 100 years lightfast under museum lighting. + Lightfastness 10 to 25 years lightfast under museum lighting.
Converting the Van Gogh ratings system to that of ASTM D6901, is not as clear-cut as one might hope. The symbols + + + are equivalent to level I and, in part, to level II of the standard D6901. You can see the equivalence worked out on the website of Royal Talens: http://www.talens.com/english/technical/default.asp?subID=1&subsubID=1.1&subsubsubID=1.1.3&subsubsubsubID=1.1.3.4
Information on resistance ratings are available at:
Colour: http://www.talens.com/francais/downloads/folders/VGP%20Colour%20frans.pdf
Watercolour (watercolour): http://www.talens.com/francais/downloads/folders/VGP%20Colour%20frans.pdf
As with other brands of watercolour pencils, it remains impossible to know exactly whether the given lightfastness rating applies equally to both a dry and a watercolour application.
In addition, the specification “lightfast under museum lighting” is perplexing. What about works that are exhibited in conditions other than those of museums? It is legitimate to ask whether in such cases the ratings of Royal Talens would show different results.
* * *
Navigating from one brand to another is not simple, since not all manufacturers produce clear statements of compliance with recognized standards. It is the same for their ratings. In some cases, it is unclear what standard was used. The lack of standardization in rating is most unhelpful in comparing the various brands of coloured pencils.
This means that artists are kept ill-informed about the resistance to light of different colours from different brands of pencils. It is then difficult for them to make an informed choice.
Some artists have carried out their own lightfastness tests on the coloured pencils they use. However, virtually all such tests available on the Internet originate from artists from the English-speaking world. This information is almost non-existent in French.
The coloured Pencil Society of America has conducted lightfastness tests on most brands of coloured pencils. These were blue wool scale tests. Test results are published in the CPSA’s book, CPSA’s Lightfastness Test Result Workbook Version 6. Only coloured pencils with excellent or very good lightfastness ratings from each brand of pencils are listed in the CPSA’s book. Unfortunately, the book is only made available to members of the CPSA, which is a shame, because this type of information should be made freely available to all those who use coloured pencils.
What to do?
Make the right choice
From my research findings about this subject, it is always advisable to use only pencils with the two highest ratings. That’s the only way you can be certain to use only pencils with the best lightfastness. Of course, this means having to set aside certain colours. It’s a crucial choice: either we use colours that will inevitably fade with time, thus reducing the artistic, ultimately even the monetary, value of our hard work, or else we only use pencils with guaranteed high resistance to fading, thus contributing to the sustainability of our works.
True, it is not easy to put aside some of the colours of your favorite brand of pencils. However, you can always find the equivalent colour by choosing from those brands that offer these colours with good lightfastness.
Do your own tests
Another alternative is to carry out your own tests of the lightfastness of your coloured pencils. This kind of testing is fairly easy. A number of artists who have carried out lightfastness tests have made them available on their websites or blogs, but generally, these are still quite rare, and, as yet, there is not any uniform coloured pencil rating.
The advantage of doing your own lightfastness tests is to actually see the ways in which your own pencils react to exposure to light. It’s a lot better than merely viewing a lightfastness graph on the internet.
To carry out a test of lightfastness, you should use either a high-quality paper or else the brand of paper that you normally work with. Then lay on each colour by applying pressure. Be sure to note down the colour’s number. Next, hide, or mask, a portion of each colour. Covering can be done in different ways: some affix a strip of cardboard or aluminum foil to some of their samples. In this case, make sure that the tape really adheres to the parts that is being hidden. Masking tape stuck on a strip of cardboard or aluminum works well.
 - click to enlarge
We can go another route by making samples of a colour taking up almost the entire width of the sheet and then cutting the sheet, so as to have two sheets with the same colour samples. One of the sheets is then put into an envelope to be kept in a location not exposed to light (e.g. a drawer). This sheet will be used to compare its results with those of the other sheet, after the latter has been left exposed to light.
When your sample sheet is ready, then place it in front of a south-facing window. Unless you live in a very northern location, a minimum of four months exposure to the light is quite sufficient to determine which of your colours are least light resistant. Some artists nevertheless have tested their samples by exposing them for a year, even two and a half years!
