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May 1st, 2012

How To Set A Fair Price For Your Work?

By Guest Author / Contributor

written by Alexandra Bastien, CPSC Vice President

Here I will discuss a topic that worries many artists who are beginning their careers. When you have your work represented by a gallery, it’s often the gallery which manages the prices for your work. So I will elaborate on this aspect a little further on in this article. But if you are not represented by an art gallery, here are some tips that may help you to find the price range that will be fair to you and to all your potential customers.

First, we must take into account a general rule; in the art world, prices are determined mainly by size and medium. For two-dimensional works, oil has the highest price range, followed by acrylic, and then by works on paper (watercolor, pastels, charcoal, coloured pencils, graphite). A painting is usually sold for more than a sketch on paper. This is not always the case, but framed works under glass are more difficult to sell in commercial galleries. Buyers who visit art galleries are often visiting tourists and prefer to purchase a work (e.g. a painting) which they can roll up in their luggage. Frames with glass, middle-to-large-sizes are more difficult . . . → Read More: How To Set A Fair Price For Your Work?

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January 9th, 2012

Coloured Pencil Lightfastness

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 . . . → Read More: Coloured Pencil Lightfastness

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July 1st, 2011

Which Pencil Brands Are Best For You?

By Guest Author / Contributor

written by Carolyn Bain,  CPSC Member

No matter what your technique, there are certain attributes that you can expect from good-quality coloured pencils. They should:

release their colour evenly and smoothly, regardless of the pressure used blend easily with each other and with other brands have uniformity of texture throughout – few bits of grit or other such impurities have a high degree of colourfastness have rich, strong colour sharpen evenly – this requires a centred lead, similarity of sides in the wood casing, and no warping hold a point – some snap or crumble as soon as they touch the paper

Other attributes that have nothing whatsoever to do with the performance of the pencils themselves but are desirable nonetheless are:

the lightfastness rating marked, easily legible, on each pencil have colour names that identify the pigments used or at least give a clear idea of the actual colour (a fanciful name such as “party-hat pink” tells us nothing at all about that pink)

Coloursofts

Prismacolors

I own several brands of pencils, but Faber Castell Polychromos, Derwent Coloursoft, and Caran d’Ache Luminance (a recent acquisition) are my favourites.

When I first started using coloured pencil, I used . . . → Read More: Which Pencil Brands Are Best For You?

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