Once you get enough fun out of the
mini colored pencil sets, it might be time to consider graduating to artists' pencils. For intermediate artists, it might be more productive to invest on quality tools that will yield better images with less effort. After all, leisure time is too short and precious to spoil it with the frustration of using inadequate cheap art supplies. A nice tin set of one of my favorite colored pencils,
Faber Castell Polychromos, would make a good addition to any artists' tool box with performance that is hard to beat. They are oil-based and highly pigmented, so they have a smooth laydown, are immune to blooming ("cloudiness" that sometimes appears when layering some waxy pencils), and blend easily. The 3.8 mm pencil leads are quite break-resistant and do not crumble much on the work surface as the tips wear down, so they are pretty clean to use anywhere.
A black ink
Platinum brush pen was used to quickly doodle an outline to color, so the incorrect proportions of the arms and hands could not be easily corrected (Bonus points if you had already noticed that, proof that your observation skills are improving already and that it would have been better to work out the figure structure in pencil first!). The point of the demonstration though was to simply show the value of using an adequately-sized set to avoid the flat coloring look often seen in children's coloring books where a single color is used for each section of an outline. I had a set of 48 pencils available which gave me enough choices to pick 3 or 4 closely related colors to render each area of the sketch and give them some volume and texture. Skin tones were colored with 3 different pinks, the shirt with a couple of blues and purple, and the hair with some brown earth colors plus some dark blue for shadows.
Bottom line, a larger colored pencils set provides greater choices and more flexibility to create brightly colored and more expressive manga drawings.
Even for cartoon sketching, it is advisable to spend some time observing real life and draw from those observations to give variety and believability to cartoon faces.
Doodling some faces and trying out a Dixon Markette, caricature marker, while waiting at the mall.
Watching people walk by, I took the opportunity to make quick sketches with a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Brush pen.
A black ink Platinum brush pen was used to quickly doodle an outline to color, so the incorrect proportions of the arms and hands could not be easily corrected (Bonus points if you had already noticed that, proof that your observation skills are improving already and that it would have been better to work out the figure structure in pencil first!). The point of the demonstration though was to simply show the value of using an adequately-sized set to avoid the flat coloring look often seen in children's coloring books where a single color is used for each section of an outline. I had a set of 48 pencils available which gave me enough choices to pick 3 or 4 closely related colors to render each area of the sketch and give them some volume and texture. Skin tones were colored with 3 different pinks, the shirt with a couple of blues and purple, and the hair with some brown earth colors plus some dark blue for shadows. Bottom line, a larger colored pencils set provides greater choices and more flexibility to create brightly colored and more expressive manga drawings.
While I already posted my first impressions of the new Sakura Pigma Sensei set on my other sketch blog, I just wanted to make a quick post here since this manga drawing kit would be an ideal choice for fledgling manga artists.
Since these colored pencils are 5.6 mm in diameter, they are compatible with Cretacolor leadholders and the Kum lead pointer (both shown in the picture below).
Found this neat Paperchase 36 colour pencils CD case set at Borders, and thought that it might make a pretty nice stocking stuffer for the upcoming holiday season. The main drawback is that the set does not include a sharpener for the tiny pencils, and sharpening them with a pocket knife could prove tedious and even dangerous given their short length. Thus they really would not be suitable for very young children.
Without a couple of accessories already in my tool kit, this CD coloring kit could have proven to be just a novelty to add to my art supplies collection that would have seen little use. Yet with a Caran D'Ache Fixpencil 44 leadholder and a 3.8 mm sharpener from another mini pencils set, it turns out to be a pretty efficient and compact coloring kit for small sketches and ATCs (2.5" X 3.5" artist trading cards). It sure takes a lot less space than my canvas wrap loaded with a set of 36 regular-sized colored pencils. Recommended gift for older kids and grown-ups that still enjoy coloring.
Working out the "How to draw fantasy characters" sheet with a Mitsubishi Hi-Uni HB pencil. Two possible fish/human combinations taken in opposite design directions: scary shark man and traditional mermaid
Couldn't sleep last night, so doodled this coloring page with a fine-size Zebra Disposable Brush Sign Pen. This pen allows for some nice line width variation depending on the pressure applied with the drawing hand plus the ink is fairly water resistant. So the actual coloring page can be colored with watercolors. For fun, you are welcomed to print this image, complete doodling background elements surrounding the merfolk, and colored it with your favorite coloring media.
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