1.

Two colour charts

Hi everyone, welcome to the very first assignment. I hope you are ready to go through all the assignments and LET’S practice together.

During this course always have your paper and colour pencils ready. You can find what colour pencils, materials and tools are being used at the
beginning of each episode.

Now, for this assignment, gather all your colour pencils either old or new ones or if you are planning to buy a new set please do so. Then we
will start our own colour chart. Having and practicing a colour chart will help you to get familiar with all your colours that while drawing you
don’t to guess which colour you need to use for specific area.

Then draw and create a colour chart from dark to light, you can also find attachments of “Faber Castell Polychromes” and “Caran D'Ache
Luminance” colour charts.

If you are wondering what pencils brand you need to purchase. It can be one of these:

1. Faber Castell Polychromos

2. Caran D'Ache Luminance
3. Derwent Coloursoft or Lightfast
4. Prismacolor
5. Normal Colour pencils (this pack can be any brand)

For your own personal colour charts: When you are drawing your colour charts the table lines of you charts are better not to be drawn by
graphite pencils or HB pencils in which the colours will get smudgy. Therefore, either use a colour pencil or a pen to draw the colour chart
lines. The best colour chart is to print it out. There is a ready-made colour chart attached that you can download on any paper you want and
start trying your colour on it from dark to light.

Now let’s go through our colour pencils. It all depends on your level and how much you want to invest in this medium, colour pencil. However,
with any of the colour pencils brand sets you can start your colour pencil course and go through all the practices and assignments. Gradually
you will know which colour pencil suits your taste the best. You can buy one or two colour pencils from each brand and see how they fit you.
And also in this course you will see how they are different from each other and know more about their quality while watching each lesson on
different models.

1
History of Colour Pencils:
First coloured pencils appeared in the 19th century and were used for “checking and marking”. Staedtler, German company owned by Johann
Sebastian Staedtler invented coloured oil pastel pencil in 1834. Production of coloured pencils for art purposes started in early 20th century.
First art colour pencils were invented and produced in 1924 by Faber-Castell and Caran d’Ache. Berol started making its colour pencils in 1938.
Other manufacturers that also made colour pencils during the late 30s and early 40s were Derwent, Progresso, Lyra Rembrandt, and Blick
Studio. Few manufacturers claim that they invented the first (art) watercolour pencil.

This is a normal pencil pack as it does not belong to any brands: Lets call this “One Pound Pencil Pack” since I bought it with only one pound
from an art shop.

Description: These pencils are hard based and not soft when it’s come to drawing. But it’s easier to use
them for beginner levels. They don’t have much darkness comparing to famous brands. But I still
recommend them specially when it comes to outlining , sketching and practice.

As you guys know I design and create light installations and once I designed the whole light festival (with
more than 20 installations) with only one of these pencil packs. You can see how the installations look like
in these links.

In conclusion, your colour pencil brand should not prevent you to progress in this medium and your art
path.

1. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/special-features/lightopia-heaton-park-light-festival-
17277214

2. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/special-features/lightopia-heaton-park-light-festival-
17277214

Faber-Castell

Description:
- Oil Based
- Quite hard
- Suitable for layering
- Suitable for animals and detailed drawings
- Good with Solvent
- It does not have wax bloom
- Good light fastness, it means the colours won’t fade away after awhile
- It’s very vibrant and rich
- Pencil quality: much higher quality than other brands / thicker barrel and more protection
- It won’t create too much smudge
- Very translucent

Oil based Pencils: Oil-based colour pencils core are harder than wax-based pencils, and that means they break less than waxed based pencils.
Because of their hard core they stay sharper for a longer period of time while using them. They are suitable for layering but not as good as
waxed based pencils. While drawing they won’t produce the same buttery consistency that can be achieved with wax-based pencils.

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Caran D’ache or Prismacolor

Description:
- Wax Based
- Medium hard
- Suitable for layering specially for skin texture
- Suitable for animals and detailed drawings
- Good with Solvent
- It does not have wax bloom
- Good light fastness, it means the colours won’t fade away after awhile
- It’s very vibrant and rich
- Pencil quality: much higher quality than other brands / thicker barrel and more protection
- It won’t create too much smudge
- Very translucent

Derwent Coloursoft

Description: Derwent Coloursoft is the softest pencil ever. These wax-based, artist-quality pencils have a similar feel to Prismacolor Premier.
They are very soft (as the name implies) and the pigments are rich and intense.

Waxed base Pencil: Wax-based pencils are mostly easier to erase than oil-based pencils and they have softer core. Wax-based pencils can
produce creamy and buttery surface that is helpful for blending, burnishing, layering and mixing colours. The negative point about wax-based
pencils are about how the fade away over time and over time means 10 to 50 years or more. So don’t worry if you are using waxed based
pencils.