After this time, remove the sample so as to see which of your colours are the least resistant to light, and assign a rating to each colour. I suggest the following rating scale:
3 = No visible colour change or fading
2 = Change or barely perceptible fading
1 = Change or clearly perceptible fading
0 = Unacceptable change or fading
Examples of colours rated according to this system:
Following this test, only the colours with a rating of 3 and 2 should be kept for your work, and thus in ensuring its long-lastingness. This lightfastness test will allow you to see that, in general, it is especially the pink, orange, purple, some blue and red, and light colours that are often the most problematic.
Of course, while not a scientific test, it’s very revealing. I experimented with Prismacolor Premier and, in some cases, I was in for real surprises. Some colours got assigned ratings higher than those given by the manufacturer. The opposite was also true: colours rated highly by the manufacturer scored lower according to my test.
I intend to repeat this test with all other brands of pencils I have. There is nothing better than to see “real” results. It’s a lot more concrete than relying solely on numbers or stars. It is much easier to make a sound choice later on.
If you have pencils that are unrated for lightfastness, or about which it is impossible to find lightfastness information, I think it is essential for you to do this test. Personally, I find it unacceptable that a manufacturer can simply state that its pencils are lightfast, without giving substantiating information. All artist quality pencils ought to be rated for resistance to light. Coloured pencil artists are entitled to have this information for so-called “superior quality” products, which the manufacturers think deserve their elevated price because of their labeling of “superior quality”. Therefore do not hesitate to ask for more specific information from the various manufacturers. The stronger the insistance is for it from artists, the quicker manufacturers will make serious efforts to offer products that meet recognized standards of quality.
What about watercolour pencils?
As for watercolour pencils, I strongly recommend their getting tested for lightfastness. The test should not be done only by applying them dry. It is very important as well to test them under watercolour conditions.
From my own research, overall I found that a lot of watercolour pencils are not lightfast when used in watercolour work. This is because their pigments lose their lightfastness ability from being diluted in water.
Artist quality watercolour pencils usually come with a rating of being lightfast, but unfortunately most manufacturers do not specify whether these ratings are valid for watercolour work. It is best to test applications of watercolour pencils in watercolour conditions to find out exactly what their actual lightfastness is.
In Conclusion
The exclusive use of fade-resistant colour is an important issue for the sustainability of your work. But further measures can be taken to preserve your drawings:
A UV resistant archival quality spray varnish will give extra protection to preserve your drawings. It may be useful when carrying out a lightfastness test, to ensure that some samples are covered with a UV resistant varnish, in order to observe its performance. I tried this test with one, two and three nail polish applications.
An alternative to resorting to applying a UV resistant coating is, when framing, to use glass or plastic (plexiglass) that is UV resistant. However, such equipment is often expensive.
Using quality materials is essential: drawing paper should be acid free. It must be the same for all materials used in framing, too.
January 1st, 2012 By Guest Author / Contributor written by Erica Walker, CPSC Secretary-Treasurer
 JANUARY COLOUR CHALLENGE Happy New Year from the CPSC! We’re starting 2012 with a new Monthly Colour Challenge for you. So far you’ve created your own unique blacks and grays – and even whites – by blending complementary colours. Very good, but don’t put those complements away yet … because this month you’ll need them for silver!
While we tend to think of silver as white or colourless, it is really full of colour because it reflects everything around it. A lot of us find reflective surfaces intimidating, so go easy. Take a small shiny-silvery object such as a Hershey’s Kiss or a key. Place it on whatever colour background you like and look at it carefully. There’s a whole world of colour reflected there! So DON’T get out your metallics if you have them. They won’t do the job at all. And DON’T just reach for your pre-mixed grays and blacks either. Mix the colours you find. You can do it if you try!
