April 18, 2009

My new CPs

Okay - now it's a fact: I'm one of thoose people who must have every kind of pencils that are produced on this planet. But I fear I also would buy a set of "Moon-Made-CPs" or "CPs dine by little green people from Mars".
However - my new set is the full set of

Supracolor II Soft

and I have to confess: BEST EVER!

I never thought that I would say that but there are pencils that are better than Prismas. At least in my eyes. (Ouch! I better say in my hands.) Now let me say a bit about them.
First the facts:

o Supracolor are made by Caran d'Ache, a producer in Switzerland.

o They come in a range of 120 colours.

o They are watersoluble.

o They are wax- and oilless (this word looks strange, or not?) so they have no wax-bloom or glossy shine.

o They have the same color chart as their "siblings" Pablo, the oil or waxbased CPs made by Caran d'Ache

The lightfastness is very good:

# - 7 of 120 pencils have one star = good lightfastnes

# - 66 of 120 have two stars = very good

# - 47 of 120 pencils are rated with three stars = excellent!

You can have a look at the whole information sheet at www.carandache.com

They are wonderful soft and easy to layer. If I want to solve I simply can use water instead of Zest-It (although I love it) and the colors are wonderful - dry AND wet.
This is for example a huge differerence to the inktense pencils. Inktense only show their real colour and beauty after applying water - these watercolour pencils are also dry beautiful.

I'm doing a still-life on two different surfaces - Clairefontaine pastelmat (sienna) and Bristol Board (ATC size) - because I want to know how these pencils behave on the different mediums. The feeling on both is wonderful and I can layer and layer. On the bristol board I use the pencils dry and on the Clairefontaine I added water. (Great surface btw for dry AND wet! I will talk about it another day.)

This is what I have so far:

When finished I'll post also the colour chart which I am going to make on Stonehenge paper.

.

8 comments:

Christine Perry | Graphite Art said...

Very good information. Thank you! The still life looks just gorgeous!

artbykarieann said...

Great info, it's very interesting to learn from others!

Jade Scarlett said...

Hi Martina, first of all I want to thank you for visiting my blog.

Now, Caran D'Ache pencils are the best. They're the Ferrari of the cps world, whether is the Supracolor or the Pablos. I looooove my Pablos.

Your pear and grapes are coming along beautifully, will pull a chair, grab a cuppa and enjoy it.

Hugs and have a wonderful weekend,
Jade

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing the info on the pencils. I will watch out for them...as you know I can't resist a pencil either. LOL

Love the pear and cherries. coming along great.
What paper are you using ??

Martina said...

The larger one is Clairefontaine pastelmat pad (sienna) - absolutely great for CPs - and the ATC is Bristol Vellum.

Teresa Mallen said...

Oh goodness, don't you know you are hitting our weak spot? We just can't resist new pencils. :-) Great report on the Supracolors. I am so glad that you are enjoying Scribbletalk again. Thank you for your very kind words regarding my blog. I really appreciate it.

twincedar said...

Thanks for sharing the info on these pencils! The drawing is looking great! Keep us posted!

Paulette said...

Hey Martina,
Your blog is looking good and so is your art!