What Coloured Pencils Would I Flee the Country with?
A wildly impractical emergency artistic bug-out bag.
This is not a sensible packing list. This is the art-supply equivalent of asking which books I would save from a burning library. If I had to flee the country with one sketchbook, some coloured pencils, and whatever I could justify cramming into the side pocket, these are the supplies coming with me:
The ones that are in every piece I do:
I would snatch up my raggedy 60 set of Polychromos. I have the big 120 pencil set, too, purchased during a flash sale, but I still use the hell out of my smaller set. These pencils are my workhorses. The colours are beautiful, and they keep their points longer than any of my other pencils (apart from ProColour). When I use a solvent, I prefer either Holbein Meltz or a colourless marker blender, both of which make Polychromos look like watercolour. They definitely make my artistic bug-out bag.
The easiest pencils to blend ever:
Derwent Drawing Pencils!! I know there's a 72-pencil set out now, but I still have just the original 24-pencil set. I would like the larger set, but I have learned the expensive way that if I get used to using a smaller set of pencils, I won't use the big box, so I am resisting the urge to buy them. It helps that they're backordered everywhere, ha, so I can't snatch them up. The 24-pencil set is 100% lightfast, and the pencils are so soft. It's almost like blending paint on the paper. The Chinese White is my hands-down favourite white to use for highlights and whiskers.
The best of both worlds:
Derwent Lightfast - these might be my favourite pencils of the moment. I find that they are like the best of Polychromos and Derwent Drawing in one pencil. They're creamy and blend easily, are 100% lightfast, and have a hard enough lead that they don't wear down too quickly. I have a small set that would definitely be thrown into the artistic bug-out bag.
I have to have something to art upon:
Arches hot-press watercolour paper is my hands-down favourite. I could use just this with coloured pencils and be content forever.
Sneaking into the side pockets:
- A kneadable eraser. I don't know what I would do without one.
- Alcohol marker blenders, Derwent Blender Pencils, and Holbein Meltz. I can work without blenders, but why would I want to?
- Spectrafix Fixative
- The 10 pan general colour stack of Pan Pastels and a few of their Sofft Tools.
- Graphite transfer paper and tracing paper. Who has time to do the full line art when they’re on the lam?
Honourable Mentions:
Clairfontaine PaintOn is another paper I love to use. It takes solvents well, and comes in a couple of midtones as well as white. It's really sturdy, and you can layer and blend out to your heart's content. This is a nice paper for pastel pencils and pan pastel, too.
Strathmore Heavy Duty Drawing Paper is new to me, but the lion's paws on the home page are done on that. They were my experimental piece on this paper. I liked it. I will admit to struggling a bit at first, but once I got rolling, I enjoyed using it. I haven't used solvent on it, though, so I don't know how it does that way.
Caran d'Ache Luminance: I got a 40-pencil set for my birthday a couple of years ago. I do like them, but they don't seem to blend well with the way I do that, so more often than not, they're packed away on a shelf in the basement. Periodically, I brave the basement monsters to retrieve the white and a couple of nearly-white pencils, but that's about it. They're lovely, but just not my favourite.
Derwent ProColour: I love these; they are a joy to work with, but I have other Derwent pencils that are 100% lightfast, so I stick with them. When I'm doing sketchbook work, where lightfastness doesn't matter, I do use these, but most of the time they are sharing the shelf with the Luminance. What do I like about them? Well, they are vibrant and lay down a good layer even though they have a harder lead. They also blend really well with every solvent I have in my studio. You can be sloppy and messy about it, and they'll still blend out nicely....but only a portion of the whole set is lightfast.
Canson XL Mixed Media Rough Textured Sketchbook: I use this a lot for pieces that just make me happy, experiments, and occasionally as a palette for blending colours. I've got a collection of these filled with doodles, patterns, quirky pieces, and colour schemes.
Strathmore Coloured Pencil Paper: I can't seem to get the detail on it that I can with hot-press watercolour paper. I know it's meant for coloured pencils, and I wanted to love it, but I'm just not there yet.
Pastelmat: Everyone I know loves using pastelmat with coloured pencils, except me. I love it for pastels but not coloured pencils. I can't get rid of the gritty look, and even though Clairfontaine will tell you they're all the same, no, they are not. Some colours are grittier than others. I went on a buying spree in 2019 and got several pads of it for pastels, so I still have a fair amount. I find that there are a lot of white speckles on some of the sheets, and now and then, these random, weird lines show up in the paper when I lay down colour.