December 1st, 2011 By Guest Author / Contributor written by Erica Walker, CPSC Secretary-Treasurer
 Mary's Journey by Lissa Rachelle Robillard It’s December (already!) and things are happening at the CPSC! First of all we’re especially pleased to present Ottawa-based Lissa Rachelle Robillard as our Featured Artist for the month of December. Lissa is our Webmaster and Membership Director. She has always loved all things pencil but coloured pencil has a special place in her heart. The CPSC would not be where it is today without her efforts and we’re grateful that she’s taken the time to share her journey with us here.
We also want to remind you that it’s time for another Monthly Colour Challenge. We’ve done black, we’ve done gray … now, are you ready for white? We often think of white as colourless and use a few gray pencils to capture its values. But a closer look reveals all kinds of delicate and not-so-delicate hues. Those ‘colourless’ areas contain everything from brown to gold to blue to lavender. Last month you put away your gray pencils and mixed your neutrals from complementary colours. Now you can take those same colours and mix up something white.
Yes, that’s our challenge for December! Take a white object – anything from an egg to a feather to a snowball – and see how many colours you can find and render. If you’re feeling really bold, try that white object on a white surface. Remember, NO GRAY OR BLACK PENCILS ALLOWED! Use your eyes and get those colours going!
November 5th, 2011 By Guest Author / Contributor  NOVEMBER COLOUR CHALLENGE
Get ready for another Monthly CPSC Colour Challenge! Several of you rose to the occasion for October and produced some very impressive blacks, without so much as touching your black pencils. Bravo! Now, are you ready for November, that month of neutrals?
November is perhaps the best month in the year for neutrals. Gray comes out in full force, when brighter, bolder colours have at last left the stage. At first it may seem dull. But gray isn’t really dull at all – it’s just shy. It tends to whisper where more confident colours shout. There’s a whole world of beautiful, elusive shades of gray out there, and no amount of pre-mixed gray can ever hope to capture them. That’s why we’ve decided to confiscate all your pre-mixed neutrals.
Yes, that’s our Colour Challenge for November! Complementary colours can create glowing, one-of-a-kind neutrals, as rich and beautiful as any other colour. So can you render something gray, WITHOUT using a gray pencil? It can be anything from a pebble to a tree branch to a scarf. Get your complements out and let’s see what you can do!
November 1st, 2011 By Guest Author / Contributor written by Erica Walker, CPSC Secretary-Treasurer
Balance, harmony, storytelling, guiding the eye – so many things depend on a good composition. Without a good design our pictures end up weak and irresolute, not getting our message across. It takes experience to develop a strong sense of design (although some people seem to be born with it) but there are basic devices that can help you. Because I am self-taught, I am not familiar with all of the official terms for these designs: but they are all tried-and-true, classic means of composition that have served artists well for centuries.
Good composition involves so many things at once (shape, space, colour, value, line, etc.), but especially PLACEMENT – WHERE the elements are positioned, and what amount of space is positioned between them. The spaces between objects (negative space) are as important as the objects themselves (positive space). Once you get the hang of using negative space, you’ll be amazed at how it can enhance your work.
 Premières écorchures Balance is all-important in a good design. Elements have to be balanced in a work of art, so that people’s eyes don’t get stuck in one area or move out of the piece altogether. The design should also contribute to the desired mood: for example, to portray a feeling of isolation the artist might completely surround his or her subject with empty space. Alexandra Bastien does this in her powerful, eloquent “Premières écorchures.” She has also chosen a square format, boxing the subject in so that she is both alone and imprisoned. The format always requires careful consideration. Different basic shapes provoke different responses, even if we don’t realize it. We don’t respond to a rectangle the way we do to a square, and we don’t get the same feeling from an oval as we do from a circle. Even if you always use the rectangle, a very thin, elongated rectangle will have a different effect from a shorter one.
 Bird on a Wire (House Wren) There are many ways of placing things so that balance is maintained. One is to arrange things in a triangle: this is a classic, solid design. Our eyes tend to travel peacefully around a triangle, always returning to the centre of interest and never being jarred out of the visual path. Deborah Strong’s “Bird on a Wire (House Wren)” is an example. Together the bird and wire form a gracefully-curving triangular shape. Unlike many triangular compositions, it is set on point, creating a liveliness that suits the subject perfectly. The effect is further enhanced by the subtle touches of colour, the delicate, precisely-rendered detail, and the bird’s animated pose.
