Winter Pencil Enchantment Preclass

Welcome to Winter Colored Pencil Enchantment class! This is the continuation in a series of magical scenes – the others have been in alcohol marker, but now we’re branching out to colored pencils!

This page is all about the supplies needed. See the video, then the shopping list below that. I included an extra video that was on YouTube with information about doing an opaque swatch test with your colored pencils!

Before we start…a little housekeeping

I retain the copyright to the content you are learning in class. That means…

1. Do not sell or give away the concepts from my classes – you may not re-teach my instruction contained or created within these lessons.
2. Do not post a video tutorial or step by step photo tutorial of your own redraw of class content.
3. Do not repost any handouts you receive in class.

However…I love to see students making strides and taking this teaching and personalizing it with your own skills.

1. DO make your own designs and develop your own style! I love that!
2. DO gift your creations made with these techniques, of course!

At the bottom of each lesson you’ll see some ways to share your homework and ask questions, so that’ll be handy for you.

Supplies

A discussion of the materials used in this course….links below!

One-stop shopping

If you’d like to buy most of your items at Blick, you can click on this single button with all the items on this class supply list *except* for:

1. AFMAT long point pencil sharpener (other handheld options are at Blick)
2. Tea Strainer
3. Emery Boards
4. Cotton Balls
5. 1-1/2″ hole puncher or die to create a circle mask from post its
6. MontMarte Electric eraser

Paper and Pencils

While you might have black cardstock already – be sure it’s not textured – if it has a woven pattern it’ll do things to the pencil blending, so try it out and see if you like it. If not, this Black Black by Fabriano is what will be used in the demonstrations. It’s not as inexpensive as some cardstocks, but it’s quite nice – thick, very smooth, and highly erasable – if you mess up, just take a big ol’ eraser and start over! One reason this class doesn’t teach “slimline” shaped drawings as the other Enchantment courses is due to the cost – 4 drawings per sheet, that makes this pad much more efficient.

1. Fabriano Black Black BLICK   AMZ   JACKSONS

Prismacolor are my strong recommendation for this course; I tried these same drawings with Polychromos and other brands and the Prismacolor could tolerate a lot more of the layering needed for these drawings. The entire course is tought from the 24-color set of Prismacolors to keep costs down for you!

You’re most welcome to use any brand and give it a try – but do pick up white Prismacolors to pair with them; something about how it works makes the colors pop more.

1. Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils
   • 24-pencil set BLICK AMZ
2. Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils, white – purchase  just 2 for class, more if you want to make a lot!
   • Quantity of 12+ about $1.25 each  BLICK
   • Quantity of 12+ about $1.40 each  AMZ   (single $7.00 AMZ)

Just for fun

Treating yourself to a dusting brush can help you stop moving your pigment when you don’t want to 🙂

1. Westcott Wooden Dusting Brush BLICK   AMZ

Erasing and blending

Having several erasers to try will be helpful – I recommend an electric eraser (inexpensive and fun!), a soft kneaded, and a white rubber eraser.

1. MontMarte Electric Eraser  AMZ  There are other more expensive brands that work the same as this one.
2. Faber Castell Kneaded Eraser BLICK   AMZ   JACKSONS
3. Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser BLICK  AMZ   JACKSONS

Blending can be done with your finger, but more effectively with these inexpensive items from your bathrom or drugstore: This course will use all DRY blending. No liquid will be needed.

1. Cotton balls
2. Blending Stumps
3. Tea Strainer
4. Emery boards 

Sharpeners

Common question: How do you get those sharp points? A long point is not a sharp point, just to be clear. To get that long point it’s sculpted by a blade; to really refine that tip, use an emery board or a turn into a super sharp tip.

1. AFMAT Long Point Sharpener  AMZ  
2. Palomino Blackwing Long Point Sharpener:
   1. One step BLICK  AMZ  JACKSONS
   2. Two step BLICK  AMZ  JACKSONS
3. Dahle regular 2 step sharpener BLICK  AMZ 

Swatch your colors for opacity

Whatever pencils you decide – I recommend using one of these three options for testing the opacity, shown in the video below.

1. Get a hex chart and color it on black paper – if I don’t have hex charts you can also just use whatever swatch chart you’ve got. However – this won’t really show th RANGE.
2. Create the 24-color chart using the “strip” – leave it as a strip, and make it wider if you’d like more room to test the range. There’s one strip with the Prismacolor numbers, and a blank to write in another brand.  DOWNLOAD IT HERE
3. Create #2, then cut it into strips. Might be easier than my method was! The difference between #2 and #3 is where you have storage for it. 

Are colored pencils opaque?

A discussion on opacity, and how you can create a chart for yourself!  See the download below the video to create one.

Pick up a hex chart for your brand if you want to do the whole set (or use whatever chart you normally use).

Or if  you’d like to just swatch the set of 24 Prismacolors then download this one for free. This download includes an unlabeled strip, too, so you can label your own 24 colors that might match the colors shown in the photo above; simply print out the strip, cut it along the strip’s edge, glue it to a piece of black paper, and swatch away. You might want to use a larger sheet of black than I did, it didn’t leave much room for the transition in values.