Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Swatches

Caran d’Ache products are the crème de la crème of art supplies. Any item they manufacture – whether it be colored pencils, water-soluble pencils, graphite sticks, etc. – is a shining jewel in an art supply collector’s studio.

I was introduced to the brand while meandering through my local art store and stumbling upon a giant open-stock display of Neocolor II water-soluble wax pastels. At the time, I had no idea how to use them, but the vibrant colors beckoned to me. I picked up a tin and went to my studio.

There was a bit of a learning curve. Actually, I’m still learning different techniques. Today, though, I just felt like coloring, so I did some swatches.

I used Arches Rough Watercolor Paper which turned out to be an excellent choice. Because the paper is so toothy, I only needed to make a light pass to get adequate coverage for filling in the squares.

Eventually, I’m going to cut these out and put them in my scrapbook.

Search for the Best Colored Pencil Paper: Part 3 – Legion Stonehenge Aqua Cold Press

Full disclosure: I love every single Stonehenge paper product I’ve tried. They are perfection, plain and simple. The Aqua Cold Press is no exception.

*Available in pads, blocks, and sheets.*

In Part 1 of my search for the best colored pencil paper, I described the differences between the 4 brands of colored pencil I’m using in my test: Caran d’Ache Luminance, Caran d’Ache Pablo, Faber-Castell Polychromos, and Prismacolor Premier Soft Core. The differences between the properties of pencils affect the way they will perform on the paper, so it’s worth a quick read if you aren’t familiar with the pencils.

Before I did a more methodical test, I just wanted to play a bit with gradients of my two favorite pencils: Luminance (wax-based) and Polychromos (oil-based). They both preformed exceptionally well, however Luminance applied more smoothly. It’s worth noting that the scraps I used were trimmed from the edges of a watercolor I was working on and, despite being banged up, they still easily accepted thick layers of color.

*Left: Caran d’Ache Luminance; Right: Polychromo*s

Then I moved on to test all four of the brands I mentioned above. From left to right, the colors I used are as follows:

Polychromos – Rose Madder Lake
Polychromos – Skyblue
Prismacolor – Lilac
Luminance – Spring Green
Pablo – Orange *
Luminance –Anthraquinoid Pink
Luminance – Light Malachite Green
Pablo – Lemon Yellow
Prismacolor – Non-Photo Blue
Polychromos – Dark Cadmium Yellow

*I snagged the paper with a sharp pencil point on the 5th square. Despite it looking like a total mess right after it happened, I was able to use some Gamsol mineral spirits to smooth out the color.

The Verdict

Stonehenge Aqua Cold Press is an excellent choice for both oil and wax based colored pencils. I slightly preferred the wax-based pencils to the oil-based pencils, because they allowed a couple more layers of coverage. The application is velvety-smooth even after several layers of color have been added. There was virtually no wax bloom to speak of. This paper is at the top of my list for both watercolor AND colored pencil projects.

Here is a 🟢 BONUS DOT 🟢 showing 1) light, 2) medium, 3) heavy, and 4) burnished Polychromos application.

Tiny, Dotty Art for the Scrapbook of Scraps

I set aside some time today to re-purpose colorful watercolor scraps to make some tiny art.

Awhile back, I made this dotty watercolor test out of some new Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolors I bought. I can’t remember what colors I mixed to make the background. I had it left over from a different project. The other colors are all Winsor & Newton straight from the tube and the list is as follows:

Manganese Blue Hue – PB15
Rose Dore – PV19, PY97
Indian Yellow – PO62, PY139

I used my beloved Arches Rough Watercolor Paper, which I wrote about in detail in a previous post (click here).

These are the steps I took to re-purpose this tiny scrap that was too colorful for the wastebasket…

My Spellbinder Platinum manual die cutting machine gets a daily workout. If you make tiny art, this is an invaluable tool to make mounts and frames. To make this frame, I used steel rule nesting dies to cut the ideal size frame for my picture. I used Astrobrights 65 lb/176 gsm bright white cardstock.

I decided that I wanted to make it extra dotty, so I used a Faber-Castell small-nib (0.3mm) Pitt Artist Pen to make tiny dots on the frame. The cardstock holds up well – there was no bleeding on the other side.

After I finished dotting the cardstock, I used Tombow MONO Multi-Liquid Glue to adhere the frame to the picture. Now that it’s dry, I get to find a home for it in my scrapbook!

Scrapbook of Scraps Progress Report #1: Manual Die Cutting

Manual die cutting machines and nesting dies are a great investment if you enjoy papercrafting projects. My creative world totally changed when I got my Spellbinder Platinum machine and saw how perfectly uniform I could make swatch cards, easily cut different shapes of paper, and, relevant to my scrapbook project, make tiny frames for tiny pictures.

Let’s start with the dies…

You will hear me talk about Waffle Flower a lot. They are a US company that works with designers to create unique stamps, dies, and other papercrafting products that you truly can’t find anywhere else. Today, I spent the afternoon cutting frames for my Scrapbook of Scraps project.

*Frame made from Astrobrights cardstock.*

After I made several frames, I got out some of my scraps to see what interesting compositions I could make with my sheets upon sheets of color-tester splats.

*A bunch of QoR Watercolor splats waiting to be put to good use*.

QoR watercolors are super-vivid so this page of tests has lots of potential to chop up into teeny-tiny pictures. I love the way the colors flow on this particular section, but I felt like it needed some Finetec Iridescent Watercolors to make it SPARKLE. Note that I haven’t glued the frame on yet. I was just using it to find my favorite color composition.

After I added some shine and let the paint dry, I cut it the little section out and glued it onto the frame.

*Look at the sparkle! It reminds me of an eyeshadow pallette.*

Here are two others that I finished today. These are re-purposed Sennelier test strips.

I haven’t glued any of them in my scrapbook yet because I’m not sure where I’m going to place them. Plus, I didn’t want to deal with anymore glue on my hands.

Stay tuned for my progress on the Scrapbook of Scraps!

Making a Scrapbook…Out of Scraps.

I have a seemingly endless pile of color-test scraps in my studio that I couldn’t bring myself to throw away. They are so bright that it would be a shame to see them in a trash can.

Papercrafting is one of my other favorite hobbies so I decided to assemble a scrapbook comprised primarily of literal scraps.

A tiny selection of my mountains of scraps

I chose a Ranger Dylusions Flip Journal because the pages are made of thick cardstock that will accept water and ink. I haven’t tested it yet, but I’m fairly certain that it won’t buckle or bleed based on the thickness and texture of the cardstock. I also liked it because it has a thick outer sleeve with an envelope attached to the inside. My only complaint about the journal is that the right-side corners are rounded which makes it difficult to put a decorative border on the edges.

I wanted to put a bright border on the inside and outside covers, so I painted ROY G. BIV squares using my beloved Sennlier L’Aquarelle paints on a long piece of Strathmore watercolor paper. I didn’t want to use thick cotton paper because I wanted to be sure the covers closed correctly.

Highly-pigmented, smooth, gorgeous Senneliers.

After the paper dried, I cut some 1″ wide strips to glue on the edge of the covers. It’s not perfect – I blobbed glue too heavily on one of the strips – but, despite the glue disaster, it turned out well.

Glue splat: lower left corner of the strip. *facepalm*

Close-up of the inside cover. No glue blobs. I learned my lesson.

I’m probably going to put a few more things on the cover, but this was a fun Saturday project. Stay tuned for my progress!