 Boat and Moon The “cruciform” is a design that touches all sides of the support to form a rough cross-shape. Compositions based on the cruciform usually convey stability because they anchor the image with horizontal and vertical lines, which tend to give a greater sense of strength and calm than diagonals or curves. (Diagonals are dynamic, going-places lines that lend things a sense of energy and movement. Curves also convey movement, but their movement is less abrupt and decisive than that of diagonals.) Gordon Webster’s spare, enigmatic “Boat and Moon” shows how effective this design can be. The elements of the boat and water touch all four sides, while the boat (a diagonal, which provides a note of movement and keeps the design from becoming too static) is further balanced not only by the long stretch of water but by the curving sliver of moon, which also echoes both the shape and colour of the boat’s sail.
 Réflexions Sometimes a design can create tension from the balance of visual “weights.” This has an effect like a delicately poised scale: there has to be enough pictorial weight on both sides or it will tip. An example of this is Manon LeClerc’s contemplative still life “Réflexions.” She’s put all the rounded, bulky shapes of the cup, saucer, and the bowl of the spoon at the very left edge. She’s also put all the red (a POWERFUL colour) at the edge. But instead of keeling over to the left, the work is balanced by the spoon’s handle. Its subtly curving lines relate it to the other elements, while its contrasting shape (long and thin) makes it a very effective and “weighty” visual opposite. So do its darks, its interesting abstract shadow, and the expanse of space surrounding it.
 No Flies on Me Then there’s the “rule of thirds.” This device consists of dividing the support into thirds both vertically and horizontally and then placing important areas roughly along or near those divisions. “No Flies on Me” by Vickie Lawrence does this. The result is calm and even and enables us to admire the beautiful horses at our leisure. But the flowing, curving lines, the animals’ about-to-move-slightly positions, the irregular shapes of light appearing and disappearing on their glossy coats, and the warm sparkles of greenery in the background all create a sense of gentle movement that prevents the work from feeling predictable.
 Byng Inlet #3 A design that emphasizes diagonals can create livelier movement, as in “Byng Inlet #3” by Lynette Richards. This sparkling, breezy image is divided vertically, horizontally, and from corner to corner. The forceful diagonals fill it with energy. Nothing is still here: the tree’s branches whirl us all over the work, the cloud-like hills roll us back to the centre, the small strategically-placed shrubs are bent over with wind, and everything is enhanced by the choppy, flurrying pencil strokes. But the steadying horizontal bands of landscape, and the strong central vertical of the tree, keep things under control.
 Cellophane Symphony Finally, there’s the unity-in-diversity, abstract design like Teresa Mallen’s “Cellophane Symphony.” This kind of design gets its harmony from repetition and its interest from differences within that repetition. “Cellophane Symphony” has no “subject” (without the title, we wouldn’t know what we were looking at), but there are so many wonderful variations of colour, shape, value, and line that we are never bored. A lot of the main lines are essentially verticals, which serve to stabilize the work. But because they all incline slightly to the right or left, they also act as mild diagonals, adding more energy. They dance our eyes continually over the piece, up and down and around. (Abstract art can be a great way to learn about shape and colour without the “distractions” of realism.)
These are just a few of the most common compositional devices. All of them are excellent, and have been used to create great art. When you have a good, solid design, you can proceed more confidently and with a much greater chance of success. Try to analyze the artworks you look at: to see how and why your eye travels around the work, and why you respond as you do.
October 8th, 2011 By Lissa Rachelle Robillard, CPSC Membership Director & Director of Web Services  OCTOBER COLOUR CHALLENGE Get ready for the CPSC Monthly Colours Challenge! To help prepare and set the mood for CPSC’s upcoming exhibition next July, every month between now and then we’ll be featuring a new colour-oriented challenge to stretch our skills and get us solving new problems.
