Faber-Castell Polychromos

For artists, just reading the title of this post alone causes a sudden intake of breath.  Polychromos!  The Midas pencils of the universe.  Well, for some, anyway.

For everyone else, a glance at Polychromos pencils would draw out the words, “Pencil crayons???”  Ahem.  No, not pencil crayons – COLOURED PENCILS (with the ‘u,’ because I’m Canadian).

What’s the difference?  Well, my dear friends, pencil crayons are crayons in pencil form!  They’re waxy, lack pigment, and little kids love them.

Coloured pencils, on the other hand, don’t necessarily contain wax (like Polychromos by Faber-Castell!).  In fact, Polychromos pencils are oil based, so they blend and mix beautifully, with no waxy build-up.  Incroyable!

I’ve been doing some experimenting, since I’m new to these goddess pencils, and I have found that Polychromos over watercolor are absolutely stunning.  They are rich and brilliant!  Oh, so happy.  I’ve also experimented with blending the pencils using both paint thinner and baby oil (baby oil is oh-so-much better).  The results are just beautiful.

If you haven’t seen my dream catcher piece yet, it’s a mixed media piece involving watercolor, ink, watercolor pencils, and Polychromos!  It came out bright and vivid, and I must say that I’m a big fan.