With so many pre-mixed colours available on the market today, it’s easy for cp artists to rely on them. We can just reach into the box and choose exactly the colour we need. The trouble is, no one pencil is EVER exactly what we need. The colours that we mix ourselves will not only be more accurate, they will also be just a little bit different from any other in the entire world! When we mix our own colours we know that no other artist will ever get exactly the same results – not even if they have used the same pencils! That’s what’s so exciting about colour mixing, and why we want to see how you’ll rise to our Colour Challenges.
A new Colour Challenge will be posted here on our webste, as well as on our Facebook site, the first Saturday of every month. And remember, there is absolutely NO way to ‘fail’, so we encourage everyone, from beginner to professional to participate! We never stop learning, we all want to make the best art we possibly can…and being able to mix just the right colours is an invaluable skill for any cp artist.
All right then, without further ado, here’s our Colour Challenge for October: the days are getting shorter. And darker!! So can you render a black object WITHOUT using black? It can be anything from a mug to an umbrella to a black pencil … which you won’t be needing anyway!
Please feel free to post your questions, frustrations, successes, progress, process, and results of each month’s CPSC Colour Challenge on our Facebook page so that we can all learn from and help each other.
September 1st, 2011 By Lissa Rachelle Robillard, CPSC Membership Director & Director of Web Services  Reflected Sunrise by Gordon Webster After a very long, patient wait and much anticipation by our Francophone members, the Coloured Pencil Society of Canada is pleased and proud to announce the launch of the French adaptation of our website. Much gratitude goes to our Vice President, Alexandra Bastien, who did (and will continue to do) the majority of the very time-consuming French translation. We would like to encourage all CPSC members to email their own French translation of their Artist Bio/Statement, so that we may add it to the French edition of their Showcase Gallery page. In future we will be striving to publish the French translation of all articles on our website simultaneously with the English version, or at least within a very short time frame of the English publication.
We are also privileged to spotlight Ottawa based coloured pencil artist, Gordon Webster as our Featured Artist for the month of September. Gordon is both the Founder and the President of the CPSC and it is a true honour to be able to take a small glimpse into his process as described through his interview. Thank you for taking the time to share your artistic venture with us, Gordon.
August 1st, 2011 By Guest Author / Contributor written by Erica Walker, CPSC Secretary-Treasurer
 Reflections by Erica Walker  Treenip by Manon Menard-Adams Strong darks can be a great asset in your work. High contrast gets attention: it’s powerful. Darks add impact and emphasis. They can provide mystery and depth in a work, a place for the eye to linger. Every artist has personal darks and a special way of using them. I love the darks in Chardin’s paintings because of the way things seem to melt into them. Darks can sing with colour, too. Rembrandt’s darks shimmer with glints of gold and red, while the darks in a Velázquez are cold and sparkling. Which you prefer depends on what effect you’re after. For me, the best overall approach is to have a basic dark that I can alter in whatever direction I feel necessary. You will have to create your own darks based on your personal preferences, your technique, and last but not least, your pencils. The colours of every brand are unique and different, even blacks and whites.
Darks have a reputation of being difficult to achieve in coloured pencil, mainly because we’re stuck with the values of the pencils, and coloured pencil tends toward middle values. We have to mix if we want strong darks, as no single-pencil dark can be darker than that pencil. Adding more layers will only add more of that colour. It’s possible to use just plain black, of course. Why not? This is certainly an option. But chunks of straight black in a coloured work often stick out too much – they don’t harmonize easily with the rest of your painting. Black can also make colours too flat or dull, and this might not be what you want. Some artists work on black paper: this can result in very dramatic work. However, because the pencils are translucent, colours are affected by the colour of a support: I simply prefer the way colours look on a white ground. Thankfully there ARE some good low values in the coloured pencil palette and it’s possible to make plenty of really marvellous darks with them.
 click to enlarge It’s a bit easier to mix rich darks once you know the basic principles involved. Generally, mixing complements (colours opposite one another on the colour wheel) results in neutrals: grays and browns.
Neutrals created from complements glow with subdued colour, much more than pre-mixed grays (lovely though these can be). The same applies to darks. Dark complements result in dark, colour-rich neutrals. Used carefully, complements can also darken a colour without dulling it. If you want, say, an extremely dark green it might be possible to darken the green with just a little red rather than black. For vivid results it’s usually best to combine warm with warm or cool with cool. This is because it is much more difficult to get vibrancy if you combine warm with cool colours: they cancel each other out. Mixtures made from warm and cool colours tend to be duller, that is to say, less intense. This is fine if lesser intensity is what you’re after, though you have to be careful that you don’t end up with mud.
Many artists, myself included, have evolved personal darks. These may or may not suit you. If you are trying another artist’s particular dark you should always keep in mind your own palette and style. If you NEVER use blue-green and a particular dark includes a lot of it, you should probably either find another way to mix the dark or else find a way of incorporating some blue-green into the rest of your work. Otherwise, the dark won’t quite ‘fit’ – it will look out of place, unrelated to your other colours, like a stranger at a family gathering. You have to be looking at your entire painting. Repeating the colours you have used to make the darks in other parts of the work will harmonize the work as a whole. You don’t have to be aggressive about it. Often just a hint will do.
 Prismacolor Indigo Blue  Prismacolor Tuscan Red Using two Prismacolor pencils, then, this is how I would create a basic dark. Since I work heavily on forgiving paper, I don’t have to be as careful in my application as many coloured pencil artists. I start with a layer of Indigo Blue. (Sometimes the order in which you lay down your colours matters, sometimes not. I usually like to put the blue first.) This is a deep warm blue (as illustrated at left).
You can see how heavily and loosely I work! I am aiming here for a completely opaque dark. If you have a more delicate technique, you will have to be more patient to achieve the desired coverage. Leaving some of the paper showing will make a ‘thinner’ dark. Which you use depends on what effect you’re after. Next, I add a layer of Tuscan Red (as illustrated at right).
I am showing a single layer of red here to give you an idea of how roughly I will apply the red on top of the blue. I tend to apply colour strongly at the beginning, when I’m building up to a dark, then more and more lightly. Once I have the two layers down I’ll tweak the mixture, adding more blue here, then a bit more red here, smoothing things down a few times with a soft rag, until I have the results I want.
 Indigo Blue & Tuscan Red  Polychromos Here we pause. Everyone knows that red and blue make violet. That’s fine in theory, but coloured pencils are not paint and we have to choose them carefully. Combining any red with any blue pencil will NOT guarantee you a violet: you may end up with different shades of brown. That’s exactly what I’m doing here. Prismacolor Tuscan Red is a dark red with a lot of brown in it to begin with. Brown is a shade of orange, and orange neutralizes blue. Prismacolor Indigo Blue is also slightly greenish, and green neutralizes red. Together these two pencils make a dark that is much closer to brown than to violet (as illustrated at left).
In contrast, look at what Faber Castell Polychromos Delft Blue and Middle Purple Pink – both of which are cool hues that lean strongly toward violet – make together (as illustrated at right).
 Green Dark  Brown Dark So your pencils can surprise you. Try different combinations and see what you come up with. (And always keep lightfastness in mind; you don’t want your darks fading!) I like this particular combination because the resulting mix is both unassertive and extremely versatile. It is a gorgeous deep neutral by itself, and I find can also be used as an excellent starting-point for many different colour-directions. For example, if a greenish dark is needed I can layer in green with the blue and put less red (illustrated at left); for an earthy dark I can add less blue and more red and orange (illustrated at right).
 Cold Dark (I often exaggerate the colours I add to darks because they’re all going to be subdued, and they need to be quite strong to have any real presence at all.)
For a colder dark I could incorporate a cold blue along with the basic indigo, add less of the warm Tuscan red and use a magenta with it.
 Indigo Blue, Tuscan Red, Black I often like to add black to this basic dark as well, especially if I find it too warm for the effect I’m after. The pigment is so thick at this point that the black doesn’t make much difference. Rather, it tones and cools things down. Some coloured pencil artists avoid black altogether in their mixtures, but for me, some black is often necessary to get the dark I want. The resulting dark is less colourful than before the black was added, but still much richer than straight black.
Again, it all depends on what you’re trying to do. If I wanted an entirely different dark I might not use these colours to start with at all. There are so many possibilities! Experiment and see for yourself.
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